Airlines & Telecom Companies Are Best At Facebook Page Customer Service

Companies in the telecom and airline industries are tops when it comes to providing customer service on Facebook. That’s the conclusion of a recent study by the social analytics company Social Bakers.

At the company level, KLM Airlines, T-Mobile and Sony Mobile were the most active brands in responding to customers and prospects on Facebook.

Social Bakers analyzed Facebook brand pages — the ones that allow Facebook users to post — to see what companies respond most often to public posts from regular Facebook users. Between March 1st and May 30th of this year, telecom companies replied to 60.4 percent of user posts and airlines replied to 55 percent. Those are the only two industries studied that responded to more than half of the public posts on their Facebook pages.

The response rates were markedly better for the top brands that Social Bakers studied. KLM Airlines topped the list with more than 2,800 replies and a 94 percent response rate. T-Mobile and Sony Mobile were the only other companies with more than 2,000 replies; Sony’s response rate was much lower than both KLM and T-Mobile, but was still well above the airline industry standard.

Customer service is an important part of social media marketing for businesses of all sizes. Some find it challenging to be active contributors on social media — finding, curating and sharing valuable content — but the simple act of listening can have great value.

There was a study done last year that focused on customer service via Twitter. It involved more than 1,300 U.S. adults that had complained about a company on Twitter, and only 29 percent said they ever get a reply. But of the group that got a reply, more than 83 percent “liked” or “loved” being contacted by a customer service rep.

More recently, Conversocial published data that also speaks to the importance of providing customer service via social media. In its study, 88 percent of consumers said they’re less likely to buy from companies that ignore complaints on Facebook.

For more on the Social Bakers data, see their recently launched Socially Devoted website.