The faster you respond to your customers and followers, the better.

Social media platforms provide the power to connect with your customers in real time, and even though you can give excellent support through contact centers, emails, and chatbots, you still need to be responsive on social media, where most of your customers are.

• 79% of customers expect a response within 24 hours
• 63% of social media complaints are responded to within 24 hours
• Only 32% are happy with the company’s response time

When you ignore the negative comments or complaints, you allow customer dominance. And so, by responding, you maintain the power over the situation and can ease the minds of other easily-influenced shoppers.

Just learn to find the balance between appropriate response and maximum response time.

Read below to better understand how costumers interact with brands on social media platforms – Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

1. Facebook

71% of social media complaints are delivered through Facebook

Companies’ average response time on Facebook is 1 hour 56 minutes. While most customers want a response within 30 minutes – Millennials in particular, only 50% of businesses are meeting this expectation.

Facebook’s page response rate, tells users how responsive a page is with messages. If the average response time is less than five minutes for the past seven days, Facebook will put a badge on the page that reads “Very responsive to messages.” This is a sign to assure customers that they can trust the brand to attend to their queries.

Gen X is the most likely to use Facebook to communicate with brands (63%). Followed by Millennials (60%), Baby Boomers (58%), and Gen Z (47%).

2. Twitter

17% of social media complaints come from Twitter

Faster than Facebook, companies reply on Twitter an average time of 33 minutes and 44 seconds. But have not met the 30 minutes response time frame that customers expect.

Twitter is a very immediate platform. Since it is typically viewed as more informal than Facebook, users expect companies to check tweets and reply as soon as possible. 

According to Khoros’ study, men are more likely to communicate with brands on Twitter than women. 81% have done so, compared to 68% of women. Men also have higher expectations for response time. 27% of men said they expect a response within an hour, even when it’s not a complaint, versus 22% of women.

3. Instagram

While Instagram users are the least likely to communicate with brands (34%), they also tend to have the highest expectations, especially when a complaint is involved, and expects a response within an hour.

It’s worth noting that 42% of Gen Z shoppers use Instagram to communicate with brands, versus only 33% non-Gen Z consumers.

Why Does Social Media Response Time Matter?

The need to respond to social queries is a no-brainer. Nobody wants to purposely ignore customers.

There are bigger implications for increasing your average response time other than providing “good” customer service via social media.

Whether customers are becoming too self-entitled or simply lacks patience, one thing Is certain – when they ask questions, they want answers. Not tomorrow, but right now.