Background of the Organization
Dsicuss about the Social Media Is Changing Crisis Communication Strategies.
Deere and Company Ltd is a multinational organization that has its head office in Australia. It operates in several countries across several continents including, Australia, India, Vietnam, India, Oman and Nigeria. The organization deals in the manufacture of agricultural equipment and sale of the same to both local and international clients. Running the organizations operations are a total of 8000 employees spread across the said countries serving some 1 million customers. In the recent times the organization has been facing challenges with regards to a variety of fronts. The issues identified include; weaknesses in the use of social media platforms such a blogs, wikis, Whatsapp, twitter and other networks in promoting information sharing and the sharing of ideas among employees. Second issue is the lack of meaningful feedback from clients on ways of improving customer satisfaction with quality of product and services. Lastly are challenges arising from intercultural communication which through misunderstanding breeds mistrust in the organization.
The study seeks to address itself to the identified challenges in communication in the organization, with are identified as; ineffective use of social media platforms such a blogs, wikis, Whatsapp, twitter and other networks in promoting information sharing and the sharing of ideas among employees, the lack of effective feedback from clients on ways of improving product quality and customer satisfaction with service delivery and lastly the mistrust and misunderstanding arising from the challenges occasioned by intercultural communication in the organization. The study will seek to identify strategies which the organization can employ in order to improve communication at all levels in the organization.
This paper will focus on the ways in which the organization can use social media platforms to change the way information is shared between the different levels in the organization (among the employees) as well as between the organization and its clients. The paper will explore ways in which social media can be used to provide clients with better interface, convenient channels of accessing information about the organization and its products and services. Also the paper will review methods that the organization can engage in order to provide its clientele with avenues of reaching the organization with feedback on what they feel about the organization’s products and services. Lastly, the study will seek to deconstruct the challenges that arise from intercultural communication and provide solutions to minimize future misunderstandings within the organization in order to ensure that employees of various nationalities are all brought on board and feel part and parcel of the operations of the organization.
Purpose of the Study
The study will seek to conduct an in depth investigation of the identified issues at the organization. The outcome of the study will become the basis upon which the study shall arrive at recommendations on the changes and adjustments that need to be done by the managerial team and the departments involved; especially the customer service department and the employee relations team.
Social media is becoming a popular tool for crisis communication in most organizations today (Cheng et al., 2018). Even large multinationals that were skeptical about the use of this tool are fast changing tact and are adapting to the changing trends. In this new era of millennial when scientists and innovators are creating mind-blowing technological solutions, every businesses enterprise and organization that is serious about performance must realize that one of the most vital assets at their disposal is the knowledge of their employees. This is manifested in their expertise. In order for an organization to attain the level where they produce superior products and/or services, they must invest in knowledge management (Roblek et al., 2013).
In so doing it is vital for the organization to share the expertise of their best employees with other employees. The use of social media has turned this into a less strenuous exercise. The success story of the employees who perform above expectations can be shared with other employees just on social media platform like whatsapp or Facebook. (He et al., 2016) submits that this is one way of stimulating innovation and motivating other employees to strive for better performance too. If an organization is to succeed it has to tap into the potential of knowledge sharing presented by social media platforms. Social media platforms should be used by organizations to create a knowledge base which can then be shared by all employees. Any organization that seeks to gain an edge in providing high quality customer service must embrace the challenge and opportunities presented by social media as well as multichannel engagement.
Timely and convenient access to knowledge about the organization’s products and services plays a major role in improving customer satisfaction. Today, customers want to engage with the organizations through channels of their choice As a consequence, businesses that get stuck to the traditional methods of marketing are likely not to make any sales (Stefan et al., 2017). Knowledge management optimization can be achieved through employment of different channels for delivery. In achieving this, the knowledge must be packaged in a format that is channel appropriate. Providing access to the knowledge about the organization through an established channel like Facebook is a good choice. The organization can use knowledge management tools to filter and control what type of information can be accessed by the clientele and the staff as well. The benefit of this is that customers and staff can access information about the company using a channel of their choice. The content that is availed in the social media platforms must be authenticated to ensure it is fit for customer engagement. Also, the knowledge management tools should have a seamless integration with the organization’s customer service desk applications in order to allow for information to be forwarded wherever it is needed.
Scope of the Study
Any organization that pursues profits must ensure they get constant feedback from its customers. This is the only way the organization will be able to assess the quality of their products and services as well as assess the levels of customer satisfaction. Experts in the customer service submit that for every customer who complains about the quality of service or product there are another 20 who have simply chosen to remain silent. What’s more is that most clients do not usually provide feedback to the organization unless the quality of service was extremely bad. Many times they choose not to raise the matter with the organization. Instead they share the information with others. Experts opine again that dissatisfied customers can share the information with 8 to 10 others and sometimes up to 20 (Waters et al., 2011).
