Speaking to attendees of the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco this week, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts proclaimed that the company's use of Twitter to reach out to customers (something covered to dizzying if not nauseating lengths over the last year) has entirely changed the company's corporate culture. Led by Frank Eliason, Comcast now has a dozen employees constantly monitoring Twitter, constantly responding to customer complaints and concerns.

Comcast's lead was closely followed by broadband ISPs, and now dozens of carriers ranging from Qwest to Windstream Communications also have employees who monitor the service for complaints. There's really no doubt that Twitter is helping giant corporations put on a more personal face, while often helping customers cut through layers of bureaucratic red tape.

But is it really curing the underlying problems that consumers are complaining about? Somewhat.

Many of Comcast's problems originated from their use of inexpensive subcontracted installers, many of whom frequently found themselves in the news the last few years for all manner of bad behavior. Comcast also grew too quickly over the last few years, and lacked the adequate support infrastructure to handle the load.

Twitter and social network outreach does seem to be helping. Comcast's customer satisfaction score has seen a jump in the American Customer Satisfaction Index rankings, where the carrier traditionally battles with Charter for last place. Last quarter, Comcast increased their score from 54 to 59, which is still lower than most other carriers, but does indicate the first market improvement for the carrier in years.

The ACSI does attribute this spike in satisfaction to Twitter use. "Comcast has apparently benefited by monitoring customer feedback on blogs and via the social networking site Twitter in order to identify disgruntled customers and address customer dissatisfaction on a one-to-one basis," says the organization.

Twitter may help Comcast smooth over annoyed customers on the other end of the equation, but it's not entirely clear that Comcast has really cured what ails its underlying support problems. Twitter doesn't really address incompetent discount installers used to save a buck on in-house techs, or the often maddening layers of red tape support dysfunction that Eliason and his crew skillfully circumnavigate.

Keep an eye on those Comcast satisfaction rankings.