WEEK 2 PART 1: COMMUNICATION

Customers can have bad or good experiences with businesses. If the experience is negative, notifying the business can sometimes get a solution. If the experience is positive, it can be rewarding for both the customer and the business to share this information.

My personal experience with using social media is limited. I read Yelp to see reviews on restaurants, local businesses, companies, and professionals. Reading other peoples reviews can save money, time, and anxiety if I know what to avoid and what to use. I once had a very difficult experience at Disneyland. My child had a medical emergency in the park and he did not receive proper medical intervention due to a non-medically trained cast-member making a medical decision. I made a formal complaint with their complaint department because I did not want any other child to be at risk. At the time I did not think about placing this information on social media. I did not have a positive solution to my complaint. I felt Disney representatives only spoke to me because they had too.

There are many options on social media for negative and positive communication between consumers and businesses. Twitter and Yelp are my top two picks. Consumers should pick application that best fits their needs. Using hashtags is a good way to get noticed. Hashtags connect you to others in the same situation. Hopefully, reporting on social media will get the attention needed to correct a problem or it will get positive attention for sharing a good experience. If I had a business, I would rely on social media to stay in touch with my customers, to show I care about my customers, and to avoid loss of revenue.