70% of Companies Ignore Customer Complaints on Twitter

Yes my friends, you read that correctly…

There is a new research report from Maritz and Evolve24 that analyzed 1,298 Twitter complainants and found that roughly 29% of those complaints were responded to by the companies in question. This is an abysmal and appalling revelation considering that social networking and social media platforms are pervasive, ubiquitous, and are the primary modes for consumers / individuals to influence the debate on companies and their associated brands.

As Jay Baer puts it, the reasons why companies do not respond to complaints via social media:

Fear. Companies literally believe (and I hear this exact phrase all the time) that they’d like to get involved but are afraid the conversation will turn negative in social media, and that answering gives greater exposure to complaints. Here’s the deal. If your company sucks, Twitter is the least of your worries. Social media doesn’t create negativity, it puts a magnifying glass to it. Twitter doesn’t make people more upset, it makes them less upset (if you respond) – especially women 35+ who are disproportionately delighted to get a response on Twitter from a brand.

Resources. It’s true that social media doesn’t close at 5pm, and in fact many customers use social media during the night and on weekends, when it may be inconvenient for you to monitor and reply. But your corporate convenience is not the prism through which you should be gazing upon social business. There was a time when grocery stores closed at 10pm, catalog call centers weren’t open on the weekend, and the only companies that had websites were in porn. But the world has changed – not to throw a wrench into your carefully crafted staffing and resource allocation model – but because the needs and desires of your customers have changed.

So to all companies, individuals, brands, public relations, marketing communications, ad agencies, and other firms out there, pay attention to those who are talking directly — or indirectly — to you or your clients on social media platforms. Ignoring the problem only exacerbates the problem, and pretending that people are not talking about you is a recipe for disaster…