Week 2: Me, on Effective Communication with Businesses

I can think of a few examples in recent years of when I made an attempt to communicate with a business or consumers, either by email or through a review. In these experiences, my communication directly with a business has almost always been most effective. Every example using social media to communicate with, or review, a business has ultimately yielded no tangible results. However, I have to remind myself of my motive or intention when posting a review online versus sending an email directly. When I email a company, it is usually because of a specific issue that I would like acknowledgement for, or resolution of. The difference when I post a review, is that I am sharing my experience with the consumer, so that they might make a better informed decision if choosing between companies. Therefore, resolution of an issue isn't as important to me as sharing information. That does not mean that I would not have appreciated a response, but typically, given the negative experience that I am sharing, I set my expectations low.

Two experiences specifically come to mind when I posted reviews on Yelp. The first was for a bar and grill in Encinitas, where some friends of mine were meeting to watch a morning world cup game. Without going into too much detail, the service was terrible, and the waitress accused our party of not tipping after not returning our change which equaled a tip of roughly 25%. The other was after two separate experiences at a Solana Beach restaurant in which we were given exceptionally poor service. I left reviews for both establishments, but received no response. I feel it necessary to mention that I've also left several positive reviews for other restaurants, shops, B&B's, and hotels, while rarely, if ever, receiving a response. As mentioned earlier, receiving a response was not my intention, which was instead, to inform potential customers.

In contrast, I have experienced several very positive results when contacting companies, always directly through a website contact page or by email. The most memorable was when my wife and I were stranded in foreign airport for 20 hours, only to be sent back to a hotel with a potential flight the following morning. While at the airport we were given literature by an airport employee informing us of our travelers rights in European airports. Naturally, when we finally got home, we both wrote the airline, and to our surprised heard a response, but with different compensation amounts for each of us, both of which were lower than the amounts stated in traveler's bill of rights. After several emails back and forth we both ended up with airline credit which still was less than that stated, but more than satisfactory for the experience.
Looking back, I'm not sure that social media would have yielded different results in the times that I communicated directly. However, this belief may be a result of the one sided communication when using social media. Maybe it is time to try social media again, given it has been a few years and companies are learning to be more receptive and connected to social media.