First, why do you want to increase your social media response times? Don’t you have a strategy to build, content to create, or reports to run? The fact is, the faster that a brand can respond to messages (and tags or mentions) – the more likely a user is to purchase their products or services. We live in an instant gratification society – two-day shipping takes way too long. People want their orders, and their answers, within hours.

Keep Your Current Customers and Followers

You work hard to grow your account and earn loyalty. When your community reaches out to you, they want to talk. They might have a problem, or they may just have a question. If you aren’t ready with an answer, they’re going to start looking at your competitor or fishing for other solutions. Either way, that simply missed opportunity has cost you. Even worse, they end up going to the competition and taking any of the referrals in their network with them. 

89% of consumers have switched to a competitor following a poor customer experience (Harris Interactive).

New Customer Acquisition

On high-traffic channels like Instagram and Facebook, managing your inbox messages has a direct correlation with completing the sale. It might be something easy enough to answer with an FAQ document, or something more customized. Even better than a one-time sale is a loyal brand ambassador. Someone who feels valued and appreciated is more likely to tag you, share your content and engage with your posts. You only get that by making a connection and leaving the user with the resolution that they were looking for, in a timely manner. 

Use Auto-Replies

When you can’t be online, make sure you’re using auto-replies. Avoid something generic like “we’ll get back to you soon.” Be specific.  Make sure your auto-reply conveys your brand voice and also gives your user some additional information. Here are some ideas to include in your auto-replies: 

• A link to a more all-encompassing FAQ document
• If you have a physical location, include your store hours and store location
• Answers to the top 2-3 questions that commonly come through

Also, make sure you include a time frame for response – and stick to that time frame. Time stamps don’t lie, and your user will make the connection that you didn’t meet the standard that you set for yourself. 

Don’t Forget Your Mentions

Sometimes a message isn’t a message. When a user mentions you in a post, they’re either thrilled with you or shouting from the rooftops about how upset they are. Either way, the faster you can respond makes a huge difference in the end result. If you can publicly respond to a post and then move the conversation to DMs, you get the opportunity to show whoever else sees the post exactly how responsive you are. 

Consolidate & Prioritize Your Messages

Smart brands and agencies already use a social media scheduling tool to simplify their workflows and content posting. That means that when that amazing content is online, they’ll then have to jump into each platform to respond to messages and make sure they’re engaging with people who tag them in posts. This is waste of time and it can also lead to two worst-case scenarios – giving the wrong answer to the wrong person or not answering at all. Using a social media inbox tool like the one included in Sked Social’s platform consolidates your messages, allows you to tag other team members so that the user gets the right answer, from the right team members. 

Now that you know how to get the most out of your messages, you can start using these tips right away. Create your content in batches, then schedule your posts with Sked Social. You’ll never miss a post, or a chance to engage with your audience. Sked even gives you performance metrics and analytics to benchmark and track your goals. Try Sked Social free for 7 days and up-level your social media engagement game.