Is 6 minutes too long to wait for a social media reply from a company?

How long do you normally wait for a reply from a company? Do you still email companies or are you becoming a social media messenger instead? Well, according to Facebook 6 minutes is too long to reply.

In this article I am going to look at two things; Is 6 minutes too slow for Facebook and How does this lead to a wider conversation on Social Customer Care . . . enjoy!

Is 6 minutes too slow for Facebook?

On the Facebook page I manage for Heinnie Haynes (https://www.facebook.com/heinniehaynes/) I have seen a significant increase in the number of questions and enquiries that come through social media instead of email (nothing new there). This is something I have also seen and heard is happening with other people and companies. Personally I think this is great, but I’ll save that for later in the article.

The reason for me writing this article is because of this screenshot I took . . .

At the time of writing this, the Facebook Page has a 100% response rate at 6 minutes. This page gets a fair number of messages each day, and I make it my responsibility to respond to every single person as quickly as possible.

I thought that was pretty good. Facebook says otherwise. It seems that 6 minutes by Facebook standards is too slow a response time. If I were able to reply even faster then the page would be shown as a fast responder with a green icon that shows anyone on Facebook that you reply fast.

Obviously, there has to be a cut off somewhere, but a 6 minute response is too slow? Bearing in mind the vast majority of the time I’m not answering simple yes or no questions. I have to go and find information, check databases or speak to someone else in the company. Surely, this is the same for businesses of all shapes and sizes? The answer is rarely one that can be solved in a couple of seconds.

Maybe it is just me being sensitive though, and craving this little green icon? I mean does it really make a difference? Do people really care about this little green thing?

For many I guess not, but for me it is maybe the principle. It’s the thought that me and my company are deemed not worthy of being a fast responder because 6 minutes is a long time to wait for a reply . . .

How does this lead into a wider conversation on Social Customer Care?

With the way the world is moving, and the ever-increasing digitisation of all things that can be made digital, and the everyday use of social media, it is a natural progression for customers to want to speak to companies where they are. Instead of having to leave a page, open Outlook, type and email send, wait for days for a reply then repeating the process again. Customers now expect to talk with brands on places like Twitter in real time.

Time is in short supply remember, in a world where there is great abundance, one of the most precious commodities we have is time, and any time that we can save is a good thing.

Here are some statistics to back this up:

42% expect a response within 60 minutes. (http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-research/42-percent-of-consumers-complaining-in-social-media-expect-60-minute-response-time/)

72% of People Who Complain on Twitter Expect a Response Within an Hour (http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/twitter-response-time-data)

77% of consumers won’t wait more than six hours for an email response.

85% of consumers using Facebook expect an answer within six hours.

64% of consumers using Twitter expect a response within an hour.

(http://www.callcentrehelper.com/social-media-response-time-are-you-fast-enough-5-80576.htm)

I look at those statistics and even though I agree, I think that for most businesses even that level of response can be difficult, especially when you have a business to run. Therefore, I look again at those statistics and I compare them to what Facebook seems to define a ‘quick reply’ as. There is no comparison. A 4 minute reply on a regular basis is lightning quick not just quick, or even very quick.

It seems to me that there is a misunderstanding of what a quick reply is, but also what a good reply is. If you focused hard enough you could get your response time to under the 4 minutes on Facebook, but would you actually be giving meaningful replies to questions? Would you really be able to significantly help your customers? I guess you could if you had simple questions and answers every time, but that is rarely the case.

In the statistics above most customers will give a company a reply in an hour. For me that’s reasonable and appropriate. A company that is focussed on customer service should be able to give a meaningful reply within an hour I believe. If a business cannot at least reply to a customer in that hour and say yes we have received your message and are finding the answer, then I would argue they are not focussed on customer service through social.

Will this post make a difference?

Probably not. If you are reading this then hopefully I have given you some food for thought, perhaps I’ve even made you aware of something you hadn’t previously thought about? Either way though customer social care or customer service in general is ever growing in importance in experience and creating value. But, where do we draw the line in response times?

What do you think? Do you aim to be under the hour mark in replying to customer queries? Do you think that 6 minutes is too long for customers to wait? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

On a side note, my blog is http://social-verification.com/, here you can find out about all things Social Verification, Customer Service Marketing and Social Customer Care. I’d love it if you joined me on there!

(Cover Photo from: http://adigaskell.org/2013/08/17/companies-still-get-social-customer-service-wrong/)

Originally published at social-verification.com on January 15, 2016.