The Impact of Social Media on Customer Complaint Management: A Research in Private Health Institutions

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of the research is to identify customer complaints shared on social media, to examine the approaches of private health institutions to customer complaints on social media platforms and the way they manage them. Design/methodology/approach – The research data has been qualitatively constructed on the first three private health institutions with the highest number of complaints, by including the months of “January, February, March” of 2018 on the sikayetvar.com website, which is a platform where customer complaints are shared in Turkey. Content analysis method was used in the document review and evaluation part as a data collection method in the examination of complaints in social media. Findings – It has been determined that leading private health institutions in Turkey do not perceive customer complaints in social media different from classical customer complaints and different managerial processes have not yet been realized. Discussion – Customers can share their complaints comfortably and quickly on social media without feeling under pressure, thus affecting other customers' health institution selection decisions. Customer complaints shared on social media have been noticed by private health institutions, so it has been demonstrated by studies that a management approach different from the classical complaint management approach is required. It is expected that this research will contribute to the senior management of private health institutions and complaint management units in the effective management of complaints in social media.