Tan Chuye A0125161U
Essay Draft 3
The huge popularity and strong influence
of social media have revolutionised interpersonal communication and the process
of information transfer between media and its audience. Unlike the past,
transfer of information is no longer one directional and any opinions or
information are just as likely to originate from any individual as these are
from the media. This allows social media to empower individuals by acting as a medium
for publication of personal views to large audiences. While the ease of
publication is great for self-expression, it poses problems for businesses when
negative consumer experiences are shared and spread rapidly on social media.
This puts businesses in risk of incurring serious financial loses; yet many
businesses are not acknowledging or dealing with this problem properly. In
light of this problem, public relations department of businesses in Singapore should
explore ways to protect and uphold their online reputation, primarily by
integrating social media into their management system.
In the digital age, the online
reputation of businesses is of fundamental importance even if the actual
operation is offline. A study (Gesenhues, 2013) reported that 88% of customers’
buying decisions were influenced by online reviews, demonstrating the
tremendous underlying power of online reviews in affecting customers’ opinions,
trust and ultimately sales of a business. Another study by NewVoiceMedia (as
cited in Mitchell, 2013) reported that poor customer service resulted in
costing U.S. businesses a staggering $41 billion loss in 2013, and “34% of consumers
admit they would take revenge online by posting a review or complaining via
social media”. To exacerbate the problem, another study (Marketing Charts, 2013)
highlighted the phenomenon of negative bias in which bad service interactions
are more likely to be shared than good ones. In addition, as the law stands,
subjective comments of consumers are protected in Singapore under “fair
comment” of the 2014 defamation act (Singapore, Statutes Online, 2014), so long
as these are based on a factual event, as “these opinions are a matter of
public interest” (Duhaime, n.d). Subjectivity aggravates the problem further
because of exaggerations and relativity. Objective facts can be distorted
causing problems to intensify unfairly for businesses and readers to react
negatively.
These problems are well illustrated in a
local incident, where a blogger named Ng, shared 2 blog posts (Ng, 2014) about
his interactions with IKEA Singapore. The first condemned IKEA’s poor home
decor and customer services in which he was repeatedly ignored by IKEA on their
Facebook page. Subjectivity is demonstrated when Ng mentioned that this was his
only negative review in his entire blogging experience because IKEA “screwed up
big time”. This blog post gained a whooping amount of ten thousand shares,
which brought attention to IKEA’s higher-level staffs. IKEA then approached Ng
to apologise and rectify the situation by nicely renovating his kitchen. The
second blog post, which then praised IKEA for their follow-up actions,
unfortunately garnered only half the amount of shares (five thousand shares), displaying
negative bias and that bad reputation was more widespread than the good.
In
Singapore, Internet penetration rate is at a high 73% (Huang, 2014) and most
people are connected all the time, making it extremely easy for negative
reviews to spread rapidly. Under such circumstances, businesses must protect
their online reputation by improving and maintaining positive customer
relationships, and subsequently solve problems before they develop into
potential negative reviews. One of the practices is to adapt to a more
interactive and dynamic practice of SCRM (Morgan, 2013) that uses social media and
other technologies to track customers’ opinions placed on social networking
platforms and interact with customers on a personal level. However, as SCRM is
still at an introductory stage, where development of this service structure is
limited within the existence of social media, an actual SCRM model is absent
and dependent on trial and error. As such, businesses are not effectively using
social media to achieve their goals. One of the prevailing problems, which was
the core reason for the occurrence of the above-mentioned IKEA incident, is
that businesses are not providing real-time help to customers and requiring
repeated enquiries about the same issue, resulting in disappointment, unhappiness
and the subsequent outburst. Efficiency is vital especially when customers are
bounded by time constraints and in need of an immediate solution. In fact, a
study reported that 42% of customers expect 60 minutes response time (Baer
2012) and another study reported that providing real time help produced
significant benefits to a company such as increased customer satisfaction and
customer retention (Strong, 2014). Real time help is of vital importance and
can help solve problems effectively and efficiently.
Another
way businesses can protect their online reputation is to ride the wave of
tapping into big data. Businesses can analyse information on social media and
pick out recurring complaints and problems that consumers experienced, within
and beyond the company. Subsequently, they can improve by integrating feedbacks
or by coming up with innovative solution, and market their positive
modifications through social media. Reviewing and improving operating
procedures in line with customer’s expectations can radically change the way
business is conducted, both online and offline. This is vital because customer
complaints on social media do not only arise from online experiences but also
offline experiences, and minimising upsets from offline experiences is also a
direct way to prevent negative criticisms from surfacing online. An added bonus
with analysing big data is that it can help predict trends in customer’s
expectation and interest.
All
in all, businesses in Singapore should utilize social media to maintain
customer relationships, and also integrate feedback to revamp their business
model constantly so as to maintain a positive online reputation.
910 words
Citations: 26 words
References:
Baer, J (2012) 42 percent of customers
complaining in social media expect 60 minute response time. Convince & Convert. Retrieved from
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-research/42-percent-of-consumers-complaining-in-social-media-expect-60-minute-response-time/
Brandweiner, N (2012, May 31). Customers more likely to share bad service experiences. My Customer. Retrieved from http://www.mycustomer.com/topic/customer-experience/customers-more-likely-share-bad-service-experiences-study/143371
Customers increasingly turn to social media to share bad customer experiences (n.d). Omega Management Group Corp. Retrieved from http://www.omegascoreboard.com/news/customer-service-horror-stories/consumers-increasingly-turn-to-social-media-to-share-bad-customer-experiences/
Duhaime (n.d).
Fair Comment Legal Definition: A comment made which through defamatory, is not
actionable as it is an opinion on a matter of public interest. Retrieved from
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Greenslade, R (2014, October 20). 23% increase in defamation actions as social media claims rise. The Guardian, Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2014/oct/20/medialaw-social-media
Huang, E.
(2014, January 14). Internet Penetration: Singapore scores 73, Thailand 26,
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Morgan, J (2010, November 3). What is
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Ng, C.B (2014, November 14). IKEA
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Ng, C.B (2014, Decemeber 8). IKEA says
sorry and gives me a spankingly beautiful new kitchen. [Web log post] Retrieved
from http://charlesbenedict.com/2014/12/08/ikea-says-sorry-and-gave-me-a-spankingly-beautiful-new-kitchen/
Singapore
Statutes Online, Attorney-General’s Chambers (2014, February 28). Defamation
Act. Retrieved from
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Strong, F (2014, January 2). The complicated problem of social CRM. Sword and the Script. Retrieved from http://www.swordandthescript.com/2014/01/problem-social-crm/
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