A new study has revealed a shocking disconnect in how businesses are using social media to liaise with customers, respond to feedback and manage complaints.

Almost two in five companies (39 percent) do not track their social media responses at all, and more than half (55 percent) ignore all customer feedback on Twitter and Facebook, largely because they have no process in place to respond.

Satmetrix polled 1,180 executives worldwide about their organisation’s social media practices, and discovered that while all brands showed varying levels of incompetence with their social monitoring habits, business to business (B2B) firms fared worst of all – an eye-opening 69 percent ignored customer feedback on these channels, and 51 percent had no tracking in place whatsoever.

Business to consumer (B2C) brands performed better – 58 percent respond to customer feedback, and almost four out of five (78 percent) actively track responses.

Overall, 60 percent of the businesses surveyed did not have an integrated social media strategy.

“Businesses recognize the need for a social media strategy, however many are challenged in putting an effective strategy in place,” said Richard Owen, CEO at Satmetrix. “While 77 percent of consumers post about products, 67 percent of businesses have no means of measuring what is being said, and less than one in 20 have any insight into the sentiment of what is being said. This is both a huge threat and a massive lost opportunity. Not only are companies running the risk of losing customers by not addressing their issues shared online, but they are also walking past the opportunity to capitalize on positive comments made on the social web.”

(Source: Satmetrix. Head in the sand image via Shutterstock.)