Complaint Handling on Social Media

Abstract: Background Social media is constantly growing and has also started to be a platform for dissatisfied customers to express their complaints. This give companies an opportunity to respond to the complaints by solving the problems and prevent customers from switching to competitors or spread negative word of mouth. Therefore, it is important to handle complaints in a proper way. There are six response dimensions that are of importance when handling complaints and that impacts customer satisfaction. These dimensions will be used in this research and are named timeliness, redress, apology, credibility, attentiveness and facilitation. Purpose To explain how companies’ complaint handling positively impact customer satisfaction in the social media context. Method This research utilizes a quantitative approach and consist of six hypotheses: H1 Timeliness has a positive impact on customer satisfaction in the social media context. H2 Redress has a positive impact on customer satisfaction in the social media context. H3 Apology has a positive impact on customer satisfaction in the social media context. H4Credibility has a positive impact on customer satisfaction in the social media context. H5 Attentiveness has a positive impact on customer satisfaction in the social media context. H6 Facilitation has a positive impact on customer satisfaction in the social media context. The sample is users of social media that are 18 years old or older. The sampling was done by using convenience sampling and the snowball effect. The data were collected using an online questionnaire which was sent out via Facebook. Conclusion It can be concluded that complaint handling positively impact customer satisfaction in the social media context by the use of facilitation. Timeliness, redress, apology, credibility and attentiveness have no significant positive impact on customer satisfaction. Since facilitation is about procedures and events that happens before the actual response to the complaint, it could be concluded that complaint handling is something that companies needs to work with proactive in order to affect customer satisfaction positive