Brands that respond to customer-service inquiries on Twitter benefit from doing so on several levels, according to a study the social network conducted along with Applied Marketing Science.
Key findings of the study included:

Customers who receive responses when they tweet businesses are willing to spend 3 percent to 20 percent more on average-priced items from those businesses in the future.

Customers who receive responses when they tweet businesses are 44 percent more likely to share those experiences, both online and offline, and 30 percent more likely to recommend those businesses.

Customer satisfaction scores from customers who receive responses when they tweet businesses average one entire point hither, 2.66 compared with 3.66. Quick responses are key: When airlines responded to customers? tweets in less than six minutes, those customers were willing to pay nearly $20 more to fly with that airline on future trips. In the telecommunications industry, customer were willing to pay $17 per month more for phone plans when receiving replies within four minutes, but when that wait exceeds 20 minutes, the will only pay $3.50 more.

69 percent of respondents who posted negative tweets about businesses feel more favorable about those businesses when they receive replies. In the telecommunications industry specifically, conversations sparked by negative tweets resulted in three times more willingness to pay for monthly wireless plans than those that started with positiv...