In general, we advise that you respond to online feedback as soon as you reasonably can.
While Care Opinion doesn't require you to do this, many of the organisation which use our service set their own response time target, typically of 3 - 5 days.
The available research evidence suggests that story authors would expect to see a response to their feedback within a week.
Multiple responses
Bear in mind you can post multiple responses to a story. We advise you to respond sooner rather than later, even if you need to post a further more definitive response after that.
Replying after many years
Sometimes we see staff posting responses to stories after a number of years have passed, apparently to "improve the response rate". This practice may be distressing or harmful to the story author.
Care Opinion will not allow a first response to a story after three years have passed, or a further response after five years have passed.