Consumers quick to punish brands failing at social service

Social customer service is gaining momentum and consumers are showing no mercy to those brands lagging behind.

Lithium Technologies surveyed over 500 consumers that have used Twitter to engage with a brand and found over half (53%) who expect a company to respond to their tweet demand that response come in less than an hour – rising to 72% when their tweet is a complaint.

The study showed that when companies don’t meet these expectations, 38% feel even more negative about a brand and 60% said that this would drive them to express their dissatisfaction.

Brands beware, 74% of those surveyed said that they would take to social media to shame brands that didn’t reply, believing that this action will lead to better service. And even those who are initially positive said that they can quickly turn negative if brands fail to respond to their Tweets in a timely manner.

However, those brands getting it right are reaping the rewards not just in terms of marketing but also sales. A third (34%) of consumers said that they would be more likely to buy from a company when they provide in a satisfactory response time, whilst 43% are likely to encourage others to buy their products and 42% willing to praise or recommend the brand through social media.

Lithium President and CEO Rob Tarkoff said “It’s time for brands to wake up and realize that social response is the new real-time marketing. Brands must meet their customers in their venue of choice – Twitter – and a slow or silent response simply isn’t an option. With 57% of consumers unlikely to spend with you again after a negative experience, those could be the most expensive 140 characters a brand ever ignores.”

MyCustomer.com recently shone the spotlight on the hot topic of social customer service, looking at how to build a strategy and the measurement and metrics needed.