The metrics to measure social media customer satisfaction

As a business guy, my primary attention may not the technic sides, but the analytics part, which can help the business decision-making. Social media is a important way for companies to promote their business. I'm really interested in how they use social media and how to analyze it.

These days, I read some articles on social media marketing. Provide excellent customer service is one of the top priorities of a successful business. For example, Zappos, one of the first retailers that uses social media as a customer care channel and sees them continuing to try out different ways to delight their customers. “The lifetime value of customer is a moving target that can increase if we can create more positive emotional associations with our brand", the CEO of Zappos said.

I summarize the main metrics to measure the customer satisfaction from some articles and share with you here.

1. Inbound volume
How many incoming messages you're receiving via social media. This can demonstrate the need for additional resources and/or indicate more customers are choosing to use social as their preferred method.

2. Response volume
The total number of responses that the company has issued or the total number of enquiries dealt with.

3. Keyword brand mentions
The total number of mentions of the brand (including the misspellings) not specifically directed at a company's official social media account. This metrics is most useful when looked at alongside sentiment metrics to identify the nature of comments.

4. Nature of enquiries and mentions by topics
By grouping enquiries and comments into categories, you can spot trends in types of problems and identify common queries that may then be resolved faster in the future via searchable help pages or FAQs. This metric can also help to detect potential reputation management problems.

5. Percentage of enquires responded to
How well the company is responding to its customers via social media.

6. First response time
Response speed.

7. Average response time
How quickly, on average, the team or individual replies to a customer's messages over the course of a specific query.

8. Average handling time
How long, on average, does it take for issues to be resolved compared with other channels like phone or email.

9. Abandonment rate
The number or percentage of queries the customer abandon, without a specific resolution.

10. Deflection rate
The percentage of issues moved to another channel rather than being resolved directly within social.

11. Sentiment
This provides an overall rating of positive versus negative sentiment in relation to the brand. It can be measured on comments addressed directly to company's social accounts, as well as general brand mentions across social.

12. Influencer sentiment
The opinion of your more influential customers is likely to have a greater impact on others. So providing a better service to people deemed to be more influential.

13. Competitor sentiment
In order to provide context, it can be useful to measure your sentiment alongside that of your competitors.

14. Customer satisfaction Index (CSI) or Net Promoter Score
Ultimately, this may be your most important metric. How do your customers feel about you and your brand when you ask them?