American Airlines is the most responsive of the major North
American airlines on Twitter, while JetBlue responds the fastest, according to
a report by Conversocial, a social media customer engagement platform.
Using its Twitter Tracker, Conversocial analyzed the Twitter
activity from Oct. 5 to Oct. 8 for 10 North American airlines: American, Delta,
Southwest, United, JetBlue, Alaska, Virgin America, Spirit, Air Canada and
WestJet. Among those 10 carriers, the average response rate was 22.4%, while
the average response time was 20 minutes and one second.
American's leading response rate was 32.5%. Delta was next
at 31.3%, followed by Southwest, Virgin America and Spirit with response rates
just under 27%. United, which faced a social media barrage last April after a
passenger was injured and forcibly dragged off a United Express flight, had the
lowest response rate at 14.3% during the study period. Conversely, United had
the most Twitter mentions over those four days at nearly 100 per hour.
In terms of response time, JetBlue was fastest with an
average response of 4 minutes and 50 seconds. Virgin America was close behind,
averaging 4 minutes and 56 seconds. United was once again the lagger, averaging
more than 90 minutes.
Conversocial also analyzed the responsiveness to Twitter
mentions by 10 major airlines from the rest of the world. Overall, those
carriers responded 28.1% of the time, which was more often than the North
American carriers. But they were far slower, taking an average of one hour and 41
minutes when they did respond.
With an answer rate of 50.5%, Etihad was the most responsive
of the airlines outside North America. Lufthansa led the way with an average
response time of 9 minutes and 15 seconds.
Conversocial noted that airlines are increasingly aware of
the importance of social media to customer service. Average responsiveness
among the 20 airlines the company analyzed increased to 25.2% last year from
21% in 2016.
Conversocial also said that direct messaging is growing
rapidly in importance as a customer communication channel. An analysis of three
airlines showed that Facebook Messenger volume more than doubled over six
months and Twitter direct messaging increased by more than 50%.
Messaging "is quickly becoming the default way that
everyone communicates," the report says.