Report: 87% of Facebook Customer Messages Are Ignored

Sure, Facebook is fertile ground for customer inquiries, but a new survey shows that most companies aren’t providing a suitable customer experience. Locowise, a social media analytics and reporting service, studied more than 900 Facebook pages and found that customer service on Facebook is less than adequate.

One of the most disturbing findings was that 87% of all messages going unanswered completely. It wasn’t just stagnant pages either. Of those pages that did respond, they did so selectively – answering only 37% of all posts. The publishing ability is a setting that can be enabled within the Publishing Ability section of the settings page. Of those pages that specifically enabled the publishing ability 65% didn’t respond to any customer posts.

One of the good findings was that when a question was answered, it was done so quickly. Facebook has begun to reward admins with fast responses with badges to hopefully spur fast responses. Of all the pages in the study that responded, 33% of the answers came withing 60 minutes of the post. Another 12% were answered within 1 to 2 hours of posting and 15% were responded to within 2 to 4 hours.

These findings should work well as a reality check for brands. Should you enable or disable the ability for others to publish on your page? If you can provide timely, comprehensive customer service the answer is likely yes. However if you are one of the brands growing the 87% number of unanswered posts you may consider reviewing post or disabling completely.

For the full study & findings, head on over to Locowise.