Publication Type

Conference Proceeding Article

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

1-2021

Abstract

Despite that social media has become a promising alternative to traditional call centers, managers hesitate to fully harness its power because they worry that active service intervention may encourage excessive use of the channel by disgruntled customers. This paper sheds light on such a concern by examining the dynamics between brand-level customer complaints and service interventions on social media. Using details of customer-brand interactions of 40 airlines on Twitter, we find that more service interventions indeed cause more customer complaints, accounting for the online customer population and service quality. However, the increased complaints are primarily driven by the awareness enhancement mechanism rather than by chronic complainers. Furthermore, holding everything else fixed, high-quality care leads to fewer future complaints. The managerial implication is clear: firms shall implement a more active, prompt, and effective strategy, which can redirect customers to this cost-effective service channel and ultimately reduce customer churn.

Keywords

Strategy, Information, Technology, Economics, and Society (SITES), social media, customer service, complaint management, service awareness

Discipline

Databases and Information Systems | Social Media

Research Areas

Information Systems and Management

Publication

Proceedings of the 54th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 2021 (HICSS-54), Grand Wailea, Maui, Hawaii, January 5-8

First Page

6525

Last Page

6534

ISBN

9780998133140

Identifier

10.24251/HICSS.2021.785

City or Country

Hawaii

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