Webcare as an Integrative Tool for Customer Care, Reputation Management, and Online Marketing: A Literature Review

When consumers are dissatisfied with a consumption experience, they usually respond in one of the following ways (Hirschman, 1970): (1) stop using an organization’s products/services and take their business to a competitor, (2) file a complaint with the organization that is responsible for the dissatisfying consumption experience, or (3) talk about their dissatisfying consumption experience with fellow consumers (negative word of mouth). Janelle McCoy, a former loyal customer of Chevrolet, decided to combine all responses with the help of social media. In a series of comments on Facebook and Twitter, in which Chevrolet was either tagged or addressed (@chevrolet), Janelle shared her dissatisfaction with one of Chevrolet’s car dealers. In doing so, she not only engaged in negative word of mouth (NWOM) but also complaint behaviour. As can be seen from the excerpt of the Twitter dialogue depicted by Figure 4.1, Janelle’s comments addressed a double audience consisting of not only other consumers but also the organization responsible for the dissatisfying consumption experience. Consumers such as Janelle increasingly voice their complaints as electronic NWOM, with the aim to draw the attention of organizations and, as such, enforce service excellence. Thus, after receiving no satisfactory response from Chevrolet, Janelle decided to take her business to a competitor and to share this decision with other consumers on Facebook and Twitter as well.