The number of Interbrand 100 brands with a dedicated customer service handle on Twitter has grown from 23 on December 1, 2012 to 30 on March 1, 2013, according to a report from Simply Measured. But while that’s a positive trend, brands are still missing the mark when it comes to response rates: the average response rate to all customer service mentions during the analyzed 3-month period was 42%, per the study findings, supporting Socialbakers data showing similarly low rates.
What’s more, Simply Measured tracked an average response time of 5.1 hours, with only 1 in 5 dedicated customer service accounts averaging a response within 2 hours.
Looking at the top 10 brands by engagement (mentions with dedicated customer service handles during the 3-month period), Microsoft (#5 – 0.7 hours), American Express (#3 – 1.3 hours) and UPS (#7 – 1.5 hours) were the fastest to respond. BlackBerryHelp, which saw 51,400 incoming mentions over the 3-month period of analysis, was the slowest, averaging a response time of 19.7 hours, significantly higher than its 12.7 average in the previous study.
While the study notes that “customer service demand for these accounts means that they have a large responsibility to customers, but also an opportunity to exceed expectations and benefit the brand,” the brands may not be allocating enough resources to these handles. While demand for the top 10 handles increased by 20% from the previous study, only 3 of those accounts managed to cut their response times from the prior study period.
