Why Speeding Up Your Social Media Response Time Matters

Whenever a customer or user on the Internet has a pressing concern about your product or service; addressing them as quickly as possible will allow them to put more faith in your brand.

Taking a look at statistics on customer service by The Social Habit, about 42% of customers would like to see a response on social media within 60 minutes. And when zooming into brands like Facebook, 85% of customers expect brands to be responsive within six hours, whereas 64% of Twitter users would like to see an answer in an hour.

So, now that you have a rough idea of why quick social media response time has a massive impact on your brand – it’s time to understand how you can apply this and provide an elevated customer experience!

‍

What’s the average acceptable response time?

Before knowing what makes social media response time so important, one needs to know the average timeframe customers expect an answer.

According to the 2020 Sprout Social Index, about 40% of customers expect a response in the first hour of sending a message or posting a comment, whereas 79% expect brands to respond within 24 hours.

‍

Reasons to start focusing on social media response time

Quick responses are vital to consumers in being drawn to your brand’s reliability, staying loyal to your brand, and even recommending your products or services to others!

Besides, once you’ve nailed your social media response time – you will also start seeing a boost in engagement when it comes to any content you make; such as your corporate or recruitment video.

But other than just providing good customer service, increasing your response time does plenty for your brand, like increasing conversions and sales. A majority of people who contact brands on social media either want help with a purchase, or have a strong interest in the brand.

Now, let’s look at what other reasons are there for you to speed up your response time on social media.

• Most customers depend on social media for assistance: More and more people are joining social media platforms in a bid to interact, purchase, and simply enjoy engaging content. In the wake of COVID-19, many companies have reported increased messages on their social media handles, specifically seeing a 51% increase as seen from data by Intercom.

• Increases brand loyalty: Faster responses lead to increased loyalty to the brand. The consumer will feel that you have their interests at heart, and this will motivate them to continue the journey with you. When personal expectations are met, consumers are more likely to stick to a brand.

• Gives you a competitive advantage: As seen from Sprout Index data once more, 44% of customers argue that they will be more inclined to a brand that replies to them quicker. This means that you can stay above the competition by simply offering quicker responses.

‍

Steps you can take to improve social media response time

Use customer service software

A customer service software comes in handy when you happen to be using a shared access mailbox to manage countless customer service emails.

The software is able to keep every one of your interactions or conservations you’ve had with your customer, in other words, allowing you to thoroughly analyse any issues, pinpoint the features of the products they’re subscribing to or have purchased, letting you have the information to be extra helpful in your response to them.

Use suggested replies and email autoresponders

There are loads of common concerns consumers may have regarding your brand – be it shipping policy or certain features that have brought about confusion.

Hence, as these are all questions coming from similar topics – writing responses manually can be time-consuming. As such, using saved and suggested replies may help a lot in addressing concerns timely yet saving time on your end as well.

‍

Meanwhile, if you’re still sending out emails to update consumers on promotions and news – email autoresponders will equally help in saving tons of time.

Through this implementation, consumers know that their email has gotten through to customer support and they’ll be receiving assistance soon.

This also makes sure to prevent any negative sentiment from popping up due to any unintended neglect towards their queries or concerns whenever you are addressing too many emails at one go.

Prioritise social mentions according to urgency

No social mentions should be ignored, but certainly, some take more importance compared to others and require immediate attention – especially when they’re going to have an impact on your reputation or bottom line.

Not addressing them at once may lead to a potential social media crisis and be damaging for your brand.

As such, with a social media team – ensure you look through all mentions thoroughly and determine which post requires your immediate attention. This can be made possible by compiling all social mentions into an efficient inbox so you wouldn’t have to keep switching between platforms to respond.

Ace your social media response time, and you will see more consumers flocking to your brand! Next up, you can work on your marketing strategy by engaging with one of the animation companies in Singapore like Big 3 Media ourselves to market your products or services in a compelling way.