Researchers monitored references of users within the social network VKontakte concerning information about the Russian satellite operators.
The research made by Space-4 and Mediatrend results in showing that those operators that ignore negative opinions of their consumers in social networks miss an opportunity of increasing the number of new customers.
The analysis was carried out to feature the impact of social networks on people’s opinion: it can help both to increase the customer base and significantly reduce it.
The obtained information evidences that negative comments about operators and providers encourage the growth of ads on selling subscriber equipment. For example, between early April and May 12 the researchers discovered around 1500 references to the operator Tricolor TV in VKontakte, 49 of which were negative, and over hundred about suspending service consumption.
There were also analyzed positive and negative comments about the five largest satellite TV operators. It’s remarkable that the most of negative opinions concerned the two largest players in the Russian satellite TV market, i.e. Tricolor TV and NTV Plus. The researchers also came to the conclusion that negative comments could be of different origin: Tricolor’s subscribers indicate the poor quality of communications and disappearing TV channels and NTV Plus’s customers complain about the lack of online broadcasts of sports events. But Tricolor TV still gains more negative comments.
Summarising, the researchers resume that the company’s behavior in social networks is a weighty argument in attracting new customers. Notwithstanding the availability or lack of the operator’s official account, users will still express their negative or positive opinion in the network. And just only by identifying and alleviating the negative the company may prove to potential customers that they will not be indifferent for it.
