Social Media and Complaints Handling

Abstract: AbstractTitleComplaints Handling and Social MediaPurposeThe purpose of the project is to describe how companies conduct complaints handling in socialmedia and how they listen, talk and energize with the help of social media in terms of complaintshandling.Research QuestionsHow do companies perform complaints handling in social media? How do companies listen, talkand energize in social media in terms of complaints handling?Theory and ConceptsComplaints handling; encouraging customers to voice a complaint; the role of front-lineemployees in complaints handling; the role of compensation in complaints handling; socialmedia and relationship marketing; listening in social media; talking in social media; energizingon social mediaMethodologyThe study is descriptive with deductive approach. The research is qualitative and the researchstrategy is one-to-one interviews. Interviews were conducted with social media representatives ofBeeline, SAS supermarkets’ chain and Figaro restaurant group in Armenia.ConclusionsFrom the research it was concluded that SAS supermarkets’ chain and Figaro restaurant group interms of complaints handling mainly embrace the relationship potentials social media provides.That is they listen to complaints on social media; they always response to complaints either bytaking proactive measures or describing the situation; however, they do not energize customerswith stories about successful complaints handling experiences. While, in terms of complaintshandling, Beeline does not use the tools of listening, talking and energizing properly. It was alsoconcluded that both SAS supermarkets’ chain and Figaro restaurant group conduct complaintshandling in social media environment mainly in accordance to theories about how successfulcomplaints handling can be done, while Beeline does not.