James Bregenzer, Jarvis Cook,Timakica Longstreet, Monique Martin and Lucie Slansky Technological advances have provided both businesses and customers with the power to improve the ways they communicate with each other. Improved technologies also bring a new challenge for businesses to face: Miscommunication. Modern Technology.. For Flickr, technology is the foundations on which the company conducts its business. Flickr accidentally and permanently –deleted 4,000 – photos belonging to one of it’s users due to a miscommunication via e-mail. Flickr’s Mistake Flickr – A web-based company that offers one of the most popular photo management and sharing applications online. Miscommunication Online business communication can be easily misinterpreted and ultimately fail through electronic channels, when exclusively applied to the high-level decision making processes. ―Electronic channels can successfully augment productive communication within an organization when applied to operational and other nonconfidential communication needs‖ (Kupritz, 2011). Flickr uses human interaction through e-mail to better asses high-level decision making. Kuprtiz’s data suggests that, ―allocating additional resources and requiring key stakeholders to interact directly with customers or with each other would be more effective‖ (Kupritz, 2011). 1. 2. Flickr may improve the company’s communication with it’s users by: Conducting brief phone conversations between Flickr account management within the decision making process and the users. Requiring user complaints that deal with the matter of potentially deleting an account to be followed by a phone call or live chat. A Solution to Miscommunication Within Flickr ―Effective email communication is essential for modern businesses‖ (Gupta, 2010). ―There are a wide variety of definite advantages in communicating via email—in particular, the speed of delivering information—however email communication presents unique disadvantages and similar liabilities to businesses in communicating with customers, such as ease of common syntax mistakes, deliverability issues and lack of emotion‖ (Hamilton, 2011, 170). E-mails are often seen as the preferred type of costumer-management communication, in which the costumer may easily avoid long periods of holding on the telephone, accent barriers & etc… For businesses, it allows the company to evenly distribute resources and work load, as well as allow time to research an issue before responding to customers in a manner that is ―consistent with business polices.‖ ―E-mail allows automatic routing and similar efficiencies, providing businesses with the opportunity to maximize efficiency with scarce resources‖ (Kupritz, 2011). Why Is E-mail so Important to Modern Organizations? ―Details within emotional emails provide businesses with valuable information that is difficult and expensive to gather through other communication processes‖ (Gupta, 2010). • Digital communications offer business valuable opportunities and new efficiencies in how to manage their company and costumers’ needs effectively. Managing E-mails efficiently ―Emotional E-mails‖ – Costumer complaints regarding unfair treatment, negligence, incompetence, rigid protocol and unfriendly systems. Business that effectively manage such e-mails by replying quick and helpful responses, improve the business process, communication efficiency and overall customer satisfaction. Emotional e-mails provide organizations with useful feedback that may help improve business processes and coaching agents Careful and successful management of emotion e-mails also directly improves customer satisfaction and retention. Keeping the customer happy is ultimately directly correlated with the business’ success. As Flickr user, Mirco Wilhelm experienced first-hand, the use of e-mail by a company offering costumer service options opens up the possibility of misinterpretation and miscommunications. Communication is one of the fundamentals to a successful business, for that reason challenges presented by technology pose a very real threat to the efficiency of an organization. Such technological and communication issues need to be carefully considered as change methodologies are adopted. The Cost of E-Mail Account Management Works Cited: Gupta, N., Gilbert, M. & Fabbrizio, G. (2010). CAAGET '10 Proceedings of the NAACL HLT 2010 Workshop on Computational Approaches to Analysis and Generation of Emotion in Text. Association for Computational Linguistics Proceedings, 10-16. Hamilton, C. (2011). Communicating for Results: A Guide for Business and the Professions (9th Ed.). Boston: Wadsworth. Kupritz, V., Cowell, E. (2011). Productive Management Communication Online and Face-to-Face. Journal of Business Communication, 48, 54-82. Segall, L. (2011, February 2). Flickr accidentally nukes user's 4,000 photos. Retrieved February 10, 2011, from CNNMoney.com: http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/02/technology/flickr_deletes_account/index. htm BIBLIOGRAPHY
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