UK Brands Do Not Communicate Effectively Through Twitter

Despite organisations’ continuing to flock to social media in order to communicate directly with their consumers, many UK companies are still finding it hard to communicate effectively and provide adequate customer service through such social channels.

This is particularly obvious with Twitter, which now forms part of the marketing strategies for 76% of UK companies. However, just 39% have mastered the process of addressing customer service queries asked directly through the platform, results from the Eptica Multichannel Customer Experience Study show.

The research, based on analysis of 100 UK companies and their capacity and the speed with which they respond to 10 routine questions online, revealed that organisations are generally quicker at replying to followers’ questions on Twitter than on other channels; companies took an average of 8 hours and 37 minutes to respond to queries on Twitter, however just 39% were answered satisfactorily, Econsultancy said.

Email, on the other hand, proved a better channel for communication, as 41% of queries were answered successfully. Nevertheless the responses were delivered much slower than on Twitter, with the average time needed for a brand to answer consumer queries roughly equating to 2.5 days (61 hours and 39 minutes).

UK companies using their website as the main platform for communication were able to successfully answer 63% of consumer questions, up from 53% last year. The increase could be a result of companies’ growing adoption of web self-service software that allows visitors to secure answers for their inquiries, an option currently offered by 53% of companies.