Conversation and commiseration, not to mention cases that are famous for having gone viral on social media, give the impression that complaining about bad customer service on Twitter is the way to go. The responses are quicker, and so is the problem-solving from the companies that do respond. Bad news is a virus that travels and attacks fast and companies wouldn’t want to risk their reputations for being unresponsive. Or so you would think. And you would be right, to some extent. But there is research to prove that it’s not all that much better.

cat.a.lyst spoke to some companies too to find out why Twitter seems to work. They claimed to give equal importance to all channels the complaints came through. Anirudh Dhoot, Director, Videocon, says that when companies tweet “in a human voice and in a meaningful way”, they can establish relationships that are much stronger than those developed on any other platforms.

“Twitter gives consumers the option to talk not just to the brands but to the senior management as well, giving the feedback a higher visibility and accuracy.” Hashtags and brand mentions help firms track the commotion and act upon it as well as respond, he adds.

Name and shame

Anil K Nair, CEO & Managing Partner, Digital L&K Saatchi & Saatchi, says that Twitter, thanks to its easy accessibility and hashtag-driven data organisation protocol, gives the harried consumer the biggest weapon of them all – public humiliation, which they hope will help resolve their problem and rouse the brand from its apathy.

“Social media has made the way customers reach us more transparent and democratic. It is no longer 1:1 conversation but is open to everyone. It has put marketers in a situation where we have to be more vigilant and responsive, on our toes.” Public shaming is the concern but “while it’s forcing us to be more responsive, it’s also earning us accolades when we resolve it soon,” says Harneet Singh Rajpal, VP - Marketing, Domino's Pizza India,

Though Twitter adoption in India is still low as compared to Facebook because of the audience they cater to, says Vishrut Chalsani, Co-founder & VP - Enterprise Solutions, Akosha, a firm that helps brands to track and reply to customer feedback online. The impact of posting a complaint on Twitter is higher as it is out there for the whole world to see. Internet-savvy customers typically in the 25-35 age group are taking advantage of this. “As per the trend that we have witnessed, around 30-60 per cent of online brand mentions are on Twitter. This varies from sector to sector and the trend is higher in the e-commerce sector.”

Brands can use the customer’s experience as an opportunity to sell themselves but customers would rather see responsiveness as a sign of a good brand: “Don’t try to use a Twitter complaint and its resolution as an opportunity to sell. Would they bother to help if I email or phone in?” wonders Vijaya Hari. It’s only fair that all modes of complaining get equal treatment.

Slow to act

A 2011 poll of 1,298 US consumers conducted by Maritz Research and evolve24 found that only one-third of them got some form of response after complaining on Twitter. Nearly 75 per cent of these consumers said they were satisfied with it. However, 63 per cent of the respondents said they would not have liked it if the company contacted them about something other than their complaint.

A 2015 study of 40 leading retailers by the UK-based Eptica for its Multichannel Customer Experience Study found that only 55 per cent of questions asked via email, Twitter and the Web were answered. The rest were ignored or the responses sent did not answer the questions. Despite the brands investing in email and Twitter response mechanisms, questions went unanswered and response times lengthened, the firm said, adding, however, that the results differed depending on sectors and brands.

Email performance deteriorated between 2014 and 2015. While 98 per cent of retailers provided an e-mail ID, only 73 per cent answered messages sent to them.

The speed of response slowed by over eight hours to 43 hours 52 minutes. Eighty-eight per cent of retailers were on Twitter (up from 83 per cent in 2014) but only 43 per cent successfully responded to a tweet. That means that 57 per cent of companies are not able to provide an answer on Twitter – showing that insufficient resources have been put in place to cope with the growing demands of the channel. All retailers that responded on Twitter successfully answered the question, a major difference compared to email. Eptica found that the Web remains the most successful channel for digital customer service, with retailers providing answers to 65 per cent of questions, up per cent since 2014.

Be it the more evolved West or India, customer service is a challenge. Nair of Digital L&K Saatchi & Saatchi says most legacy Indian companies are still grappling with the customer service conundrum.

They do not have a comprehensive CRM solution that seamlessly straddles multiple touch points. Both width and depth of solution are an issue.

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