When you concentrate on social media customer support, there are in all probability two encounters that come to thoughts: one of the best expertise a model ever offered…and the worst.
Possibly you’re utterly loyal to the airline whose customer support rep discovered you the right flight. Even within the face of worth will increase and flight cancellations, you’ll by no means ebook with one other airline once more. That’s the ability of buyer care: turning an awesome customer support expertise into lifelong loyalty.
However, you’ve stayed livid on the furnishings firm that delivered the incorrect gadgets to your house and refused to refund you. Even after 5 years, your model boycott persists..
These contrasting experiences depart a long-lasting impression, even when most interactions with the model had been common. Responsive customer support is usually a main differentiator: The 2025 Sprout Social Index™ discovered that 73% of social customers will purchase from a competitor if a model doesn’t reply on social.
Manufacturers that go above and past for patrons obtain enviable model loyalty. On this article, we’re breaking down important metrics to trace so you’ll be able to ship distinctive customer support and care. Your customer support strategy is extra reactive, masking the fundamentals and serving to clients once they want it. Buyer care dials this up a notch—being proactive and personalizing your strategy to particular buyer conditions. You want a complete set of metrics to grasp and enhance each.
As customer support inquiries proceed to extend on social networks, monitoring and tremendous tuning your efforts will assist you to future-proof your corporation and stand out out of your competitors.
What are social media customer support metrics?
Social media customer support metrics are information factors that assist you to inform the story of how properly your customer support and care efforts are satisfying your clients. These metrics uncover what your social buyer care group is doing properly, the place there are alternatives to enhance and what instruments are wanted to fill these gaps. Social customer support metrics might be grouped into three classes: pace and effectivity, quantity and group productiveness and sentiment.
Social customer support information additionally reveals how your service and care methods on social suits into the omnichannel buyer expertise your model supplies. Utilizing information empowers you to reply questions like:
The place are our clients most definitely to make service inquiries?
How happy are our clients with the help we offer on social? How does it examine to different channels?
What are our clients’ commonest questions?
The place within the funnel are our clients most definitely to get caught?
The best way to use customer support metrics to enhance efficiency
Tapping into customer support metrics will assist evolve your strategy to buyer care. With these insights, you’ll be higher outfitted to domesticate an emotional connection together with your viewers, construct model loyalty and foster buyer retention and advocacy.
However the usage of these metrics goes past bettering buyer satisfaction and expertise. Social media customer support metrics have the ability to remodel the way in which you do enterprise—from refining product improvement to bettering your group’s effectivity.
Papa Johns, for instance, manages 600+ customer support instances every week. Utilizing Sprout Social’s Good Inbox, Papa Johns consolidated a number of communication channels into one house. This permits the group to raised monitor particular person instances and reply quicker. This has saved 2 days value of labor per week for the Papa Johns group—830 hours a yr. Due to streamlined workflows and the time saved, the corporate has seen enhancements in buyer satisfaction scores. To see how options like Sprout’s Good Inbox can strengthen your personal customer support methods, take a look at a free 30 day trial of Sprout Social.
Papa Johns shouldn’t be alone in making use of social information to buyer care methods. 2025 Index information reveals over half of selling leaders use social interactions as a KPI to gauge success.
Let’s get into the highest social customer support metrics you have to monitor, and how one can observe them with Sprout Social.
Common first reply time
Common first reply time (or first response time) refers back to the time it takes on your group to ship out the primary reply to an inbound buyer message inside enterprise hours.
The best way to calculate common first reply time
You’ll want two items of knowledge to calculate your group’s common first response time: the time taken to reply to open and reply to a buyer’s request throughout a set interval, and the whole variety of responses despatched throughout that interval.
You need to use the next formulation to calculate based mostly on seconds or minutes. For instance, in case your platform tracks interactions in minutes, you’ll be able to add all of the response instances collectively in an hour lengthy interval to get a complete variety of minutes for all instances.
Sum of First Response Instances / Complete Variety of Circumstances = Common First Response Time
Sprout Social makes this even simpler with a built-in chart within the Inbox Exercise Report known as “Time to Motion.” This reveals you your common first reply time for every day of the week. Sprout used our personal platform to enhance our customer support technique, and this metric performed a key position. Along with the heatmap of incoming messages within the report, we had been in a position to perceive tips on how to regulate our strategy to raised meet our clients the place they’re. Based mostly on the info, we recognized particular, educated help group members working in a single day hours who might deal with buyer inquiries throughout surges.