In the modern age where the use of social media is popular, such information can get viral very fast and seriously damage the reputation of the organization’s brand. Auer et al., (2011) notes that social media platforms have given people the people to influence organizational decisions and public policy. This is the reason why every organization must be keen to provide avenues for customers to give feedback and then act on the information to better the quality of the organization’s products and services. There are a number of things an organization can do in order to provide avenues for the customers to give feedback. Providing a live chat platform that is proactive can help the organization to address many issues. For instance clients who have been unable to find the locations of the products they would wish to purchase can ask questions about the same directly to the organization’s staff. They can also inquire about the availability of the products, options for payments and shipping details.
A proactive live chat support can help the organization to better understand the needs of its clients. This platform can also help the organization to identify any recurring issues among the client base. This information can then be used in coming up with long term solutions for such recurring problems. The hint here is that the organization must respond promptly to the questions raised by their clients with information that is helpful. The company can also choose to derive feedback from the customers through the use of dedicated feedback forms on their website. For instance the organization can have a feedback email on its website. Through this email address, clients can directly communicate whatever issues they have with regards to products and services. Additionally, the organization can step up this mode of obtaining feedback by use of dedicated feedback forms. The practice is that the forms should contain all questions that are relevant to the feedback but must not be long. The visibility of the form should be prominent to make it easy to see. Where possible give the customer options as well.
Report Outcome
Another very effective method of getting customer feedback is through calling them. Clients always want to feel that they are valued by the organizations they choose to buy from (Horn et al., 2010). And giving them a call is a very personalized method of obtaining customer feedback that at the same time makes them feel valued and respected. This approach is one of the most proactive and has potential to yield some of the best responses. One of the major advantages of the calling method is that the organization is able to obtain firsthand information right from the client. Moreover, the customer service agent making the call on behalf of the organization can judge the level of customer satisfaction from his or her tone. The secret to success with this method is that the agent should not present themselves as one merely conducting a survey; rather they must present themselves as genuinely seeking to provide help to the customer. To maximize on the benefits of this feedback technique, organization agents must call the clients at appropriate times. The timing of the calls is very essential to the success of this method. Clients are likely to take calls between 8 am to 9 am and between 4 pm to 5 pm. The direct calling method is time consuming and labor intensive and should be reserved for customers who have a longstanding relationship with the company or high value customers.
In this era of social media revolution there are a variety of options when it comes to feedback channels. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and so on are valuable ways of getting customers feel about an organizations products and services. By employing tools that are effective in “social listening” the organization can gather information on people’s conversations about certain brands on social media (Pitt et al., 2011). It is in fact possible to monitor the level of market presence of competing brands by use of appropriate tools. In handling social media complaints, time is of the essence. Negative comments usually spread very fast. As such the organization must respond promptly to complaints raised by clients in order to ease the tension. Social listening tools such as HootSuite, Klout, and Social Mention can be invaluable resources in monitoring feedback. If used alongside with a combination of in house and third party staff, social media becomes a very important channel for feedback monitoring and response.
Literature Review
A multinational organization has the advantage of being able to hire employees from different nationalities and cultures. They can source for the best experts in whatever field each of them bringing a unique set of skills and abilities that if well managed, can steer the organization towards the realization of organizational objectives. But the major challenge with multicultural organizations is communication. Some organizations encourage their employees to use social media in communicating between different levels of management as a way of fostering relationships (Cho et al., 2013). Employees who have different cultural backgrounds will interpret different forms of communication, signs and languages differently. This also affects their decision making and how they resolve conflicts.
Communication in the western countries (such as Australia where the company head office is) tends to be more direct. In other cultures such as Asia and Africa individuals tend to be more discrete in the way they communicate. Consequently, confusion can result say for example when a senior manager who is from Australia gives is seeking some information from a junior employee who is African or Asian. This is likely to result in a workforce that is disconnected. To overcome this challenge, a company needs to conduct diversity training for its employees before they are posted to their work stations. This will help to build the capacities of employees who are not native to the countries to understand how to blend in the new work place. Multicultural organizations also face the challenge of language barrier which also affects cohesiveness in the team (Lauring et al., 2010). English is the internationally accepted business language. Employees who are non-English speakers or whose ability to express themselves in English is limited may feel left out in the organization because they are not able to convey their contributions in the discourse. Sometimes the said employee may be an expert in the subject matter at hand. This is what breeds mistrust in the organization.
Conclusion
This paper makes clear the need for Deere and Company Ltd to invest in social media as a tool for sharing information with its clients and among its employees. Knowledge bases in social media sites can serve as a device for continuous education and motivation for the staff. Every organization operates to make profits through sales. Client feedback is therefore very essential in determining how the customers perceive the products and services of the organization. Organizations with a workforce that is multicultural will always have challenges in communication. But providing diversity training helps to bridge the gap in cultural differences.
The organization should hire social media managers to create social media sites and platforms for the organization to engage with its staff and employees. This should help to boost the information sharing among employees. The customer service department should then revamp its feedback and monitoring techniques. The customer service department should consider the use of social media in getting the feedback from clients considering the popularity and widespread use of the said platforms. Success and/or failure of feedback methods chosen should be measured by the frequency of the purchases made by customers and the number of new clients they refer to the organization. In order to overcome multicultural communication challenges the organization should conduct diversity trainings for its employees to build their capacities to blend in a multicultural organization.
References
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