Social Listening

   

     The brand/Service I choose to use is UPS. The Holiday season is closing up and many people didn't get their packages on time like they wanted/payed for and that is certainly disappointing. As I've been scrolling through various post it looks like a huge majority are negative of how people didn't get the package on time. A theme I'm seeing as well is that many people cant get into contact with their ups customer service centers to help with any disagreements. What interested me choosing UPS is that I'm a employee there and I enjoy the work I do, so I wanted to see what our reputation as whole looks like especially since we just had the holidays I knew there would most likely be a lot of comments on post. 

    If I had to sum up UPS value proposition I would have to say that its "Delivering what matters!" I can't speak for every UPS center, but I've helper as well now helping in the center and I've only ever seen smiles when the UPS brown truck comes by. 

    One thing that is coming up a lot is people aren't getting the packages they wanted on time. I understand this guys frustration people want their stuff as soon as possible especially around Christmas. Everyone has been through if you have had anything go wrong and need to get customer service help you know your in for long day, It appears like this for most companies these days that customer service help has gone down the window. I was hoping to see UPS do better then use a automated responder and give our the valued customer so more feedback. 

    Something else I thought was a bit weird is that people are getting packages stolen supposedly by UPS employees. The thieves are getting good. This happens a lot more recently since people are getting more and more things delivered to them.  In years past what the thieves would do is literally sit behind the UPS truck and follow it along its route, as soon as he dropped off the package they would take it. A new thing I've been herein about from my management is that they are now dressing up like UPS employees and following our trucks out and taking peoples packages. This is very concerning. It damages our reputation while also losing customer trust a double whammy if you will. Along with that you get another customer that didn't get his package on time, now he is venting off his frustration  on Instagram. All that I will add on this is that during "Peak" its extremely busy especially since covid everything gets delivered these days. This surge has made it so packages are now heavier and more frequent. This means mistakes and injuries are going to happen more often. This in turn causes more delays because now they have less people and more work.

    The services, and message that UPS is trying to sell is that they can get out more delivery's  made while still being a family oriented business. They move fast get more packages out to their customers then any other services like Fedex, USPS, and Amazon. One of the most Recent post on UPS's Instagram is #Bringhomethgalaxy where they promote the delivery service alongside a Starwars Decorated UPS truck a good idea to potentially attract a new type of clientele. 

    Many of what UPS is doing relates to marketing. They are trying to tell stories for example this link below tells a story of soccer player that wanted to spend time with his dad. Another short video on Instagram showed a driver tossing a football with some children to help paint a portrait that UPS cares and is trying to deliver what matters! https://www.instagram.com/ups/?hl=en 

It feels like UPS has made an effort to use social media best practices but haven't fully grasped it. They respond on almost all post negative or bad in real time which is good, however its so clearly automated, and this frustrates customers that want a real representative to talk to and all they get is the loop around. Being family oriented is something UPS is really good at. They have short video on their Tik-Tok that showed a dad and daughter duo with it being the first day on the job for the daughter really heartwarming to see. Some departments allowed drivers to dress up as a Grinch or Santa and use that to help spread the holiday spirit. They also use animals in costumes as ups employees that looks cute on their platforms because who can say no that cute face.

   The biggest marketing challenge for UPS is how to engage with your customers. You sell a service not a product like a cookie that you can just give your customers. Having events where you can engage with your customers directly is going to be huge for UPS moving forward. UPS is doing really well doing sponsorship's with Stars wars as they have a huge fan base of loyal customers so its important to keep building up your brand with some of the other big names that aren't in your field of competition. Having a positive reputation is also a challenge for this company. When I was going through the comments its was hard to even find some neutral comments on any post. As a employee I understand UPS gets more sheer volume of packages then any other service for a reason were good at what we do. Proving that to the customers however is something completely different. You need to win them over or at least show that you are having difficulties people usually will understand if you actually let them know what's going on. No one likes being in the dark.

    The Company has shown responses, but it feels lackluster even to me as an employee. I'm not a HR person, but even I can see that I would be angry to if I payed for extra for said service now its 5 days late give me my money back! I think responding was the right move but it needs to be more wholesome. I saw that UPS had response an all the post I looked at, though it was their automated one that portrays to the customer you care, but you only kind of care. That's not a good way to handle it. UPS simply needs to do a better job when it comes to responding to customers complaints/problems.

    

    If I were brand manager I would ask for more help in getting customers in touch with the proper customer supports in their local area. Try to give your customers more step by step instructions to get help would be a big emphasis. You could reach a lot of people trying to get help alleviate that pressure with social media by posting exactly where to go and how to do it. Give customers more updated information as well. If there is a new problem with thefts address it. I would go on my social media platforms let my customers know I would say " We are looking into the matters of possible stealing of packages, as well as imposters dressing up as UPS personal if you see anyone that is not your normal driver please contact your local police." This way you let your customers know you are aware of the problem, your addressing it, and engaging them to help you  keep their stuff safe. The biggest thing I think UPS has going for is it excellent reputation, anything that damages needs to be nipped in the butt immediately. I would keep my customers updated as much as possible it wont solve all the problems, but at least our customers aren't being kept in the dark. 

I learned a lot from this assignment. The importance of utilizing social media more. UPS has been around for a long time. They tend to have family oriented atmosphere. You can see UPS is trying to get more use to the new era of marketing. They tell terrific stories that are very relatable, and a joy to see. In other areas they fall way short like with customer help in real time that is lacking a human component to it making it feel lack luster at best. You compare what UPS is doing to say Crumble Cookies you can see the major differences of how social media is being fully utilized, where UPS is on the right track they have a good following, good website with lots of customer help, they just lack some of the fine tuning and creativeness. I can see what puts a company like Crumble ahead in social media aspects apart from UPS or other companies that don't even have a website or use any social media platforms. 

Tiktok Link- https://www.tiktok.com/@ups?lang=en

Twitter Link-  https://twitter.com/UPS/status/1618610462865719296?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet