A large number of consumers use Twitter to register their complaints with a brand or a company. So it can be vital for a company to provide customer service and to respond to its customer complaints on Twitter. But how vital is it?
When we surveyed people of various ages, from all locations in the US, we found that around 60% of respondents already had the experience of using Twitter to complain about a product, service, brand, or company in the past, and if they’re complaining about something, 69% of them expected the company that they’re complaining about to read their tweet.
That’s why, companies need to see Twitter as an important platform to address customer issues.
In this post, you will get to know about:
– What proportion of consumers expect the company to read their tweets?
– How do consumer expectations vary across different age groups?
– How do consumers feel about being contacted by the company they complained about?
– How satisfied consumers were with the company’s response on Twitter?
– How do consumer satisfaction levels vary across various age groups?
- Around 60% of respondents already had the experience of using Twitter to register their complaint with a company or a brand.
- Over 69% of respondents expected that brand or that company to read their tweet.
- Over 58% of respondents received a response from that company or that brand.
Of the respondents who received a follow-up from the company or the brand they complained about:
- 82% said that they liked or loved hearing from that company about their tweet.
- Just 10% disliked or hated hearing from that company regarding their tweet.
- 79% were very or somewhat satisfied with the response to their tweet from that company.
- Just 15% were very or somewhat dissatisfied with the response from the company or the brand they complained about.
Of the respondents who didn’t receive a follow-up from the company or the brand they complained about:
- 76% would have liked or loved hearing from that company about their tweet.
- Just 8% would have disliked or hated it if that company had responded to their tweet.
The important thing to note is – nearly 6 out of 10 consumers also got a response to their complaint.
That means, it can be assumed that a good majority of the companies recognize the importance of social media for customer communication and are striving to provide a superior customer service experience through social media. So, if a business wants to keep up with the competition, it must listen to its customers on social media, and failing to do so can negatively impact a brand’s reputation amongst its consumer base.
So, how severely can a bad customer service experience affect a business?
Our US consumer engagement survey revealed that 45% of shoppers ceased a business relationship with a company within one hour of experiencing bad customer service.
Consumers are hostile toward poor customer service and do expect companies to be available to respond across different channels.
While analyzing the data, we found a significant disparity in consumer expectations across various age groups as well.
How do consumer expectations vary across different age groups?
Our survey showed that older consumers harbor more expectations than younger ones.
A large percentage – 75% of consumers aged 45-54 expected the brand (that they complained about on social media) to read their tweet while a smaller percentage – 50% of consumers aged 18-24 expected the same.
A significant proportion – 82% of consumers – liked or loved it when they were contacted by the company or the brand they complained about.
Just 10% of consumers – disliked or hated hearing from that company or that brand, and the remaining 8% said it didn’t matter to them either way.
A large proportion – 76% of consumers would have liked or loved it if the company or the brand (they complained about) had contacted them.
Only 8% of consumers would have disliked or hated hearing from that company, and the remaining 16% said it didn’t matter to them either way.
In simple words, the majority of customers feel happy to receive a response from the company or the brand they complained about on Twitter in the past.
The majority – 79% of consumers felt very or somewhat satisfied with the brand’s response to their tweet.
Just 15% of consumers felt very or somewhat dissatisfied with the response from the brand or the company (they complained about), and the remaining 6% felt neither satisfied nor dissatisfied upon receiving a follow-up from that company.
Even here, we found a notable difference in consumer satisfaction levels across various age groups.
As the respondents’ ages increased, so did their satisfaction levels with the response from the company or the brand that they complained about.
Our survey revealed that older consumers were more likely to be satisfied with the response to their tweet from that company or that brand compared to younger ones.
A large percentage – 88% of respondents – aged 45-54 were very or somewhat satisfied with the response from the company or the brand they shared a grievance about, compared to a smaller percentage – 58% of younger consumers aged 18-24.
On analyzing dissatisfaction levels, we found that a significant proportion – 31% of younger respondents (aged 18-24) were very or somewhat dissatisfied with a follow-up received from that brand or that company while ONLY 9% of older ones (aged 45-54) felt the same.
It’s clear from the above figures that Twitter is a major platform where consumers like to share their opinions about brands and expect those brands to listen to and address their complaints.
Upon receiving a response from the company or the brand (that consumers had complained about), the majority of consumers liked it and also felt satisfied. So, a company should definitely strive to provide customer support on Twitter and other social media platforms where its customers are likely to voice their opinions.
Looking at the various age groups, we found that a larger proportion of older consumers expected a human from the company or the brand they shared a grievance about to read their tweets, and compared to younger consumers, also express higher satisfaction levels upon receiving a response from that company.
The younger audience is definitely harder to please, and while a smaller percentage is expecting a human to read their tweets on social media, a smaller percentage of the younger audience will end up being satisfied with a mere response from that company. So, a company or a brand should definitely consider prioritizing following up its younger customer base.
- 18 – 24 (9.05%)
- 25 – 34 (29.86%)
- 35 – 44 (46.38%)
- 45 – 54 (14.71%)
