Influence of social media expressions on service quality perceptions

Abstract

The customers are increasingly engaging with organizations to assess the service quality being offered. Generally, the engagements through customer support helplines, in-store interactions, and emails remain hidden from the customers as this data is seldom made public. In contrast, engagement through social media predominantly through social media expressions has a reaching effect due to its viral nature. The customers use social media expressions from either organizations (organization-generated) or from existing users (user-generated) to make decisions. Social media expressions representing expectations, experiences, suggestions, interactions, product/service behaviors, etc. are taken into consideration by the prospective/existing customers in creating perceptions about service quality. In a modern context, social media expressions have assumed a more considerable significance due to their quick and far-reaching impact on customers. These expressions predominantly influence the perceptions of service quality as the services are generally perceived after the delivery of the service. This paper has attempted to understand the categories of Expressions on Social Media (organization-generated and user-generated) and their subsequent influence on service quality perceptions, which would either enable a customer to engage with the organization or move away. This paper has also stressed for the need to positively stimulating social media expressions at each stage of service delivery to ensure that the perceptions of the service quality remain in the positive domain.