The short answer is no, you shouldn’t. But if you’re anything like me – you’ll feel compelled to reply if you’re online when the message comes through. That feeling is often linked to wanting to improve/maintain your RESPONSE RATE. Y’know, that little measurement on your FB page that we sometimes feel like we need to have looking like we’re the MOST responsive person ever?! 

There’s 2 things to look at here, Response RATE and response TIME. 

The good news is that you don’t have to live like this! I mean, you don’t have to respond at night or early in the morning if that’s not when you usually work in your biz. It’s actually possible to set your status as ‘away’ for up to 12hrs so that your stats aren’t impacted. Let’s take a look at this… 

Response RATE and response TIME.

Response rate: your Page’s response rate is the percentage of messages that you and other people who manage your Page respond to. 

Response time: Your Page’s response time gives people an expectation of the amount of time it takes your Page to respond to messages. 

RESPONSE RATE:
A message counts toward your Page’s overall response rate if it’s the first message a person sends your Page after neither of you has sent messages for at least 24 hours. Your Page’s overall response rate is based on messages received in the 30 days prior to the last message that counted toward your response rate. For example, if it’s September 6, and the last message your Page received that counted was on August 30, then your Page’s response rate is based on messages that occurred from August 1 to August 30.

If your Page has received fewer than 10 messages in this time span, your Page’s response rate will be based on the last 10 messages received. If your Page has received fewer than 10 messages total, it’ll be based on all messages ever received. 

RESPONSE TIME:
Your Page’s response time gives people an expectation of the amount of time it takes your Page to respond to messages. A message counts toward your response time if it’s a response to the first message a person sends your Page after neither of you has sent messages for at least 24 hours.

Your Page’s response time is an average of the fastest 90% of response times to messages received in the 30 days prior to the last message that counted toward your response rate. For example, if it’s September 6, and the last message your Page received that counted was on August 30, then your Page’s response time is based on messages that occurred from August 1 to August 30.

If your Page has received fewer than 10 messages in this time span, your response time will be based on the last 10 messages. If your Page has received fewer than 10 messages total, it’ll be based on all messages ever received. People can see your response time when they visit your Page or when they open a chat with your Page in Messenger. 

You can set your Page’s messaging status to away for up to 12 hours.

Anyone can see that your Page is away in the About section on the right side of your Page.
To set your Page’s messaging status to away:

1. Click Inbox at the top of your Page.
2. In the left column, click  and then select Away.

You can automatically set your Page’s messaging status to away when your business is closed.

To automatically set your Page’s messaging status to away outside of business hours, first you need to create an away message for your Page.
To create an away message:

1. Click Settings at the top of your Page
2. Click Messaging in the left column
3. Click to select Yes next to Stay responsive when you can’t get to your computer or phone
4. Click Change to create a custom away message and click Save

To schedule away times:

1. Click Settings at the top of your Page
2. Click Messaging in the left column
3. Below Stay responsive when you can’t get to your computer or phone, click Change
4. Click Schedule
5. Select a Timezone from the dropdown, then click + Add Time
6. Select days of the week, then enter the time range you want your Page’s status to be automatically set to away on those days
7. When you’re finished adding away times, click Save

That’s it!

If you’d like to take a look at my auto responses, head over to my biz page and send me a message saying you just read my response time/rate blog!