ICUC<\/a>, an agency that works with brands like Target, Macy’s, and Mastercard.<\/p>\nICUC analyzed nearly three million real brand-to-consumer interactions between January and June of this year and found what it described as a clear formula for getting a fast response.<\/p>\n
It involves a specific social media platform and method.<\/p>\n
Van Zanten said the approach has worked in her own experience.<\/p>\n
“I most recently got a response within 15 minutes and they made it right within the day,” she said.<\/p>\n
ICUC’s analysis compared different ways consumers contact businesses on social media, including publicly tagging a brand, mentioning it in a public post or sending a direct message.<\/p>\n
According to the findings, direct messaging was the most effective method.<\/p>\n
“They are one-to-one, they’re private, they land directly in the inbox of a person or a team monitoring that inbox, and it can’t really get lost,” Van Zanten said.<\/p>\n
Public posts that tag or mention a brand can become buried in social media feeds and tend to generate the slowest responses, according to ICUC.<\/p>\n
The agency said customers who tag or mention a brand can expect to wait about 24 hours for a response, while the median response time for direct messages was two hours and 43 minutes.<\/p>\n
The analysis also examined which social media platforms produce the fastest responses from companies.<\/p>\n
“X was really built for real-time conversations and brands are staffing it that way, so we have dedicated teams watching it live throughout the day,” Van Zanten said.<\/p>\n
ICUC found that X had the fastest median response time at three hours and 30 minutes.<\/p>\n
TikTok and YouTube were the slowest platforms, with median response times of more than 13 hours.<\/p>\n
According to the ICUC analysis, finance and insurance companies were the fastest responders overall, with a median response time of one hour and 44 minutes.<\/p>\n
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