general meaning of the sentence

English translation: see explanation

12:39 Mar 9, 2017

English language (monolingual) [PRO]
General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters

English term or phrase: general meaning of the sentence

Hello everyone,

https://books.google.ru/books?id=yxXVCQAAQBAJ&pg=PT43&dq="Of...

Haters who complain on Twitter are the most satisfied with response time: 88 percent of complainers who receive a reply there are happy with the speed of that reply. This may be because many businesses in the United States and around the world have come to view Twitter as a primary customer service vehicle, and have assigned significant resources to the channel.

But according to our study, this Twitter-centric model of social media customer service may be misplaced. Of all social media com-plaints in the United States, 71 percent are logged on Facebook, with Twitter a distant second at 17 percent. Google Plus represents 6 per-cent of complaints, and Instagram another 5 percent.

Certainly, Facebook has far more users than Twitter, which may partially explain the volume of complaints there. But many customers also take to Facebook to sound off in ways that may not be directly actionable or solvable. Often, Facebook complaints are structured, negative feedback more than they are cries for specific help. These are viewed as complaints by consumers, but may not be viewed as such by businesses. This discrepancy may cause companies to misjudge the scope and scale of customer service opportunities. ***They seem to favor Twitter, where the overall participation may be lower, but the use of the venue as a direct customer service channel is more obvious***.

I understand the meaning of all words and phrases in the last sentence, but I fail to figure out what the author means.

They seem to favor Twitter -- yes, company prefer Twitter.
where the overall participation may be lower -- yes, the number of complaints there is lower
but the use of the venue as a direct customer service channel is more obvious -- why is it more obvious if the greater number of complaints are published on Facebook, including those which are not considered as complaints by companies?

To me the last sentence directly contradicts to all the author has written in previous ones.

Thank you.

Mikhail Korolev KudoZ activity Questions: 2410 (1 open) (10 closed without grading) Answers: 130
Local time: 19:57

Selected answer:see explanation

Explanation:
"They seem to favor Twitter" -- as you said, companies prefer Twitter.

"where the overall participation may be lower" -- It's not just the number of complaints. The actual number of people who use Twitter as compared to Facebook is also lower.

"but the use of the venue as a direct customer service channel is more obvious." -- According to the text, people tend to post "actionable" complaints on Twitter. Twitter messages are short, so someone might say (for example): "Hey, Company. Your website is down." Or: "I've been on hold for 2 hours. Can someone please help me get through?"

The company sees these messages and responds immediately. On Facebook, people may post other types of messages, like deep criticism of a company going back years - for example, problems with management or processes that are deeply ingrained into the company culture. These are not issues that can immediately be solved, and the text is saying that businesses may be missing valuable opportunities to identify and address these types of complaints.

Something the text does not mention is that many companies assign scores or points for each problem that is resolved, so they tend to focus their efforts on things they can solve immediately. It's in the interest of management to rack up points, which are often tied to bonuses and other rewards.

That's my take, anyway.

Selected response from:

Arabic & More
Jordan

Grading comment

Many thanks to everyone.
Thank you, Amel.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED

4 +4

see explanation

Arabic & More

4 +1

Twitter is costumer service oriented, Facebook isn't

tastycomm

4 +1

companies are misjudging possibilities of dealing with Facebook complaints

Yvonne Gallagher

Twitter is a public forum par excellence AND allows for direct and public comms, FB much less so

magdadh

Discussion entries: 1

Answers

13 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

Twitter is costumer service oriented, Facebook isn't

Explanation:
Twitter is specifically used as customer help service, while on Facebook people just vent frustrations, rather than searching for real help.

Let's say that Twitter has a real customer help service paid by businesses which can be used by those same businesses to monitor how their technical support works and its efficiency, while Facebook doesn't give effective stats on costumer support.

tastycomm
Belgium
Local time: 18:57
Native speaker of:

Italian

17 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

companies are misjudging possibilities of dealing with Facebook complaints

Explanation:
The companies see the complaints 9as complaints) more easily on Twitter and can respond more directly to them thus it may appear easier and better to use this channel "as a direct customer service channel"

The problem is that the companies don't necesssarily know what complaints are on facebok as it may just sem like people sounding off or venting and it's not really as easy to respond to these directly since they are not obviously direct complaints or calls for help as such.

"Facebook complaints are structured, negative feedback more than they are cries for specific help"

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Note added at 19 mins (2017-03-09 12:59:37 GMT)
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Typo 1st line "companies see the complaints 9as complaints)" should read:

companies see the complaints as "complaints"...

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Note added at 24 mins (2017-03-09 13:04:37 GMT)
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Basically, the companies seem to find it difficult to work out what are actually complaints on Facebook and obviously it would also take them more time to sort through all the venting and vitriol to find out if they are being asked to make some response! So, it comes down to being easier to deal with complaints on Twitter...

Yvonne Gallagher
Ireland
Local time: 17:57
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 659

25 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +4

see explanation

Arabic & More
Jordan
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 52

Grading comment

Many thanks to everyone.
Thank you, Amel.

35 mins confidence:

Twitter is a public forum par excellence AND allows for direct and public comms, FB much less so

Explanation:
I think this is due to the (implicit and explicit) character of these platforms.

1) subjectively, for many people FB is a semi-private forum, they have their profiles set to friends-only or post only some stuff as public. So these complaints/criticisms are not even visible or possible to answer directly.

2) even if the post is visible, responding to it would/could be treated as butting in. If I am not actually writing TO the company (ie don't address them, tag them, write on their wall/ fan page) why should the company respond? Imagine you are criticising a company or product in a conversation with your friends in a pub. An employee of that company is sitting at the next table and decides to come up and offer explanations or apology. I would PERSONALLY find it unacceptable. Posting FB criticism is not a complaint that should be acted on directly, it's more of a review that should be (possibly, if public) listened to and acted on generally.

3) objectively, the mechanics of Twitter make it very easy to see what people say (if someone @'s you, ie tweets with your @ name mention, you'll see it in your notifications. AND if you @ someone that implies you expect some kind of direct reaction. If you @ a company, you are talking TO them, not ABOUT them.

4) subjectively, Twitter is a public forum and unless your account is locked (private) everything there is obviously in public domain.

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Note added at 40 mins (2017-03-09 13:20:19 GMT)
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==================

I have just realised that what I have written above is confirming what the author of the texts calls the ''company perspective''. While the author says it's wrong and those ''reviews'' are actually actionable complaints despite the fact that they are not addressed directly to the companies.

magdadh
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:57
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

Polish
PRO pts in category: 20

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