![\"Social](\"https:\/\/spacebar.in\/contentious\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/time-488112_1920-2.jpg\")
Replying to DMs? Time constraints are always going to be there!<\/p><\/div>\n
Image source: https:\/\/pixabay.com\/en\/time-timer-clock-watch-hour-488112\/<\/a><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Back to the hour. About 50-70% of consumers expect a <\/span>brand to respond within 60 minutes<\/span><\/a>. The percentage varies depending on the study conducted, sample size, geographies, type of consumer message (e.g. a complaint is expected to be responded to quicker than a message asking for information), etc. For larger organizations that invest heavily in social media for business, managing turnaround time isn\u2019t a big deal. They have already invested in customer service functions that simply needed to be expanded to social media platforms. What\u2019s more, large organizations can also easily invest in AI-driven technology such as chatbots to cater to a basic list of queries, much like older IVR technology does on the phone.<\/span><\/p>\n What do you do if you\u2019re a smaller organization and don\u2019t have the appetite to invest in a customer service function for social media? If you\u2019re in the retail or B2C space, I have bad news for you. Your customers want to hear from you ASAP. Unless your target audience is 45+ in age, you are in a very competitive space. Your customers may very easily switch to a brand that replies quickly, because that is an indicator of high service levels. The one hour rule continues to apply to you. Suit up or go bust.<\/span><\/p>\n Brands in the B2B segment can breathe relatively easy. You can take up to one business day to respond, though 4-5 hours will earn you extra brownie points. Anything longer than one business day will result in a loss of potential customers. We made this mistake once. We took one week to respond to a lead on Instagram. The team missed the message, somehow, and it\u2019s no surprise that we could not convert the lead to a customer. As a rule, I\u2019ll suggest that you use an automatic responder or a chatbot for preliminary conversations. According to Accenture, <\/span>80% of customer engagements can be handled by bots<\/span><\/a>, and using this technology comes at quite a realistic price nowadays. The <\/span>Microsoft Azure bot<\/span><\/a>, for example, is priced anywhere between free to Rs. 33 per 1000 messages.<\/span><\/p>\nIf you\u2019re a biggie<\/span><\/h2>\n
If you\u2019re in retail<\/span><\/h2>\n
If you\u2019re in the B2B segment<\/span><\/h2>\n