Why common first reply time issues
Even when points require a number of interactions to resolve, clients need a fast response. Three-quarters of the respondents in our 2025 Sprout Social Index anticipate manufacturers to get again to them in 24 hours or much less. It’s essential on your clients to really feel rapidly acknowledged and seen, irrespective of the explanation for his or her outreach.
Common reply wait time
Measuring the time to your first response is only the start. Common reply wait time reveals how lengthy clients wait in between responses till their points are resolved, which is equally essential.
The best way to calculate common reply wait time
This metric is one other easy common. For instance, if it took 5 minutes so that you can reply to a buyer’s first message, and 10 minutes to answer to their second, the typical reply wait time for this explicit buyer can be seven and a half minutes.
To calculate the typical wait time for all buyer messages in a set time interval, add all of the wait instances collectively and divide by the whole variety of inquiries in that interval. You need to use the beneath formulation:
Sum of Complete Wait Instances / Complete Variety of Circumstances = Common Reply Wait Time
Why common reply wait time issues
The goodwill constructed from a quick preliminary response can rapidly be diminished in case your group’s observe ups drag out. A lot of social media occurs at a breakneck tempo, and clients anticipate your model’s customer support to maintain up. Even when it’s simply to notice that you just’re nonetheless engaged on an answer, make sure you maintain your clients up to date.
Service degree settlement adherence
A social media service degree settlement (SLA) outlines phrases of service, obligations and expectations between an organization, its social group and their shoppers concerning high quality of service.
Departments throughout the identical group can even have SLAs. Whatever the events concerned, SLAs set up commitments and pointers for requirements, protocols and key efficiency indicators. Tips will differ by firm, however social media SLAs can embrace response time pointers, situation decision protocols and a disaster communication plan.
The best way to calculate SLA adherence
SLA adherence refers back to the share of buyer queries resolved throughout the agreed-upon time-frame specified within the SLA. For instance, let’s say an SLA units a objective of responding to inbound inquiries inside three hours or much less. If the corporate responds inside that timeframe for each inquiry, the SLA adherence can be 100%. Merely subtract the whole variety of inquiries that didn’t meet the SLA objective from the whole inquiries for a set time interval to get your share.
Why SLA adherence issues
SLA pointers exist for a very good purpose—they function a barometer of the well being of your social media customer support group and technique. Adhering to SLAs can be essential to sustaining intra-departmental partnerships and shopper relationships by doing what you collaboratively agreed to do.
Buyer abandonment price
This can be a social customer support metric the place you wish to see a low quantity. Buyer abandonment price refers back to the share of consumers who abandon their help requests earlier than receiving a decision.
The best way to calculate buyer abandonment price
Select a set time interval, and tabulate your complete deserted buyer inquiries. From there, divide this quantity by the whole variety of inquiries from that point interval, after which multiply by 100 to get a share.
For instance, when you had 5 deserted buyer inquiries in a single hour and had 20 complete interactions in that hour, your abandonment price is 25%.
Why buyer abandonment price issues
Excessive abandonment price can point out poor buyer help, resulting in unhappy clients and misplaced enterprise. Monitoring customer support metrics like abandonment price will help you determine areas to enhance.
Complete acquired messages
The variety of complete acquired messages signifies what number of complete buyer messages landed in your inbox. This may be for a set interval on a single social channel or throughout all of your social customer support platforms.
The best way to calculate complete acquired messages
This one is simple arithmetic: simply add collectively all of the messages your customer support group acquired within the time interval you’re excited about (whether or not an hour, a day or month).
Why complete acquired messages issues
The variety of messages your social customer support group receives in a given interval can reveal insights about your broader social media technique. When you discover a spike in messages in a sure time interval, think about what occasions could also be contributing. A product launch could have been occurring or a brand new social advert marketing campaign might have rolled out. The response quantity will help you perceive clients’ response to those occasions.
The quantity of incoming inquiries may also be affected by world occasions or clients’ social media posts about your model (which is the place social listening instruments come in useful). Moreover, you’ll be able to observe complete replies or response quantity alongside this metric so as to add extra context to the work your customer support group is doing.
Response price
Response price is the speed that manufacturers reply to messages or feedback they obtain every day. Not each single remark or message will want a response, and the quantity you have to reply is dependent upon the wants of your clients. Social media response charges differ by trade.
The best way to calculate response price
For the time interval you’re excited about, add collectively the shopper feedback, messages or each that your group responded to by the whole variety of messages acquired. A number of by 100, and also you’ll have your share.
Why response price issues
Although not each message requires a response, you’ll wish to ensure your customer support group is responding to all those that do. Sprout used this metric for our personal customer support strategy and uncovered methods for our social group and customer support group to raised collaborate and enhance response price and deal with instances.
