Twitter Users Complaining on Companies Publicly

Frequent Twitter users who have used the social media tool to complain about their customer experience with a company want those companies to be listening to their comments and addressing it as well.

According to a study by Maritz Research, only 1/3 of respondents actually received some type of follow-up after they tweeted their complaint while 83 percent who received a follow up to their tweet said they liked or loved hearing from the company they complained about. Just under 75 percent of those people who received a response were very or somewhat satisfied with the response they received. A little more than 15 percent said they were either very or somewhat dissatisfied with the company’s response.

For the two-thirds of respondents who didn’t receive an answer to their complaint, a similar number, 86 percent, also would have liked or loved to hear from the company. However, a striking 63 percent said they would hate or not like it if the company contacted them about something other than their complaint.

The research reinforced the trend that’s happening now– people are openly complaining about companies to get immediate attention. For companies, however, any support request be it on Twitter, Facebook or other social media tool should be treated with equal attention.