Week 3A: Communication - Business & Consumer

I personally have never had an negative experience with a company that was at all effected by social media.  I am not an avid social media user, which could be why.  I did have difficulty communicating with CVS recently.  I had called them about a prescription to see if it was filled ad they told me it couldn’t be filled because it wasn’t covered by my insurance and that to have it filled would cost me $1000 dollars.  My doctors office had gotten a prior authorization and I knew it was covered but the pharmacist was insistent that my doctors were wrong.  They said it was not at all covered and there was “no way” my insurance would cover it.  I called my doctor and they told me the pharmacist was wrong.  I called CVS and got the same pharmacist and the same answer.  My doctor called, got a different pharmacist who said there was no problem, the first pharmacist had been wrong and they’d have the prescription filled for me in 2 hours.

I was a really stressful situation and I did end up making a post on Facebook.  A lot of my Facebook friends commented and said they had had similar experiences.  If CVS  was using Facebook to “listen” to their customers, even if they didn’t respond, they could have used the information we all posted to make sure situations like that don’t happen in the future.

I have, on the other hand, had a positive experience with a company on social media.  I had been looking for a new bathing suit and an advertisement for an online shop called Skatie showed up on my Instagram.  I clicked on the link to bring me to the shop and I was really impressed.  They made many of the bathing suits to order and had very clear information about the fit of the bathing suits.  I don’t know a single woman who has not had problems finding clothes, especially bathing suits, that fit properly so I was really excited.  But I still wasn’t sure exactly what size to choose.  They had contact information specifically for fit questions, and the options were through email, direct message on Instagram, or even texting.  I had an easy time getting in contact with them, I gave them my measurements, and they helped me pick sizes.  I bought a suit I was really happy with.

My goal is to start a similar company with made to order clothing for all types of women.  This was such an appealing way to interact with a brand to find exactly what I wanted.  I think using social media in the same way as Skatie would really benefit my future company.  It is especially hard to find clothes that fit online.  It would also be an easy way to make custom orders over the internet possible.  Having such a direct connection with customers in social media would make it easy to “listen” and intervene whenever possible to give the best possible service.  Positive feedback can be responded to so the customers know how much we appreciate their feedback.  Negative feedback can also be responded to make the guest happy.  In the restaurant industry they call it “guest recovery”.  Making sure they receive the service they’ll need to become a repeat customer.  Social media platforms are a perfect way to intervene and make sure the customer gets exactly what they need.