Decision price
For these messages that do name for a response, your objective is usually to achieve a optimistic conclusion. Decision price—the share of buyer inquiries which can be absolutely resolved—reveals how outfitted your complete firm is to handle buyer inquiries.
The best way to calculate decision price
This metric is calculated by dividing the variety of complete actioned messages or accomplished interactions by the whole variety of messages.
Why decision price issues
Your decision price illustrates how properly your inner groups collaborate to search out options for patrons in a well timed method. Prospects reaching out on social media need their issues solved, and this metric reveals how properly your customer support group meets these expectations.
Common dealing with time
Common dealing with time (AHT) refers back to the common time it takes for a customer support consultant to deal with a buyer inquiry from begin to end. This could contain a single interplay or span a number of messages over an prolonged interval, relying on the complexity of the problem.
The best way to calculate AHT
To start out, you’ll want so as to add collectively all time spent working by means of buyer interactions and responding to messages in your chosen time interval. This could embrace precise time responding in addition to work performed in between responses to resolve the problem. From there, divide that quantity by the whole variety of customer support interactions to get your AHT.
Why AHT issues
Calculating AHT will help groups guarantee inquiries are addressed and resolved in a well timed method. It will probably additionally illuminate alternatives to streamline case administration workflows and determine which help situations require extra consideration.
Buyer Satisfaction Rating (CSAT)
A buyer satisfaction rating (CSAT) measures satisfaction with an organization’s product, service or interplay on social media platforms. CSAT is measured individually by means of surveys with questions like “How happy are you together with your expertise immediately?” and “How would you price our product/service?” CSAT information is gathered through surveys sometimes despatched quickly after an interplay is full.
The best way to calculate CSAT
When you’ve collected a strong quantity of CSAT surveys, you divide the whole variety of optimistic scores (these within the 8-10 vary) by the whole variety of clients you surveyed after which multiply by 100. Right here’s a helpful formulation:
Why CSAT issues
CSAT is a strong buyer help metric as a result of it permits companies to gauge buyer satisfaction whereas gathering actionable information to additional enhance the shopper expertise. Moreover, you may also think about CSAT vs. workload. This metric refers back to the comparability of buyer satisfaction scores with the general workload of the customer support group.
Buyer effort rating (CES)
Buyer effort scores present you ways a lot effort clients really feel they needed to expend to be able to get their request solved or a query answered.
The best way to measure CES
CES might be simply added to your CSAT surveys. Pose a query like “How a lot effort was concerned so that you can get this request resolved?” and provide a scale for responses. The upper the quantity within the response, the extra effort the shopper felt was required. You possibly can then add these responses up and divide by the whole variety of responses to get a mean CES.
Why CES issues
Ideally, your clients ought to really feel like they don’t have to put in a ton of effort to get their questions answered. Low CES scores can level to extra happy clients general.
Optimistic, impartial and detrimental sentiment
By way of sentiment evaluation, you’ll be able to study rather a lot about what your clients take into consideration your model, services. General, sentiment might be described as typically optimistic, impartial or detrimental.
The best way to calculate sentiment
To get a real image of buyer sentiment, think about customer support messages, social media feedback, buyer posts about your model and extra. Whilst you might use a handbook qualitative strategy to categorize messages as optimistic, impartial or detrimental, AI-enhanced sentiment evaluation instruments will prevent main effort and time.
These instruments calculate sentiment based mostly on quite a lot of strategies. For instance, Sprout Social makes use of a Deep Neural Community (DNN). When Sprout’s DNN critiques a block of textual content to guage for sentiment, it supplies a likelihood rating that the textual content is optimistic, detrimental or impartial. Sprout then selects the label with the very best likelihood.
Why sentiment issues
Though that doesn’t embody the total context of a buyer’s expertise or opinion, monitoring sentiment tendencies helps you observe and preserve a wholesome ratio of optimistic sentiment. Be looking out for adjustments over time.
Most used fast replies
When you use a chatbot to optimize buyer interactions on social, most used fast replies confer with essentially the most generally chosen choices.
The best way to calculate most used fast replies
In lots of instances, the AI-customer service platform you’re utilizing can maintain observe of fast reply utilization and share stats with you.
Why fast replies matter
Use this information level to determine buyer help tendencies, and optimize your customer support course of to handle these widespread requests rapidly. This metric can even spotlight buyer points that could be occurring extra ceaselessly.
Most acquired subjects and subtopics
The key phrases or themes that pop up in your inbox typically are your most acquired subjects and subtopics. Phrases, phrases and themes that your clients are utilizing of their social customer support interactions with you all fall into this bucket.
