It can be easy to post something of Facebook, and think you can set it and forget it. This is the way traditional media works. You put up a billboard and then eventually, somehow, people wander to your store. At times, I wish social media worked like this. But if it did, it wouldn’t be very social.
This “set it and forget it” mindset often means that business owners don’t check their Facebook messages. This is a major faux pas. Here’s why.
4 Reasons you Must Respond to your Facebook Messages
1. Buy Signals Often when people are really close to making a purchase, they may need to ask one last question. Questions sent via Facebook message may be their deciding factor on whether or not to buy. If you don’t respond to those messages, you miss those sales.
2. Customer Service Plus, people think it’s rude when you don’t respond. So if you don’t answer their messages, it’s unlikely they’ll choose to buy with you again in the future.
3. Complaints Sometimes, people want to let you know you’ve missed the mark (or one of your employees has) without alerting the whole world. They’re trying to do you a solid. Do them one back by giving them the courtesy of a response and an assurance you’ll adjust things moving forward.
4. Compliments And sometimes people just want to tell you that you (and your employees) are doing a great job. Who wants to miss those messages?
Messages that come in via Facebook message, because they are private, are almost inherently going to be the most important type of communication you receive. Be sure to keep an eye on these important messages to better serve your customers and your business.
Plus, Facebook rates how quickly you respond. Just in case you needed any additional motivation.
I do the marketing for an Irish pub, and therefore we get a lot of late night questions: Are you open? Do you still have such and such on tap? I lost my coat there, can you check for it?
But since I work mostly during the day, those messages often come in late at night while I’m sound asleep. I will answer them when I get up in the morning, but obviously that counts against me on the average time response. Thankfully, Facebook has added an “away” feature so you can at least manage your customer’s expectations. You can even set the away feature to mirror the hours you are closed.
Personally, I think Facebook’s criteria are a little tight for most business owners – but there are certainly industries for which it is even more tough. The away feature is nice but I wonder if they’ve got an auto-responder coming down the pipe for a future release as well.