This document discusses how companies should respond to customer complaints on Twitter. It notes that more customers are using Twitter and social media to voice complaints. While less than 1% of complainers initially use Twitter, companies expect a response. The document recommends that companies actively monitor Twitter and respond to complaints. It suggests that responding helps with service recovery and gives the company a second chance. Companies should aim for fairness in their response by being transparent and providing opportunities for customer input as well as apologies to improve the customer experience.
7. Percent of Fortune 100 Global
Companies with…
65%
54%
50%
33%
77%
61%
57%
36%
Twitter Facebook YouTube Blog
2010
2011
8. Twitter Usage
• 13% of on-line
Americans use Twitter
• Approximately 29
million people
9. Twitter Complainers
• Less than 1% of
complainers use Twitter
as their first resort
• More consumers using
social media to
complain
10. Service Recovery
• Actions an organization takes in response to a
service failure (Gronroos, 1988)
• Customers are usually more emotionally
involved in the recovery service
• More often dissatisfied by the failure to
recover than the failure itself.
15. Perceptions of Justice (Fairness)
• Distributive justice: the tangible compensation
received by a customer after a complaint
• Procedural justice: the opportunity for the customer
to present information and express feelings
• Interactive justice: the apology to the customer and
interpersonal interactions
17. Company Sites
• Separate Customer
Service Site
• Complaints visible
• Name & picture of
employee
• Apology
• Timeliness
• Request for DM
• Re-direct
A recent study by Maritz Research,2011 found that most people expect a company to read their tweet.
The chart shows that 71% of companies do not respond. However, these statistics show that when customers were contacted by the company, 83% reported that they “liked” or “loved” it. Approximately 75% of the respondents reported being satisfied by the company’s response
This chart shows that the top 100 companies are using social media, with Twitter being the most prevalent. Obviously, companies see the importance of using Social media and especially Twitter
With almost 29 million people using Twitter, it is obviously a valuable communication tool
More and more consumers are using Twitter to complain. However, less than 1% of customers use Twitter as their first resort. This means that customers turn to Twitter after they have had unsatisfactory experiences either over the phone or in person. Companies need to take this into account when dealing with Twitter complaints.
Twitter is an important service recovery tool! Even when a customer has a bad experience, a company can still turn the situation around. However, customers can be more dissatisfied by poor customer service than by the original problem itself.
With so many alternatives, most customers don’t complain and instead decide to never use the product, service or company again.
A Customer’s satisfaction is dependent on how fairly (justly) they perceive they were treated.
I analyzed several factors of company’s Twitter sites for the above components in judging what kinds of justice the company was trying to appeal to and what strategies they were using to address customer complaints.
For instance, AT&T has a separate customer care site, uses a representative’s picture and includes the name of a representative that will contact the customer. The AT&T representative also offers an apology. These components appeals to a customers sense of interactional justice. Also, the A
Another Example from AT&T. As with the previous example, the AT&T representative is very specific and detailed about who and when the customer will be contacted about their issue. This strategy will most likely appeal to a customer’s sense of procedural justice.
On the other hand, GE includes a name. However, there is no picture of an employee. Also there are no specifics about how the customers should proceed in following up on a complaint. There is also no apology, like in the AT&T example. The customers are clearly upset, yet the response by GE is vague and brief.
In this situation, after complaining about the issues with customer relations, A GE employee instructs the customer to then take another step to e-mail the company. Perhaps procedural and interactional justice could be enhanced by a more direct and assertive approach. Also, the addition of a name and a picture can help with interactional justice.
Bank of America provides pictures and name, which can help with interactional justice. An apology is also used in this example. However, the customer is asked if they have contacted customer service. The customer then further complains about issues with customer service. Perhaps, a Bank of America representative should again have been more assertive in taking charge of the situation. i.e.- I’ll have someone contact you… This would have helped with procedural justice.BoA did use an apology and asked specifically about the problem the customer was having. The show of concern and an apology will probably increase perceived interactional justice.
A company has a choice to keep complaints visible on their Twitter page. Some companies hide complaints altogether. Other companies acknowledge the complaint, but then switch the complaint and response process to a private dm or a phone call. However, in this case with Chevron, the company makes the entire exchange visible. In this example, customers have the opportunity to see and judge the company’s customer service recovery process.