You see it every time you open up your Facebook or Twitter newsfeed: people love to use social media to spill their every thought and complaint. Sometimes it’s just your middle school classmate complaining yet again about her horrible morning commute, but sometimes those comments will be directed at a specific brand. This presents an opportunity for customer service teams to reach customers quickly and conveniently.

A JD Power survey of 23,000 online consumers found 67 percent of respondents had contacted a company for support via social media. Unfortunately, only about one in three of those consumers will receive a response to their message. Brands who succeed at social customer service will gain a reputation for being responsive and caring about their customers. Keep reading to find out why your customer service team needs to be on social media.

Evaluate Your Current Situation

Do you know what customers are saying about your brand online? A Harvard Business Review CMO survey found almost half of marketers using social media were not monitoring their channels for results. In order to address problems and help most effectively, you have to know what your customers are saying and where they are saying it. Search for mentions of your company or products, read through all the comments on your accounts’ posts and pay attention to the sentiment of users’ posts.

Where should you start your search? Data from UK Website Builder indicates Twitter is consumers’ most-used platform for voicing questions and complaints. However, only about 24 percent of Americans are on Twitter. Facebook is the most-used social media platform in the US, with 68 percent of Americans using the platform. Depending on who your audience is, you might find networks like LinkedIn or Instagram are also great ways to reach your customers.

Find Comments

Once you have your background knowledge on current brand conversations, you need to set up a process to be notified of future comments and brand mentions. Notifications will keep you from missing an important mention and allow you to respond quickly. Many businesses choose to use online tools to set up alerts and receive notifications when someone mentions their brand, product or service. Without a tool to monitor brand mentions, you would have to invest a chunk of time each day scouring social media sites yourself for each comment.

When you set up alerts, don’t forget that many users will not directly tag your brand’s account in their post. They may just type out your brand name, use only one word of your name, or even have a typo. Be mindful of these discrepancies and plan your alerts according.

Act Fast

When someone asks your brand a question or issues a complaint on social media, you need to act fast. A survey from The Social Habit found 42% of users who contact a brand on social media expect a response within one hour. Failing to respond in a timely manner can have consequences, especially on public social media platforms. The customer may continue to complain, tell their friends about the experience and avoid using your brand in the future. On the other hand, if you do respond fast, you may earn a very loyal and appreciative customer.

Read the Room

As you type out your response, be sure your messaging and tone are appropriate for the situation. If the customer uses slang or emojis in their post, you can also be more playful in response. If there seems to be a language barrier, you’ll need to be very careful about using slang the user may not understand. If the person is very frustrated, focus on using an empathetic and apologetic tone.

Be ready to take a conversation off public channels as soon as you can. Direct the user to private message you or provide them with a support email, and assure them this is the most efficient process to solve their problem. Most of all, stay positive and be transparent in all your social media communication.

If you’re worried about conveying the right tone in your response, consider trying personalized videos in response to customers. They take more effort than typing a quick message, but show genuine care for the customer and can project emotion better than a written response. Personalization will pay off: research from eMarketer found 56 percent of CMOs experienced higher response and engagement rates on personalized content.

Of course, it’s worth noting that not every comment made about your brand will be negative. People tend to be more vocal about negative experiences than positive ones; it’s just our human nature. It’s important to engage with positive messages about your brand frequently and quickly, too. You want those messages to have as much reach as the negative ones and show your audience how much you appreciate kind words.