Commentary

83% of Customers Not Getting Response to Social Media Inquiries

According to the most recent Sprout Social Index, most retailers are turning their backs on a highly captive audience, as people today are failing to receive a prompt response from retail brands on social media 83% of the time, while the lucky few who do hear back have to wait an average of 12 hours.

The problem for the retail industry is twofold, says the report, especially since research shows that people are 7 times more likely to respond to your promotions after you interact with them in some meaningful way.

  • This holiday season, the average retailer can expect more than 1,500 inbound social messages, a nearly 20% jump from the number of messages brands in this industry received last year at this time.
  • Rather than focusing on people’s concerns, retail brands send out 3 times as many promotional messages, (deals, coupons and product merchandising,) as they do helpful responses.

Scott Brandt, CMO of Sprout Social, says “… social media is… a critical communication channel for brands to engage in conversation with their customers during the holidays… The study reveals that more often than not, brands are silent when their customers reach out… an opportunity to positively influence awareness, customer loyalty, positive sentiment and seasonal sales through social media engagement… ”

Based on data from the past five quarters, the study anticipates that this holiday season, most people can expect to be ignored as well. The few lucky people who do manage to get a response will be waiting 12 hours this year vs. 11 hours last year.

Average Response Rate

Quarter

Retailers’ Average Response Rate

Q3 2015

17%

Q2 2015

16%

Q1 2015

20%

Q4 2014

19%

Q3 2014

18%

Source: Sprout Social Index, November 2015

Even outside of the holidays, the retail industry is seeing, on average, 19% more messages than it did a year ago. Incoming messages aren’t the only thing up. And, the amount of messages the retail industry is sending continues to surge: Since Q1 2015, the number of messages sent is up 45%.

Retailers’ Average Sent Message Volume

Quarter

Messages Sent

Q3 2014

148

Q4 2014

177

Q1 2015

164

Q2 2015

253

Q3 2015

361

Source: Sprout Social Index, November 2015

However, the bulk of those messages aren’t in response to the growing number of social inquiries retailers are receiving, says the report. In fact, retailers are now sending about 3 times more promotional messages than replies throughout the year. While about 40% of the messages received by retail brands warrant a response, only 17%, or about 1 in 6, actually gets one.

Retailers’ Average Brand Messages Sent vs. Average Brand Replies

Quarter

Ratio of Posts To Replies

Q3 2014

1.9

Q4 2014

1 .1

Q1 2015

0.9

Q2 2015

2.4

Q3 2015

3.3

Source: Sprout Social Index, November 2015

Social customer care remains of critical importance for brands across industries. However, since the first Sprout Social Index, brands have continued to take a broadcast approach, to what should be a more conversational, social, outlet.

Over the past year alone, there has been a 32% spike in the amount of messages sent from customers to brands, with both Twitter and Facebook increasing at roughly the same rate.

Twitter is the best bet for getting a response, concludes the report. Brands will respond to customer concerns 14% of the time on Twitter, compared to 9% of the time on Facebook. However, brands on Facebook are showing a greater rate of improvement (up 4% from Q3 2014 to Q3 2015), whereas brands on Twitter are falling (down 2% in the same period).

Finally, when brands do respond, it takes longer. The average response time has increased from 11 to 12 hours since the last Index. The top four most responsive industries on social remain unchanged. Utilities, retail, banking/finance and automotive all experienced no change in their responsiveness despite shifts in other industries.

For more information from Sprout, please visit here: http://sproutsocial.com/insights/holiday-social-media-for-retailers/

 

4 comments about "83% of Customers Not Getting Response to Social Media Inquiries".
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  1. Dave Kohl from First In Promotions, November 11, 2015 at 1:56 p.m.

    Glad to see this being reported and discussed. A definite missed opportunity for so many businesses, whether physical locations or online. I'm afraid that because there are no so many ways for people to communicate (vs. only the phone or in person years ago) that too many business people don't feel the need to respond urgently if at all. Personally, I'm one that remembers which companies are not good at responding when it comes to purchase time.

  2. Chuck Lantz from 2007ac.com, 2017ac.com network, November 11, 2015 at 3:10 p.m.

    Having a process in place that provides a quick response to all inquiries, even if the initial response is by a robot, is just common sense. Discovering - via this article - that so many do not have such a process is like learning that the surgeon operating on your brain thinks that the Egyptian pyramids were not gluten-free.

    I've worked on the response side of sports online social media for years, and all of us understood the importance of quick responses, the quicker the better.  The value of a response to a user/client that comes within a few minutes, when the intial query was posted at 3am, user time, is solid gold. Users - obviously - enjoy having their existence validated by another human being online, within a few minutes. 

    The fact that so many online retailers don't understand the value of that sort of immediate interaction is mind-boggling. They need to understand that this sort of omission has the same sort of negative impact on their business as would closing all the check-out stations, or having an un-manned returns counter in a brick & mortar shop.

  3. Paula Lynn from Who Else Unlimited, November 11, 2015 at 3:41 p.m.

    To respond better means hiring and TRAINING, in detail with authorization, more people and that means cost. Because authorization would be needed to resolve an issue, farming it out to cheap $11,000/yr no benefit jobs with no authority to resolve issues is a problem unto itself. Good luck.

  4. Mike Einstein from the Brothers Einstein, November 11, 2015 at 6:05 p.m.

    Sounds a tad anti-social to me.

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