Uncovering customer service experiences with Twitter: the case of airline industry Fotis Misopoulos Business Administration and Economics Department, University of Sheffield International Faculty, CITY College, Thessaloniki, Greece Miljana Mitic Management School, South East European Research Centre, University of Sheffield, Thessaloniki, Greece, and Alexandros Kapoulas and Christos Karapiperis Business Administration and Economics Department, University of Sheffield International Faculty, CITY College, Thessaloniki, Greece Abstract Purpose – In this paper the authors present a study that uses Twitter to identify critical elements of customer service in the airline industry. The goal of the study was to uncover customer opinions about services by monitoring and analyzing public Twitter commentaries. The purpose of this paper is to identify elements of customer service that provide positive experiences to customers as well as to identify service processed and features that require further improvements. Design/methodology/approach – The authors employed the approach of sentiment analysis as part of the netnography study. The authors processed 67,953 publicly shared tweets to identify customer sentiments about services of four airline companies. Sentiment analysis was conducted using the lexicon approach and vector-space model for assessing the polarity of Twitter posts. Findings – By analyzing Twitter posts for their sentiment polarity the authors were able to identify areas of customer service that caused customer satisfaction, dissatisfaction as well as delight. Positive sentiments were linked mostly to online and mobile check-in services, favorable prices, and flight experiences. Negative sentiments revealed problems with usability of companies’ web sites, flight delays and lost luggage. Evidence of delightful experiences was recorded among services provided in airport lounges. Originality/value – Paper demonstrates how sentiment analysis of Twitter feeds can be used in research on customer service experiences, as an alternative to Kano and SERVQUAL models. Keywords Social networks, Customer service, Airlines, Service industries Paper type Research paper 1. Introduction In this paper we present a study that uses social media to identify critical elements in customer service experiences. The goal of the study was to investigate the possibilities that social media platform Twitter offers for identifying, monitoring, and analyzing customer experiences for the purpose of optimizing service performance. The study was conducted under the framework of sentiment analysis. The following section discusses issues in service experience metrics and explains the sentiment analysis approach for assessing customer experiences using information from social media sites. The methodology section explains how this framework was used to analyze the content of Twitter feeds and to assess customers’ sentiments about services. The findings demonstrate the type of information sentiment analysis of Twitter feeds can The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/0025-1747.htm Management Decision Vol. 52 No. 4, 2014 pp. 705-723 r Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0025-1747 DOI 10.1108/MD-03-2012-0235 705 Customer service experiences with Twitter