Public consumer complaints on social networking sites
Pyyny, Sallamaari (2017-10-30)
Public consumer complaints on social networking sites
Pyyny, Sallamaari
(30.10.2017)
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Turun yliopisto
Tiivistelmä
In contrast to traditional face-to-face complaint behaviour with limited reach, on social networking sites the consequences of negative service events spread in a computer-mediated way to a multitude of receivers. (King et al. 2014, 169) A single negative incident may escalate from a local event to a global one within hours. With consumers increasing reliance on social networking sites as channel to communicate with companies and the negative effects of ineffective complaint handling on both the complainant and possible observers (such as other consumers) on social networking sites, it’s essential that companies actively monitor, interpret and respond to complaints in these channels. Thus understanding of the triggers related to and leading to complaints together with the purpose and expectation for these complaints possess an importance in formulating a company’s service recovery on these channels. Therefore, the objective of this research was to explore public consumer complaints on social networking sites. The objective was further divided into two sub-objectives:
• How are complaint chains on social networking sites triggered?
• What kind of redress are complainants seeking?
The theoretical research concentrated in understanding consumer complaint behaviour, redress seeking behaviour, social networking sites and the communication context they create as well as triggers connected with public consumer complaining on social networking sites. The empirical data included consumer complaint chains collected from social networking sites. The data was analysed using content analysis, based on which the complaints were grouped into 5 categories, based on similarities within the context that triggered the complaint chains.
According to findings of this thesis, social networking sites are not seen as interactive by complainants as phone and face-to-face channels. Assistance-seeking was triggered on SNS due to failure, irresponsiveness or dissatisfaction with the primary voice channel, making SNS a secondary channel in complaints with equivocal tasks. Furthermore, when facing a double deviation and while seeking for compensation, consumers resorted to public complaining to keep insisting for a fair outcome by intending to create pressure for the service provider to react to the complaint. Moreover, the findings give indication that triggers for the use of SNS as a primary complaint channel deal with the advantage of public context in complainants perceiving that the complaint will be acted upon, and the perceived ease of voice related to social networking sites versus other text-based complaint channels.
• How are complaint chains on social networking sites triggered?
• What kind of redress are complainants seeking?
The theoretical research concentrated in understanding consumer complaint behaviour, redress seeking behaviour, social networking sites and the communication context they create as well as triggers connected with public consumer complaining on social networking sites. The empirical data included consumer complaint chains collected from social networking sites. The data was analysed using content analysis, based on which the complaints were grouped into 5 categories, based on similarities within the context that triggered the complaint chains.
According to findings of this thesis, social networking sites are not seen as interactive by complainants as phone and face-to-face channels. Assistance-seeking was triggered on SNS due to failure, irresponsiveness or dissatisfaction with the primary voice channel, making SNS a secondary channel in complaints with equivocal tasks. Furthermore, when facing a double deviation and while seeking for compensation, consumers resorted to public complaining to keep insisting for a fair outcome by intending to create pressure for the service provider to react to the complaint. Moreover, the findings give indication that triggers for the use of SNS as a primary complaint channel deal with the advantage of public context in complainants perceiving that the complaint will be acted upon, and the perceived ease of voice related to social networking sites versus other text-based complaint channels.