Facebook and Customer Service. Are You Responding Fast Enough?

At the core, Facebook was meant to be a customer service and fan engagement network focused on conversations with both friends and brands. Although the network has since grown in both size and scale, Facebook has been actively working to develop customer-focused features. Most recently, the network has introduced a measurement for response time in the form of a 'response rate' feature, rolling out to brand pages now. With this update, Facebook admins will now be able to boast just how fast they can respond to questions. If the response rate is high, an icon will appear below the brand's cover photo that says "very responsive to messages". To achieve this, the Page must have:

• Responded to 90% of all messages and
• Maintained a median response time of 5 minutes for all replies within a seven-day period

For brands that have not achieved this rate, no icon will appear on the page. It is worth noting that this feature is only available to Pages that have allowed people to contact the brand through messages. With fans and customers expecting quicker, more thoughtful responses, this addition to Facebook means that brands need to pay even closer attention to messages and comments received - attention that will now require a five-minute response time to achieve the coveted "very responsive to messages" mark. For more, read about the Facebook update.