Social Media Customer Service: Public Replies, Direct Messages and Chat Queues – Paris, 2–6 Aug 2027

Programme overview

Introduction:

Customers now post questions, complaints and praise in public comments and direct messages, and they expect a reply within the hour. When social media customer service is left to marketing staff or answered with copied replies, small issues become viral threads, private data leaks into public view and angry posters are pushed away. This Core Concept course trains contact-centre and community teams to run social inboxes and messaging queues to set reply-speed and tone standards. Participants build a Social Customer Care Playbook and Response Library for a case brand.

Course Objectives:

• Audit inbound social mentions, direct messages and messaging app chats by platform, volume and contact reason
• Apply reply-speed targets, tone-of-voice rules and shift handover routines to a social care inbox
• Move public posts into private direct messages and verify customer identity without exposing personal data
• Respond to angry posts, negative reviews and viral threads using a structured public reply sequence
• Identify trolls, spam and fake accounts and apply moderation and escalation rules to each case
• Track first response time, resolution time, sentiment and CSAT on a social care scorecard

Target Audience:

• Social care agents who answer public comments, mentions and direct messages for a brand
• Contact-centre team leaders who supervise chat and messaging app queues
• Community management staff who moderate brand pages, groups and review threads
• CX operations staff who maintain reply templates, tagging and routing rules
• Service quality analysts who monitor social sentiment and response speed

Course Outline:

Day 1: Why Service Moved to Social and Messaging Channels

• Public Mentions, Direct Messages and Messaging Apps as Service Channels
• Customer Expectations of Reply Speed on Social Platforms
• Social Care Versus Marketing and Community Management Roles
• Inbound Social Contact Audit by Platform, Volume and Contact Reason
• Brand Voice Audit of Recent Public Replies

Day 2: Social Care Standards, Policies and Operating Model

• ISO 18295-1 Contact Centre Requirements Applied to Social and Messaging Queues
• Response-Time Targets by Platform and Priority Tier
• Tone-of-Voice Guide: Register, Empathy, Emoji and Sign-Off Rules
• Social Care Rota: Coverage Hours, Staffing and Shift Handover Notes
• Social Listening Query Design for Service Issues and Untagged Mentions

Day 3: Public Replies, Direct Messages and Chat Queues

• Public-to-Private Handover Wording and Direct Message Transition
• Reply Templates, Macros and Personalisation Fields
• Angry Post and Negative Review Public Reply Sequence
• Messaging App Chat Queues: Concurrency, Wrap-Up and Asynchronous Threads
• Online Identity Verification Steps Without Exposing Personal Data

Day 4: Escalation, Moderation and Social Care Metrics

• Escalation Triggers and Social Crisis Severity Matrix
• Troll, Spam and Fake Account Identification Checklist
• Moderation Rules: Hide, Delete, Block and Report Decisions
• Social Care Scorecard: First Response Time, Resolution Time, Sentiment and CSAT
• Unified Social Inbox Workflow: Tagging, Routing and Case Ownership

Day 5: Live Inbox Simulation and the Social Care Playbook

• Live Inbox Simulation: Service Outage Spike Across Platforms
• Viral Complaint Thread Simulation with Escalation Handoff
• Response Library Build for a Case Brand
• Social Customer Care Playbook Drafting
• Playbook Walkthrough and Peer Scoring Against the Scorecard

Skills You Will Gain:

• Social Inbox Management
• Public-to-Private Conversation Handover
• Brand Tone of Voice
• Social Listening for Service
• Online Identity Verification
• Troll and Fake Account Moderation
• Social Crisis Escalation
• Social Care Metrics Reporting

Why Attend This Course:

• Leave with a Social Customer Care Playbook and Response Library written for a case brand and ready to adapt
• Practise answering a timed spike of public posts, direct messages and chats in a live inbox simulation
• Know when a hostile comment needs a reply, a moderation action or an escalation to crisis handling
• Compare reply standards and inbox routines with social care teams from retail, telecoms, travel and public services

Conclusion:

Customers judge a brand by how it answers them in public, and every reply on a social platform is read by far more people than the person who posted. The one week move from auditing social contact and setting reply-speed and tone standards, through direct message handover, chat queues and identity checks, to escalation, moderation and scorecards. A timed inbox simulation ends with a Social Customer Care Playbook and Response Library that teams can put into use in their own inbox.