A Little Something For The Effort

I came across a report of a study the other day which falls into the “someone spent money on that??” category.  No, it’s not some misuse of our tax dollars or a replication of Newton’s Laws.  It’s a study by Maritz Research concerning marketers’ use of Twitter.  Or maybe it’s lack of use.  In any event, eMarketer reported on this  and I thought you might enjoy a giggle.  We’re going to be dealing with Twitter but I’m pretty sure you’d get similar results studying Facebook or any other place where brands and consumers connect.

So let’s dive in:

According to customer experience research company Maritz Research, nearly half of consumers who tweeted a complaint directed toward a brand expected the company to respond—or at least to read their tweet. However, only a third of those consumers received a tweeted response from the mentioned brand…consumers are overwhelmingly positive when brands take the time to actually respond to them on Twitter. The Maritz study indicates that 86% of Twitter complainers would have liked or loved to hear from the company regarding their complaints—and out of those who heard back, 75% were satisfied with the company’s response.

In other words, people are not just venting when they shout out into the Twitterverse.  Maybe it’s our modern version of howling at the moon; maybe it’s a digital primal scream.  In either case, consumers are making an effort and expect that when they address your brand directly that you’re listening.  When social media was the purview of a few thousand early adopters, that was probably delusional.  But social media is really the primary way in which many consumers communicate and it’s not just the digital elite.  The top social sites routinely see more eyeballs than most top media networks.  For example, while Twitter will tell you there are 150 million accounts, a study by Business Insider showed a smaller number:

How many such “active” Twitter users are there? Our source’s API data shows that there are 56 million accounts on Twitter following 8 or more accounts. There are only 38 million following 16, and just 12 million following 64.

That’s still a huge number, especially if your target is younger than old farts like me.  Yet there’s an obvious disconnect which might be due to a lack of resources to support the social effort or maybe a lack of understanding.  Either way, it’s not good.

None of this should be a shock.  When a customer speaks, when they make an effort to reach out, they want you to listen and respond.  Think of a significant other across the table – one’s best hope for a happy relationship is to listen and to respond.  As Carl Spackler told the Lama – “hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort…”

As businesses, we should be treating our customers as significant others, which is why I find the study unsurprising.  You?