Who handles social media enquiries? Fixing the handover

Key takeaways

Social media enquiries go missing at the handover between whoever runs the accounts and whoever sells. Fix it with one named owner each day, a clear rule for what counts as a sales enquiry, a single place to log it and a time limit for the handover. The person posting content rarely has the information to close the sale.

• Name 1 owner per day for the social inbox.
• Define a sales enquiry: price, availability, booking or quote.
• Log every sales enquiry in one place, the same day.
• Hand over within 1 working hour, with the conversation attached.

Why do social media enquiries go missing?

Social media enquiries go missing because they arrive in places sales teams do not watch: comments, DMs and story replies across several apps. The person who sees them may be an agency, a junior marketer or the owner late at night. Without a rule, everyone assumes someone else has dealt with it.

• How UK businesses can turn social media followers into customers
• Social media inbox management: one place for every message

Who should own social media enquiries?

One named person per working day should own the social inbox, with a deputy. They do not need to close every sale, but they must make sure every sales enquiry is answered and passed on. In small firms this is often the owner or an office manager. With an agency, agree in writing who replies to what.

• In-house versus agency social media for UK businesses

What counts as a sales enquiry?

Agree a simple rule: any message or comment asking about price, availability, area, booking or a quote is a sales enquiry and goes to sales. General comments, praise and complaints follow their own routes. Writing the rule down removes guesswork.

• Buying signals on social media: spot followers ready to buy

How should the handover work?

The inbox owner replies to the buyer within the hour to acknowledge and set expectations, logs the enquiry with the name, contact, need and conversation, and alerts the salesperson. The salesperson contacts the buyer within the working day. The owner checks next day that it happened.

• Reply: "Thanks, Sam. Our surveyor Jo will call you today."
• Log: name, contact, need, platform, date, link to chat.
• Alert: message or CRM task to the salesperson.
• Check: next day, was contact made?

• Social media CRM: track followers from first message to sale

What if an agency runs your social media?

If an agency runs your accounts, agree in the contract who answers which messages, the reply times, and how sales enquiries are passed to you. Many agency contracts cover posting but not inbox management. Ask whether enquiries are monitored at weekends.

• Questions to ask a social media agency before signing

When does a handover add delay instead of fixing it?

A handover adds delay when it passes simple enquiries that the first person could answer, such as opening hours or a standard price. Give the inbox owner saved replies for routine questions, and hand over only what needs the salesperson.

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see: an agency posts well and forwards messages by email once a week, by which time buyers have gone elsewhere. Agreeing a same-hour acknowledgement and a same-day handover usually recovers enquiries the business did not know it was losing.

• See client work
• Social Media Marketing for UK businesses
• BPO Solutions for UK businesses

Handover checklist

• Name a daily inbox owner and deputy.
• Write down what counts as a sales enquiry.
• Acknowledge within the working hour.
• Log every sales enquiry in one place.
• Alert the salesperson immediately.
• Check next day that contact was made.

Next step

Ask your team who answered the last five social media enquiries and how long it took. The answer shows whether a handover rule exists.