Page 242 - Introduction to Electronic Commerce and Social Commerce

226 7 Social Commerce: Foundations, Social Marketing, and Advertising

coupon, say for milk; then, when they buy milk they get a
10–20% discount. There is no need to clip coupons anymore. For Example: Teusner Wines
more information, see safeway.com/ShopStores/Justforu- Teusner Wines (teusner.com.au) is a small three-
FAQ.page. person boutique winery in Australia. Using Twitter, the
Additionally, customers can visit the company’s blog, company’s one-person marketing department:
Today at Safeway!, where the company’s team members post • Initiates online conversations about wine with influ-
items from Floral, Bakery, and other departments throughout
ential people in the wine industry.
the store. Safeway’s experts also publish information about • Sends tweets to people he finds talking online (e.g.,
nutrition, environmental sustainability, and more. Members
in communities) about Teusner Wines, praising them
of the virtual customer club can comment on the blog and are for trying the wines.
asked to post original content only.
• Starts to build trust with customers via online con-
versations.
Example 2: REI Adventure
• Invites people to tour the winery and taste the wines.
This fast-growing adventure travel company has a trip plan- • Advises potential customers in the United States and
ning division that sells outdoor clothing and gear. For cus-
Canada where they can buy the Australian wine.
tomers who want to travel to a specific destination with • Monitors real-time online feedback from customers.
others who share similar interests, REI Adventure puts
• Encourages customer-to-customer social media con-
together groups of people and fully plans the group trip. The versations.
planning documents are prepared manually and shipped to
• Posts customer reviews using Twitter.
the customers. A fully computerized solution is initiated • Shares all information with Twitter followers.
around Salesforce Sales Cloud. The system has two parts:
• Use Instagram to show photos and get “likes.”
One for employees and another one for customers. This is
basically a social CRM system on both parts. It permits cus-
tomization of trips to individuals in the groups. The system
All this is done in a tiny company at virtually no cost. For
has a friendly interface, and all documents are sent quickly details, see dottedlinecollaborations.com/social-media/case-
online. Overall, the system makes customers very satisfied,
the employees can serve more customers, the customers can study-using-twitter-attract-new-customers.
For large companies, it is necessary to integrate marketing,
communicate with each other as they discover their adven-
ture destinations. For details, see Brown (2016). customer services, and social networks.

Example 3: How Best Buy Uses Twitter to Provide Reputation Management System
Real-Time Customer Service
Best Buy is a large appliances retailer. The company uses their
Not all postings in social networks are positive. The problem
Twitter account @twelpforce to interact with customers.
Best Buy empowered its technical support service (called is what companies do when they see negative comments (see
Christman 2014 for an overview).
Geek Squad) and other corporate employees (total 4000 par-
ticipants). There, any employee who finds a relevant tweeted Companies cannot block people from posting negative
comments on social platforms, including Facebook pages. If
question can answer the customer. The answers are visible on
the website, allowing other employees to add information. a company blocks such postings, it eliminates the potential
positive comments from its fans, losing the positive WOM
For additional examples, see socialmediatoday.com/tags/ and customer feedback. If companies delete posts, the poster
customer-service. and others may retaliate. A possible solution for reputation
management is to design the space for comments in a way
Social Networking Helps Customer Service in Small that encourages positive ones. Reputation systems should:
Companies
• Build trust in the sellers.
Most of the examples provided so far have dealt with large • Promote quality of the products and services.
companies. What about the small ones? Obviously, there are • Sustain loyalty.
some applications the SMEs cannot afford. But many other
applications can be deployed. For comprehensive coverage, see reputationinstitute.com.