Study: 72% Of Consumers Expect Brands To Respond Within An Hour To Complaints Posted On Twitter

A new study from social software provider Lithium reveals 53 percent of consumers expect a brand to respond to a tweet within an hour. That number jumps to 72 percent of consumers expecting a response if the tweet is a complaint about the brand or its products.

Lithium commissioned Millward Brown Digital to conduct the study evaluating consumer expectations when interacting with brands on Twitter. Surveying 501 respondents who claimed they actively engaged with businesses on Twitter, the study found a brand’s response time to tweets can significantly impact the brand’s overall reputation.

When asked how quickly a response is expected from a brand on Twitter, 65 percent of the survey participants said they want a response in two hours time or less, with 20 percent expecting a response in 30 minutes or less. 

The reason behind a tweet can impact the expected response time from the brand, with 72 percent of survey participants claiming they expect a brand to respond to a complaint on Twitter within an hour.

According to the findings, 38 percent of respondents said they felt more negative about a brand if the brand did not respond to a tweet in a timely manner, and 60 percent claimed they were more likely to take a negative action toward brands that did not respond to tweets in an acceptable time period.

The study found brands that respond to tweets in a timely manner garner more favorable reactions from consumers, with 47 percent of respondents more likely to recommend the brand through social media and 34 percent likely to buy more products from the brand.