Do social networking platforms promote service quality and purchase intention of customers of service-providing organizations?

Abstract

Purpose Customers are interested in finding service recommendations, reviews and word of mouth using social networking platforms. These service reviews are useful for enhancing service quality, level of information and engagement, and purchase intention of customers. The purpose of this paper is to uncover which social networking platform is more useful for the exchange of service reviews and how organizations are improving purchase intention as well as service quality in the light of customer’s reviews/experiences. Design/methodology/approach The study is exploratory in nature because it aims to understand the use of social networking platforms for enhancing service quality and the purchase intention of customers using a purposive sampling technique. To meet the objective of this study, non-directive and semi-structured interviews have been conducted with customers and marketing teams in the banking sector and internet service providers. Findings The results show that social networking websites are helpful in fostering responsiveness, awareness, assurance, reliability and empathy. However, respondents revealed serious concerns regarding the privacy of personal and financial information especially in the context of the banking sector. It has been found that official Facebook pages of service-providing organizations, open and closed local community Facebook groups, sponsored ads and promotional advertisements on Facebook, WhatsApp groups and YouTube video comments are more frequently used to exchange service reviews (i.e. influence the process of purchase decision) among friends, friends of friends, family members and the general public. The selected customers and market team respondents revealed that local community Facebook groups (i.e. open groups and closed groups) have gained prime importance for enhancing service quality and purchase decisions. Practical implications The effective and well-organized use of social networking platforms can foster service reviews, word of mouth, level of service awareness, interactive communication, intention to purchase, social influence, social trust and services quality. Furthermore, online social networking platforms require a lower level of advertisement costs and offer huge amounts of information, discussions, enquires, service stories, word of mouth, transactions and interactions of consumers. Originality/value The present study is exploratory in nature because it selects an under-researched issue regarding the use of social networking applications to enhance levels of purchase intention and service quality. There is limited literature which has combined the multiple constructs in a single study (i.e. social media platforms, cross-platform platforms, service quality and purchase intention of consumers). Most of the previous studies are dependent on various dimensions of service quality (i.e. “reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empath and tangibles”). However, the present study extracted that respondents have given more preferences of services awareness and privacy compared to traditional elements of service quality.

Developing UGC social brand engagement model: Insights from diverse consumers

“…Also, it has been found that confidence in the experts' brand‐related content editing and sharing skills and their ability to effectively convey a message (e.g., language experts) may positively enhance brand engagement among SMUs. A recent study also verified that those individuals who have relevant industry experience may be considered better influencers on social media due to their personal experience or expertise (Naeem, 2019a). However, another study suggested that if consumers have personal expertise, but they are unknown in virtual communities, then they are unable to add social influence to shared UGC (Zhou & Duan, 2015).…”

“…The second motivational factor is sharing experience. The existing literature has offered scattered evidence regarding why SMUs share their experiences (Kaur, Dhir, Rajala, & Dwivedi, 2018; Naeem, 2019a; Verhagen, Nauta, & Feldberg, 2013; Yao, 2014), especially in relation to fashion brands. These studies are limited to offering information about positive and negative emotions as the main reasons to share personal experiences related to common interests.…”

“…They shared that they follow a product user's experience because it provides valuable information as well as being helpful in buying decisions. Previous studies revealed that social media facilitated sharing of brand‐related experiences which is helpful to take buying decisions (Casaló et al, 2018; Dessart, Veloutsou, & Morgan‐Thomas, 2015; Hwang & Zhang, 2018; Naeem, 2019a).…”

“…Some consumers use social media platforms to share their personal experiences and that product users exert more influence than other SMUs (Naeem, 2019a, 2019b; Sobhanifard & Sadatfarizani, 2018). Previous studies have mentioned that disheartening customer experiences are the starting point of UGC on social media and they lead to the further generation of UGC (Çınar, 2018; Gavilanes, Flatten, & Brettel, 2018; Grosser, Hase, & Wintterlin, 2019; Kim & Lee, 2017; Micu, Chowdhury, Micu, & Chaudhuri, 2017; Zhao, Wang, Wang, & Song, 2017).…”

Framing coworking spaces marketing strategies via social media indices

“…It is becoming common practice among organizations to adopt and exploit the properties and functionalities of social media. Effective and well-organized marketing activities on social media sites enable businesses to improve branding, CRM, research and sales promotion (Alves, Fernandes, and Raposo, 2016;Ashley and Tuten 2015;Naeem, 2019;Olanrewaju, Hossain, Whiteside, and Mercieca, 2020). With 3.48 billion users, social media represent a huge platform for businesses to promote products, services and access potential customers in the global audience (Olanrewaju et al, 2020;Sawicki, 2016).…”