Week 2 Part A: Business & Consumers: Communication and Reviews

     It certainly is true that communicating with businesses has drastically changed over the years. It's hard to say if it's just the content I'm being served or if it an accurate representation of the state of affairs, but it seems that in many situations feedback must be delivered in an open forum in order to make an impact. I think the most obvious examples of the efficacy of this methodology can be seen on TikTok. I see a lot of consumers take to TikTok to blast a brand or service provider, resulting in that organization being flooded with negative reviews on social platforms. I've also seen creators solicit help from other users to get them connected to the corporation they are having issues with. In the past people had to rely on customer service agents or trusting that their complaints would be properly routed in a business' internal communication structure.

    Most of the reviews that I read ranged from overall positive to glowingly positive. There were also a decent amount of negative reviews, and barely any that were neutral or in the middle. It appears that people are motivated to leave reviews when their experience was great or terrible. Not much motivation for in between. I noticed that many of the negative reviewers took umbrage with the customer service vs. the actual product or service delivered. 

    I rarely if ever share a review on a public platform. I tend to keep my social media very private and try to limit my personal digital footprint so unless there is a way to comment ananymously I usually don't. I do however complete just about every single customer service survey that comes my way. I always opt in after a phone call, at the grocery store kiosk, or complete the questions after a doctor visit. My reviews tend to be very positive in nature unless there was an egregious error.

    Another reason for my limited reviews is that I myself have been the "victim" of a negative review a few times! I worked in restaurants from 15-21 years old and while yes, I'm sure I occasionally deserved an eye roll or a terse comment I was shocked to learn that people would recount a fairly innocuous small conflict in such dramatic or negative terms! I had my fair share of long walks to the manager's back office to explain why KathySLC244 wrote three paragraphs complaining about the "EXTREMELY rude blonde hostess" packing up "smaller than average" servings of to-go pasta. Oy vey. I learned that sometimes you just meet people on their worst day and so I try to extend understanding and grace to service providers or customer-facing folks I have not great interactions with.

    If it was my own business on social media I feel like I would be all up in the comments! I love to see when business owners respond to bad reviews on Yelp etc. apologizing and offering to make things right because people tend to back down quickly or rephrase some of their initial complaints. I love to see a restrained, polite, and articulate response from business owners. It really shows me that they care about their public image and their customers.