Skift Take

Rental cars, trains, and taxis are present for their customers on social, but it needs to step up the pace.

In the same way that airlines are using Twitter for customer service, ground transportation companies like Amtrak, Hertz, and Uber have turned to the service to respond to users.

Although its response times are not as quick as the top airlines and hotels that boast 15- to 60-minute response times; 90% of Amtrak, Lyft, Hertz, Uber NYC, and Enterprise’s tweets are replies and its average response time is approximately 150 minutes.

In comparison, Hertz has the second fastest next to Uber NYC. Although the alternative taxi company replies 64% faster than the rental company, Hertz is servicing a lot more tweets on a daily basis, in terms of its reply ratio in the last 60 days.

When looking at its profile description, Hertz is forward about its 24/7 availability and fifteen team members behind the curtain. Its way of personalization is providing a sense of accountability with the list of initials that follow many of its tweets. Uber NYC also does the same, but on a different scale: It provides the first name of one community manager in charge of the area and directs people to a lost and found link.

Lyft and Uber’s businesses are tied to their respective apps and growing network. Its teams deal primarily with technical issues, special offers, and drivers. As localization becomes more mainstream, Uber continues to grow the number of its Twitter accounts for each city it operates in. For Lyft, personalization is more important: The brand includes its unique drivers-to-Twitter lists by helping others visualize themselves in the driver seat.

Amtrak‘s inquiry types are similar to airlines: weather induced delays, changes in booking, and customer issues with Wi-Fi access. Although it started its Twitter account two years after Hertz, its audience is almost three times as large.

Out of the five brands listed below, Enterprise is the only one with a dedicated social customer service Twitter account. Surprisingly, it doesn’t field as many inquiries and it has not been able to respond the quickest. Among the other rental cars, it outperforms Avis, National, and Thrifty on Tweets/Day.

Greyhound bus did not make the list. According to SkiftIQ, the bus company averages three Tweet/Day.

Top Ground Transportation Brands Customer Service Snapshot on Twitter:

Members Since Followers Tweets/Day 60 days Reply Percentage Minutes/Reply
Amtrak Mar 2010 80,046 140 94% 204
Lyft May 2012 57,624 122 90% 188
Hertz Dec 2008 33,931 119 95% 133
Uber NYC Mar 2011 21,306 32 92% 86
Enterprise Nov 2009 15,814 31 90% 150

Source: Skift

Find out more on SkiftIQ

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Tags: amtrak, enterprise, hertz, lyft, skiftiq, social, uber

Photo credit: Hertz's Twitter background and replies. Hertz / Twitter

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