{"id":30711,"date":"2013-02-18T12:00:51","date_gmt":"2013-02-18T19:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/?p=30711"},"modified":"2013-02-17T21:09:37","modified_gmt":"2013-02-18T04:09:37","slug":"how-has-social-media-changed-customer-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2013\/02\/how-has-social-media-changed-customer-service\/","title":{"rendered":"How Has Social Media Changed Customer Service?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/p>\n

Writing for\u00a0Forbes<\/em>, Dan Bigman described<\/a> his frustration over not having the flowers he ordered delivered on time last Thursday:<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re like me and you didn\u2019t get the flowers you ordered for your wife on Valentines Day, and then you felt like a complete idiot for wasting a hunk of your day or so on the phone with no result, that\u2019s because you are an idiot. If you want customer service these days, use Twitter. Period.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bigman encourages readers to switch from now-obsolete calls to help desks and troubleshooters based on a\u00a0Consumerist\u00a0<\/em>article published<\/a> by Chris Morran the day after Valentine\u2019s day, when belated flowers were still making their droopy way to disappointed sweethearts. Morran\u2019s article convinced\u00a0Bigman that \u201cthe best way to get the company\u2019s attention was to make a stink about it in public.\u201d<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t believe this \u201cbest way\u201d to get attention is exactly new or unprecedented. Think back to yesteryear when you returned items to a store\u2019s customer service desk rather than, say, mailing back an unwanted or damaged item from Amazon. When people lose their temper at the customer service desk, the employees dealing with those disgruntled shoppers have a twofold task: to calm down the upset shopper, but also\u2014and perhaps more importantly\u2014save face on behalf of the company in front of the rest of shoppers behind them in line. Failure to transform a shopper\u2019s negative experience into a slightly more positive one could cause the company to lose more than just one customer.<\/p>\n

It seems we\u2019re seeing the same principle taking place on a much larger scale through social media services like Twitter. Tweets go a step beyond the waiting line since tweets stay in the internet stratosphere far after the frustration\u00a0from having to wait in line at a store might have evaporated. Applebee\u2019s PR fiasco over a St. Louis pastor\u2019s snide remark<\/a> on her receipt late last month is a clear indication that reproduced outrage via Twitter can have severe consequences<\/a>. Applebee\u2019s was arguably in the right for their response, but the backlash against the company still demonstrates the raised stakes now when controversy plays out over public venues like Twitter.<\/p>\n

As the number of complaints and negative responses via Twitter to wrong (or at least controversial) actions companies continues to increase, it\u2019s good to ask how this shift is changing the nature of customer service, as well as the relationship between companies and customers. To return to florists\u2019 failure to deliver on Valentine\u2019s day last week, is the central goal of customer service still the resolution of problems negatively affecting customers? Or is customer service chiefly\u00a0becoming a vehicle for PR departments to perform damage control in the public sphere? And which is more important: resolving the one customer\u2019s disappointment and frustration, or saving face and not losing the Twittersphere\u2019s array of customers?<\/p>\n

Furthermore, why do customers feel they should no longer first try to resolve conflict \u201cone-on-one\u201d with the company before resorting to \u201cpublic shaming\u201d via social media? Jumping straight to shameful public exposure certainly applies pressure on companies to quickly resolve the problem, but whether this is the best and most ethical way to go about conflict resolution is certainly something that consumers must carefully consider.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“It’s good to ask how this shift is changing the nature of customer service, as well as the relationship between companies and customers.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1226,"featured_media":30722,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,1484],"tags":[1870,1164],"class_list":["post-30711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-culture","category-ofthemoment","tag-customer-service","tag-social-media"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Has Social Media Changed Customer Service?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""It's good to ask how this shift is changing the nature of customer service, as well as the relationship between companies and customers."\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2013\/02\/how-has-social-media-changed-customer-service\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Has Social Media Changed Customer Service?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\""It's good to ask how this shift is changing the nature of customer service, as well as the relationship between companies and customers."\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2013\/02\/how-has-social-media-changed-customer-service\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christ and Pop Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-02-18T19:00:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-02-18T04:09:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/280\/2013\/02\/man-yelling-at-computer.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"C. 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