Week 2 Part A: Communication Between Business & Consumer

 Business & Consumer Communication

    Being a business owner myself I can vouch for how important communication with a customer is. Whether that be future, potential, or past customers, it is an important component to customer satisfaction for repeat business and or overall success. I like to look at it like a domino effect. For example, if Suzie is a past customer of mine and had an awesome experience then she may show that by giving my business a 5 star review on Google, and then refer my business to Sally who if satisfied would do the same and so on and so forth. Now if my business was to incur the opposite outcome and Suzie or Sally were not fond of my business or satisfied with my services provided, then they could possibly leave a bad review for others to see. This can work both ways in business, and I am not opposed to a bad review for legitimate reasons, such as safety concerns or if someone is being put in danger as a consumer. For something in which the customer is unsatisfied, I believe a business should have the opportunity to make things right or clear the misunderstanding.  Don't you think?  Unfortunately, that is not always the case... 

 There are instances where consumers will rate a business poorly, simply one-sided and opinionated rather than having a cause for concern, mistreatment or misconduct. For example, I have read reviews on businesses who have changed ownership and consumers comment things such as " since new owners took over this place is no longer the same," from a business owner's perspective, my first though is well duh! New owners means new ways to operate and do business doesn't make it worse off, consumers should give things a chance. 

  Sometimes businesses get a bad rap for one person being inappropriate or deceitful, or even for misrepresentation of the company's beliefs. I have seen a rise in this with Social Media. All sizes of businesses big or small are using social media to communicate with consumers. With everyone having a phone to record something and post it to the internet, this has businesses and companies being very careful with who says what and how. Sometimes things get lost in delivery of a message and that video can go viral for the wrong reasons, causing backlash for businesses and companies.

Is social media always bad? No, of course not. Social media is a wonderful tool and has great benefits for business growth. I love to receive testimonials or see others posting about different businesses in a positive light. I also think it's great for driving engagement and awareness. 

Not all reviews are written with ill intent...

Overall through the years business & consumer communication has gotten better, and it will only continue to do so as our forms of communication grow. Social media, Google, Yelp, Facebook pages, are all ways to help businesses and consumers spread awareness.