giveaways, among other items. A poorly designed social media portal can sometimes be the difference between patronage and spending one's money elsewhere in the same way that a poor interaction with a customer service representative can turn an individual away from a company. Because many sport fans cannot directly interact with their favorite sports team and their personnel, these portals are typically the best way to gather important information in a one-stop-shop setting. What basic information and news do you think should be communicated on these organizational platforms in order to satisfy a customer looking for information or interaction? Would you consider responses from the organization's social media platforms to be equal to a face-to-face response? How might these two types of responses be the same or different? Before you begin, take some time to analyze the social media portals of the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball and the Gateway Grizzlies of the independent Frontier League. While exploring these social media portals, take special note of elements attributable to the core product and the peripheral product. What are the pros and cons of each portal? Does one seem better maintained than the other (more staff, better content, more resources), or are they relatively equal? Assuming that the portals are your only way to engage with the team, what are some elements contained within the portals to give you a realistic understanding of what you will encounter once you arrive at the respective stadiums? Do the portals offer the ability to communicate with a customer service representative? If so, which platform(s) are the most effective for customer-service interaction? Once you have taken some time to arrange your notes, refer to the information regarding the SEQSS (game quality, augmented services, interaction quality, outcome quality, and physical environment quality). How well do the two highlighted social media platforms measure up to the SEQSS? Are any elements of the measurement tool difficult to assess based on the remote nature of the organizational portals? Does there need to be a specific tool to help measure the customer service efforts of sport organizations? How would you revise the SEQSS to better assess sport websites for their customer service qualities? Once you have analyzed the websites with the SEQSS, answer the following questions: 1What recommendations would you deliver to the Cardinals and Grizzlies to help improve their social media customer service? 2. Should teams even worry about how complete (or incomplete) their social media portals are? 3. Upon making your recommendations, how would you convince these teams (the "so-what?!" factor) that social media customer service is integral to their business operations?