Twitter & Customer Service: Friends With Benefits


October 7, 2016


Are you responding to your customers’ tweets on Twitter? If not, you could be losing out on revenue and loyalty, according to a new Twitter study.


Twitter’s study examined three industries – airlines, quick-service restaurants, and telecoms – and found that brands that were responsive to tweets from customers were more likely to see big benefits beyond just brand loyalty. It also results in:



  • Higher revenue potential: Responsive brands saw increases in revenue potential of 3 percent (airlines), 10 percent (telco), and 20 percent (pizza-delivery brands). In addition, responding to a negative tweet increases your potential revenue by 3x.
  • Higher customer satisfaction: On satisfaction surveys, customers scored responsive brands on Twitter a full point higher (3.66 vs. 2.66).
  • Positive word of mouth: The data showed that when businesses respond to customers via Twitter, those customers were 44 percent more likely to share that experience online and offline.
  • More customer recommendations: Customers were 30 percent more likely to recommend a business after receiving a response via Twitter.

Twitter noted that companies that are able to respond the fastest to consumers will see the greatest revenue impact.


Value of responding to a tweet by response time


Plus, customers will be more willing to buy from that brand in the future.


“When an airline responded to a customer’s Tweet in less than six minutes, the customer was willing to pay almost $ 20 more for that airline in the future,” according to Twitter. “Similarly, in the telco industry, customers are willing to pay $ 17 more per month for a phone plan if they receive a reply within four minutes, but are only willing to pay only $ 3.52 more if they have to wait over 20 minutes.”


Twitter recently added customer-service features to make it easier for businesses to be more responsive to customers, including:



  • A notation indicating whether your Twitter business account provides customer support.
  • The ability to inform users during which hours your company is most responsive on the platform.
  • A larger Direct Message button to encourage people to contact your business when they need help.

Image Credits:
Featured Image: Depositphotos
Article image: Twitter

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