What customers say and read about the business has large influence on their purchasing decision. According to a marketing study by Dimensional Research in 2013, “90% of customers say buying decisions are influenced by online reviews”. Therefore, it is crucial for any businesses to take good care of the communication panel. Social media is fantastic tool to engage customer interaction and promote businesses in timely manner. There are unlimited reach for contents on social media once they go viral online. However, this can also drastically harm businesses when it comes to complaints from unsatisfied customers. The key here is that it is more than important for businesses to learn how to effectively and properly communicate with customers.

Source: http://www.slideshare.net/jeremiah_owyang/social-strategy-gettingcompanyreadyapr14final

In class, we discussed about the importance of monitoring online and looked at a Social Media Response Model and Social Media Triage. In the article, How to Fire Back at an Angry Customer on Social Media, Peter Gasca suggests three points to consider before response: 1) seek to understand the complaint and its validity, 2) act fast, but not too fast, and 3) take it offline when possible. I strongly agree with the first two points. Businesses should carefully determine whether the complaints are valid (and not from a troll or comedian wannabes) and act upon in timely manner.Nevertheless, I think the last point of taking it offline and dealing with the problem privately seems quite risky. For most of the times, customers put complaints online for reasons such as informing others about their unsatisfied experience. If a business contacts the customer or client after the complaints, it is too late and it may worsen the customer service. They may feel that the business resolve the problems only after making the complaints public and suggest others to publicize their complaints. Let me know what you all think about this!!