Week 2 Part A: Communication Between Business & Consumer

 Communication Between Business and Customer 


The evolution of the communication over the years brought us where we are today with all the technological advancements, specially with the birth of the Internet, which changed and improved the way business and customer interact. Before, the relationship with customer was by phone, in person or word by mouth. If you had an issue and wanted your problem solved you would have to go there, or wait for hours in the line over the phone. And to create a good imagine of yourself you would have to rely on positive feedback customers would spread around. When we talk about this relationship, the businesses had to improve and develop with technology since it became essential to have a trace of the companies on the Internet with a webpage or, more simply, creating a Social media, which is free, easy and doesn't demand much skills. 

Although it is an easy task to create a social media for the business, it may not be that easy to keep a good image of yourself on the platforms. Customers and clients see the social media of the businesses as a way to give feedback and also read the reviews, before deciding if they are going to buy the product, or go to that restaurant. 

This is a great tool, since you can promote yourself, chat with clients and customers and solve their problems, have positive feedbacks... But the in the other hand, it doesn't need much for your five stars to drop with one single bad review for a client who didn't have the best experience with the service/product.

 I personally look everything on Yelp before I go to the business/order the food/get the service.   

I did some research about martial arts gyms around Long Beach in Yelp and none of them had 5 starts. So I compared 5 of them and they all range around 4,5 starts. One of them had only 15 reviews,  another 60... the majority of the reviews were positive and 5 starts. The place with 14 reviews only had one bad review, and this star was so relevant that it affect 0,5 their image. Looking the content of the reviews, some of them were understandable in terms of bad experiences they had, which might be good for improvement of the company, but some of them I considered unfair and also unnecessary. One bad review was "the company refused to tell me their price over the phone". I mean, I get that it can be frustrating, but to leave a negative review only because you got upset you didn't have an answer is a little extreme to me.

Usually, when I have a great experience in one place I always try to make time during my day to leave a positive review, specially if it is a small business because it is so important to them. Unless I have an absolutely awful experience with the company, I am not going to waste my time and tarnish their image over something small or that just didn't make me happy. I rather call the place and try to tell how bad my experience with someone was, or maybe if its a restaurant, for example, I don't come back and losing a client is already something bad, also knowing that they can spread the bad experience with others, stopping them to try the place.

I think business owners need to be very wise and patient when it comes to reviews. They absolutely need to communicate with their clientele. When it comes from negative reviews, if it is something true, they can look for improvement, but if it is something unfair the reply needs to be very polite and somewhat understanding. I think they can defend themselves, saying what actually happened, but in a tone that passive, never aggressive, apologizing and also trying to find a solution for that client to have a better experience next time, maybe opening the door for a new positive review or at least deleting that bad one. Communication is essential and the key for the success of small business.




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