Socialbakers reveals disappointing social media customer service response times

Earlier this week I reported on a new study from Conversocial that found over half of U.S. consumers found their social media customer services experiences to be "disappointing" or "mediocre".

New research by Socialbakers found a similar scenario. Despite an "incredible opportunity to expand social engagement", their findings show that:

- Just 30% of social media fans' feedback is responded to;

- Over 25% of companies on Facebook have closed wall on their Page, meaning fans are unable to leave comments or feedback;

- Local businesses are better at responding to social media with 40% responding to consumer queries.

Perhaps more disappointing is the average amount of time it takes for companies to respond - 26 hours. Conversocial's research found that almost 30% of respondents expected a reply within the same business day and the same number expected a reply "within hours".

A similar number (29.7%) expected a response in less than an hour, of which 16.6% wanted a super-fast reply in less than 10 minutes. Companies simply aren't being as attentive as today's social media users demand.

Socialbakers has developed the "Socially Devoted" rankings to allow companies to compare themselves against others. Currently ranked number one, Personal Argentina, a mobile operator in South America, is a truly "Socially Devoted" outfit. The company answers thousands of queries via social media channels with an average response time of just four minutes.

Tags: consumer insight, customer service, social engagement, social media, social strategy