How quickly do big brands respond to customers on Twitter?

Not so quickly, it turns out. A company tweeted customer service questions and complaints at 14 major companies. Guess which ones respond—and which ones didn’t.

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One recent study found that a mere 29 percent of retailers with Twitter accounts respond to customer questions and complaints.

An experiment by Software Advice on the Customer Service Investigator blog underscores this apparent indifference. The company conducted what it called “The Great Customer Service Race,” in which four people tweeted to 14 major brands over 26 days.

The point of all that tweeting was to gauge how long it took these brands to respond to customer questions and complaints, as well as their overall response rate.

Each company received one tweet a weekday. Tweets sent during the first and third weeks included the @ symbol. For the second and fourth weeks, the company’s name was mention in tweets without the @ symbol.

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