How fast should a business reply to comments and messages?

Answer direct messages the same business day, ideally within a few hours, and comments within a day. That is the short version. The outer limit customers draw is 24 hours: in Sprout Social's 2025 survey, 73% of consumers said they expect a response on social media within 24 hours or sooner. Below is a reply clock for each kind of message, what to do with a negative comment, and a routine that keeps you inside those times without living in the app.

What customers expect, and what it costs to miss

Two numbers from the 2025 Sprout Social Index, a yearly survey by the social media software company Sprout Social:

• 73% of consumers expect a brand to respond on social media within 24 hours or sooner.
• 73% of social media users agree that if a brand does not respond to them on social, they will buy from a competitor.

The survey asks about brands in general, not about local businesses. But the logic is even sharper for a small one. Someone who messages a big chain about a late order will wait. Someone who messages three local plumbers about a leak is likely to book the first one who answers.

The reply clock

These are our recommendations, built around the 24-hour line above. Not every message deserves the same speed.

Say you run a cleaning company. A message at 10 a.m. asking "Do you have anything open this Friday?" is worth more than any post you will publish that week. A heart emoji on last Tuesday's photo can wait until the evening.

How to handle a negative comment

The worst options are to argue in public and to delete honest criticism. Meta's own advice for businesses is to respond to positive and negative comments alike, honestly and fairly. A good reply does three things in two or three sentences: it shows you read the problem, it does not argue, and it moves the details to a private conversation.

Before: "That's not what happened. We were there on time and the job was done right."

After: "Thanks for telling us, Maria. That is not the experience we want anyone to have. I have sent you a message so we can sort it out."

In Meta Business Suite, every comment in the Inbox has a Send message option, so you can write to the person privately in one click.

Hide, delete, restrict or report?

Meta gives you four tools for comments that cross a line. They do different things:

On Facebook you can also limit who can comment on your Page's posts. Keep these tools for real abuse. Hiding a fair complaint can backfire: the person may post it again somewhere you cannot hide it, like a review.

When you cannot be online

Nobody can answer within a few hours at 11 p.m. or during a four-hour job. Two things keep you inside the clock anyway:

• Say when you answer. Put your hours in your profile and in pinned posts. Someone who knows you answer after 3 p.m. is not left wondering.
• Turn on an away message. In Meta Business Suite you can set an automatic away message for Messenger and Instagram that goes out only in the hours you mark as away. A line like "We are on jobs until 4 p.m. and answer every message after that" turns silence into a promise.

An automatic reply is not an answer, though. If the promised human reply never comes, it is worse than no auto reply at all.

A routine that fits a busy day

You do not need to watch your phone all day. Three short checks keep most businesses within the clock:

1. Mid-morning, 5 minutes. Open the Inbox in Meta Business Suite and answer messages first, then comments. Facebook and Instagram are in one place there. If you have not set it up, here is what Meta Business Suite is and how it works.
2. After lunch, 5 minutes. Anything that needs a price or a check with the team, mark as Follow up so it does not get lost.
3. End of day, 10 minutes. Clear the Follow up list, hide the spam, and move finished conversations to Done.

If someone on your team will share this job, give them their own access instead of your password. We explain how in how to add someone to your Instagram business account.

If replying keeps slipping

Most owners know what to answer. What runs out is time. If messages keep waiting until the evening, our Comments & Messages service ($59 a month, added to a posting plan) answers comments and direct messages for you Monday to Friday, within one business day, from a cheat sheet of answers you approve. We hide spam and rude comments and send anything we cannot answer to you the same day. If your messages need answers within minutes, or on weekends, a person on your own team is the better fit. See the monthly services.