The Importance of Speeding up Your Social Media Response Time

Often times, brands don’t take into account the importance of responding to potential and existing customers is on social media. People will ask questions, express their concerns, or comment on something pertaining to a brand, and they expect to receive a response in a reasonable amount of time. Whether this be by responding to public comments, answering direct messages, or operating support services from a live chat box, customers’ overall satisfaction increases when they are responded to in a timely manner.

Having a quick response time is an important factor in social media community management. With nearly 249.7 million active users on social media in the United States alone, online communication plays a huge rule with how consumers engage with brands. That number is expected to increase to 257.4 million by the year 2023, which makes social media response time even more crucial when it comes to keeping customers satisfied in a competitive market.

What Consumers Expect from Brands

Consumers typically have high expectations for the brands they choose to interact with. How quickly a brand responds to the consumer can sometimes make all the difference when it comes to customer loyalty. When reaching out to a brand on social media, 79% of consumers expect a response in the first 24 hours. On top of that, 40% of those consumers expect a response within 1 hour. The expectations consumers have for businesses to engage with them is clearly high and responding to a customer’s interaction can make all the difference.

How to Speed up Responses

In a competitive market, brands responding to customers at their own convenience simply will not cut it anymore. A customer can easily move on to the next brand in the industry if their attempt at an interaction goes unanswered for longer than they are willing to wait. There are a few ways to speed up response times and create successful social media community management.

Constant Social Media Monitoring

The best way to ensure a quick response time is to always be available online for customers to reach out. Bright Age ensures a 24/7 Customer Care system to make sure every customer gets their questions, comments, or concerns responded to as quickly as possible. Every customer gets a personalized response in a timely manner that is constructed to satisfy the customer and build the brands reputation. A constant social media monitoring strategy is the key to ensuring no customer gets ignored.

Being Available Across a Variety of Platforms

Every customer is a unique and valuable individual, and many prefer to engage with brands across varying platforms. If a company consistently monitored their social media in only one online location, it is possible that many customer responses would go unanswered which would negatively impact the brand’s reputation. Not responding to customers in a timely manner, or at all, shows that the brand does not care enough about their customers to make their concerns a top priority. A brand with excellent social media community management will be responding to customers on not only all platforms the brand is on, but also via email, phone calls, and possibly live chat boxes. This gives customers the ability to choose which way to reach out is the most convenient for them and ensures that customer loyalty is highly valued by that brand.

Responding to Negative Comments

It is incredibly important to have a quick response to negative comments because it shows that the customer’s experience is a top priority for the brand. GoodRx responded appropriately to a customer’s comment on a Facebook post who had an unpleasant experience with GoodRx.

GoodRx’s quick and apologetic response ensured that the customer is well respected and valued by the brand. Although the customer had an unpleasant experience, GoodRx maintained its brand reputation with this customer by showing their support.

A brand’s social media response time shows a customer how much they are cared for. Brands with the quickest response time have greater customer loyalty and better brand reputation. Bright Age ensures efficient social media community management to set brands up with an excellent customer service system to maintain customer loyalty and satisfaction.