The best way to calculate most acquired subjects and subtopics
Monitoring these subjects and subtopics is difficult with out the usage of a tagging system or machine studying capabilities—nevertheless, tuning into them is crucial for studying about your viewers. A complete social media administration software may have AI-powered instruments that will help you observe this metric.
Why most acquired subjects and subtopics matter
This metric might be the canary within the coal mine for a brewing disaster; a difficulty showing in your inbox with rising frequency can present one thing coming down the road you is probably not conscious of but. Alternatively, most acquired subjects can even spotlight what clients love about your model and services or products they wish to see sooner or later.
Voice of the shopper (VoC) information
Social media could possibly be described because the world’s largest focus group. It unlocks an unprecedented quantity of voice of the shopper information, which helps you get to know your clients’ habits, ache factors, preferences and wishes on a deeper degree.
This customer support metric is much less quantifiable, however nonetheless wealthy in worth. VoC information turns into much more precious when you’ll be able to pair social information with information out of your CRM for a full 360 buyer view—like with the Sprout and Salesforce Service Cloud integration.
The best way to calculate VoC
VoC can mix a variety of totally different metrics and qualitative info. Along with your CSAT scores, you need to use Internet Promoter Rating (NPS). Right here, you’ll categorize posts out of your sentiment evaluation into promoters and detractors. Subtract your detractors out of your promoters to get a share on your NPS rating.
Why VoC issues
VoC information helps you see broad, ongoing tendencies within the methods your clients expertise your model. Most manufacturers intention to create glad clients by means of their services, and VoC information can uncover whether or not your model is succeeding or not.
Monitoring social customer support metrics in Sprout
Sprout Social presents a variety of methods to combine the above customer support metrics into your technique. Whenever you obtain incoming messages in Sprout’s Good Inbox, you’ll be able to add tags that point out the content material of the messages. For instance, you’ll be able to tag for viewers kind or service situation. Tagging your messages helps you visualize tendencies in your customer support reviews.
Sprout customers on the Superior Plan can faucet into AI-powered sentiment within the Good Inbox and Opinions Feed. Posts will routinely be assigned a optimistic, impartial, detrimental or unclassified worth, making it seamless to isolate messages and even assign Automated Guidelines in keeping with sentiment.
You need to use Sprout’s AI-powered Listening instruments to uncover sentiment tendencies from the Inbox. Listening instruments make it simple to trace adjustments in sentiment, which empower you to share reviews in a well timed method—and act on detrimental sentiment earlier than it’s too late.
You can too bolster your Listening queries with our Queries by AI Help characteristic, which makes use of OpenAI’s GPT mannequin to serve up an enormous vary of recommended phrases to incorporate in your monitoring.
For CSAT scores, you’ll be able to configure automated, personalized surveys for X (previously often known as Twitter), Instagram and Fb. You possibly can construct these by visiting the Buyer Suggestions part in Settings and selecting Allow Suggestions.
From there, you may make picks based mostly on the channel and select to automate these surveys based mostly on the scenario. Then view and analyze your leads to the Buyer Suggestions Report.
Sprout lets you assign particular person messages in your Good Inbox as Circumstances. Case Administration in Sprout helps guarantee one of the best help group member is assigned to a buyer’s inquiry (Case), present better visibility into how a buyer’s situation is solved and enhance perception into how your help group is doing general.
There are two customer support instances reviews inside Sprout: the Case Administration Report and the Case Workforce Exercise Report. The Case Administration Report helps you handle the effectivity and high quality of your customer support efforts. On this report, you’ll be able to observe metrics like common first response time, AHT and common reply time on your full social customer support program.
Detailed sections of the report break down case quantity and case effectivity, supplying you with an understanding of the workload your customer support group is dealing with, how properly they’re doing it and the way buyer providers instances are being managed general.
The Case Workforce Exercise Report goes a step additional to focus on how particular person customer support group members are excelling, and the place they might want teaching or help. Right here you’ll be able to observe instances assigned and particular person workloads, case completion price and particular person variations of metrics like AHT and common first reply.
Collectively, these reviews present each a micro and macro evaluation of your social media customer support group’s efforts.
Present your clients with an unforgettable social customer support expertise
Whether or not you’re a part of a social media group dealing with social help or a buyer care skilled on a devoted help group, floor your self in your objectives for customer support.
Then, as you measure efficiency and social media customer support metrics, you’ll be able to regulate and higher cater to your clients.
Attempt Sprout Social free for 30 days to begin gathering these insights and get to know your clients on a deeper degree.
