Now that your business is flourishing on Facebook, you can expect to receive some questions, comments, and even some criticism. The more popular your page, the more of these you can expect to get. Finding out the proper way to handle all of these is of the utmost importance if you want people to view your page as a viable representative of your organization. But how soon do you need to respond? How can you keep up with a high volume of questions or complaints? What do you do if you simply do not know the answer? Do not fret young padawans, I’ll walk you through how the Jedi council handles their social media communications.

In our world of instant gratification, it comes as no surprise that people expect an almost instant response on social media, especially when it comes to customer service inquiries. If done correctly, you can boost your recommendations and sales across the board. A manageable target is to respond within the hour. For most online surfers this is an okay to pretty good response time. They at the very least expect a response that same day; anything longer is a customer service turn off. If you are gunning for excellent, be prepared for a 15 minute or less timer. Facebook even has a badge that your page can proudly wear if you are able to accomplish a 90% response rate under 15 minutes. That is not a lot of time, but there are ways you can help lessen the burden on yourself.

With available response time shrinking, there are some tips you can use to help yourself out. Having a list of already typed out answers for common questions will take away the headache of constantly retyping that the YMCA opens at 5:20 am or that your burgers contain 100% ground beef. If you are a part of a larger company, make sure you have a clearly defined time when you are expected to handle the social media account. This should help spread the load evenly, and allow you some time to sleep. If you do not know the answer, kindly tell the customer you are working on the problem and will let them know as soon as possible. Giving them some sort of time table is also a good idea. If it’s going to take a few days, make sure they are aware of this.

Social media responses are an emerging field of customer service. By responding quickly and effectively, you can help turn first-time customers into a profitable long term relationship. People appreciate being appreciated. So use some of my tips to help you help them. Are there any other tips you employ to help you manage your online inquiries? Let me and the rest of the internet know by leaving a comment below. (Yes the entire internet reads my blog, deal with it) Don’t forget to hit the share button below because gaining knowledge is the first step to wisdom; sharing it is the first step to humanity.