Abstract:

Purpose - The purpose of the research is to identify customer complaints shared through social media, to study the approaches of private health institutions to customer complaints on social media platforms and the ways to manage them. Method - The research data, including the months of 2018 "January, February, March" through the site sikayetvar.com, which is a platform where customer complaints are shared in Turkey, has been established as the first three private health institutions where the most complaints are included. In the investigation of complaints on social media, the method of data collection was used in the document examination and interpretation section as the method of content analysis. The findings - the leading private health institutions in Turkey have found that the customer complaints on social media cannot be perceived differently from the classical customer complaints and that different administrative processes are not yet realized. Discussions - Customers can easily and quickly share their complaints on social media, without feeling under pressure, and thus influence other customers’ healthcare institutions’ choice decisions. Customer complaints shared through social media have been provided to be recognized by private health institutions, so the classical complaint management concept has been revealed by the studies that a different management concept is required. This research is expected to contribute to the senior management of private health institutions and the complaint management units on the effective management of complaints on social media.

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