• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, January 14, 2011

A new study by MarketTools revealed that 94% of companies do not yet use social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter to gather customer feedback, despite consumers' growing engagement with these mediums. The study found that the most common ways companies gather customer feedback are email/online surveys (51%), formal phone surveys (28%), and informal phone calls (28%).

Justin Schuster, vice president of enterprise products for MarketTools, Inc., said "... few organizations are equipped to take advantage of social media channels this channel... organizations that... incorporate feedback gathered through social media channels are able to uncover richer insights to help them improve customer satisfaction..."

A growing number of consumers are turning to social media channels to share unsatisfactory customer service experiences. In a recent research report, shared by MarketTools, Forrester found that 16% of customers have vented about negative customer service interactions through social channels, such as online customer reviews, Facebook status updates, or blog posts. Forrester also cites "integrating social media monitoring" as one of the major trends that characterize leading-edge voice of the customer (VOC) programs.

Schuster also notes that "...(companies) need to use this unsolicited feedback to... address the concerns of the individual customer... (and) to uncover insights to help improve business processes that lead to higher overall customer satisfaction... "

The MarketTools study revealed a disparity in the way companies think and the way they act in regards to customer satisfaction. Although 92% of respondents believe that satisfied customers are very important or extremely important to their company's bottom line, only 42% solicit customer feedback on a continuous basis, and 22% solicit feedback only once a year or not at all.

Some additional highlights from the survey include:

• 39% of executives surveyed said that their companies increased focus on customer satisfaction in 2010 versus 2009, with 21% stating that they invested more in customer satisfaction-related products and services in 2010 versus 2009
• Despite the importance given to customer satisfaction, 14% of executives surveyed said their companies don't solicit customer feedback at all
• 46% of the executives surveyed rate their company's performance on customer satisfaction in the top 10% when compared to their peer companies, and 93% rate themselves in the top 50% of peer companies
• Still, 56% of all respondents said their companies do not have, or are not sure if their companies have, a formal voice of the customer (VOC) program
•  Nearly one out of every four executives said that they seldom or never use customer feedback to change a business process

For more information about the study and MarketTools, please visit here.