When one thing goes flawed together with your espresso maker otherwise you order the flawed dimension shirt from a web-based store, you in all probability attain out to the corporate’s customer support division. Should you’re like a rising proportion of right this moment’s customers, you achieve this via a digital channel.
Whereas telephone and electronic mail help channels are nonetheless going robust, adoption of digital communication strategies — stay chat, social media, and messaging — is rising. In actual fact, greater than half of customers have elevated their use of digital channels to speak with companies in recent times.
One of many extra in style messaging platforms in operation right this moment is Fb Messenger. Should you’re curious how your small business can incorporate Messenger into your customer support technique, learn on.
This submit covers:
What Fb Messenger is and the way it’s utilized by companies.
The advantages of utilizing Fb Messenger for customer support.
Ideas and instruments for providing Messenger as a channel for buyer help.
What’s Fb Messenger?
Fb Messenger is an prompt messaging service, initially designed as a chat characteristic on the Fb platform. Over time, Messenger moved past the partitions of Fb with the discharge of stand-alone iOS, Android, and desktop functions.
Used for each private and enterprise communications, Fb Messenger is the main messaging app within the U.S. and is second solely to WhatsApp globally. Customers can ship textual content, photos, stickers, and reactions by way of the app, and the service even helps audio and video calling.
How is Fb Messenger utilized by companies?
Messenger’s recognition, together with Meta’s omnipresence, makes Fb Messenger a great tool for companies of all sizes and industries. In any case, nearly each model has a Fb enterprise web page, so turning that profile right into a communication entry level in your clients feels pure.
Should you’re questioning how your groups would possibly have the ability to incorporate Fb Messenger into your buyer communications technique, listed here are just a few ways in which it could assist develop your small business:
Advertising and marketing: Ship sponsored messages and run advertisements immediately inside Fb Messenger to drive model consciousness, or use segmentation instruments to ship customized messages to your subscribers.
Gross sales: Add a contact type to your auto-responder to seize leads, or use Meta Pay to simply accept funds via the Messenger platform.
Buyer help: Use Messenger as an extra help channel in your clients.
The advantages of utilizing Fb Messenger for customer support
One of many most important ways in which corporations are utilizing Fb Messenger to attach with their clients is as a customer support channel. Fb Messenger helps you:
Fb Messenger can also be a cheap help channel. Messenger itself is a free service, and Fb gives a number of instruments for managing your small business’s Messenger requests that include no further price.
The ten greatest Fb Messenger instruments for customer support
Whereas Meta does provide native instruments for managing Fb messages, there will be advantages to going with a third-party device. Listed here are 10 software program choices that may enable you degree up your Messenger help.
Assist Scout
Kustomer
Sparkcentral by Hootsuite
Zendesk
Crisp
Entrance
Gorgias
Manychat
SproutSocial
SocialPilot
1. Assist Scout
Finest Fb Messenger customer support device for rising groups.
Based in 2011, Assist Scout has been a go-to buyer communications platform for greater than a decade. Whereas the platform initially had a give attention to electronic mail administration, it has grown with the wants of right this moment’s clients to incorporate further channels like stay chat and Fb Messenger, in addition to self-service and proactive help instruments to make sure that corporations are capable of present help the place clients want it probably the most.
All your conversations, multi function place
The Assist Scout platform facilities round a shared inbox the place you’ll be able to handle your whole buyer requests — electronic mail, stay chat, Instagram DMs, and Fb Messenger — from a single, centralized location.
Within the case of Fb, when a buyer reaches out to your organization by way of Messenger, a dialog is created in Assist Scout. This permits your workforce to natively work with the request similar to they’d another help dialog, with out having to depend on an extra third-party service.
Assist Scout’s inbox additionally consists of useful options like dialog assignments, buyer profiles, tags, and workflows to maintain your workforce organized and on observe. Its reporting characteristic helps you higher perceive how the Messenger channel is performing and gives different buyer help metrics like dialog quantity, dealing with time, and perception into what forms of points your workforce is fielding.
Proactive instruments for proactive help
Whereas staying on high of buyer conversations is vital, there’s additionally worth in wanting forward and anticipating buyer wants. All Assist Scout plans embrace Docs, a code-free data base resolution that permits you to publish articles and solutions to FAQs, making it straightforward in your clients to seek out solutions on their very own.
Prospects can entry data base articles via your Docs web site or by way of Beacon, Assist Scout’s internet widget. Place a Beacon on any webpage or inside your app to supply prompt entry to self-service help. Beacons can be used for surfacing proactive messages or microsurveys throughout key factors within the buyer journey.
Messages are nice for letting clients learn about an upcoming occasion like a sale or a change in enterprise hours. Microsurveys can assist you get fast, actionable suggestions from clients whereas they’re interacting together with your product and their opinion is contemporary.
Higher help for you, higher help in your clients
If there’s one factor that Assist Scout is thought for, it’s the corporate’s deep dedication to offering its clients with excellent help. Assist Scout’s devoted customer support workforce gives 24/6 help protection throughout all time zones.
The workforce additionally maintains an in depth data base and hosts stay lessons to make sure that you at all times have the instruments it’s essential assist your clients thrive throughout your whole help channels and past.
Value: Free trial obtainable. Plans begin at $22/consumer per thirty days.
2. Kustomer
Finest Fb Messenger customer support software program for the Meta ecosystem.
Kustomer is perhaps a logical selection for these seeking to transfer past the Meta Enterprise Suite and right into a devoted buyer help platform. In any case, it was acquired by Meta in 2022. Kustomer integrates immediately with different Meta entities like Fb, Instagram, and WhatsApp, in addition to with different channels similar to Twitter.
One of many nice options Kustomer gives is its timeline view. As a substitute of making particular person tickets every time a buyer contacts your small business, all interactions — together with emails, voice calls, chats, social media messages, purchases, and extra — are proven chronologically in a single timeline. Every entry is labeled, so you understand which channel the client is utilizing and which they like. It’s additionally straightforward to scroll again via earlier conversations and procure the contextual data needed to supply good help.
Transferring past the supplied channels, Kustomer has a strong set of buyer help options: saved replies, workflow automations, personal notes, CSAT surveys, sentiment monitoring, computerized language detection, a data base builder, and the power to combine with many different platforms. It additionally has synthetic intelligence add-ons for each brokers and clients. For purchasers, Kustomer IQ (KIQ) has chatbots and data base deflection. On the agent facet, KIQ can detect sentiment and recommend options within the second.
Value: Free trial obtainable. Plans begin at $29/consumer per thirty days.
3. Sparkcentral by Hootsuite
Finest Fb Messenger customer support software program for Hootsuite clients.
Sparkcentral is a buyer engagement platform designed to assist corporations higher serve their clients via social media and messaging channels. In 2021, Sparkcentral was acquired by the favored social media administration firm Hootsuite.
Even previous to the acquisition, Hootsuite was helpful for maintaining with Fb communications. On high of all of its publishing instruments, it has had a social inbox since 2018. The inbox lets advertising and marketing and help groups monitor and reply to Fb feedback, personal messages, and customer posts. Over the previous few years, the inbox has matured to supply further options like workforce assignments, content material tagging, dashboard notifications, and saved replies, although not all can be found throughout all plans.
At the moment, Hootsuite gives a social buyer care add-on for its Enterprise and Enterprise plans. Though the pricing web page doesn’t particularly define what the add-on entails, it appears to be like like it might be entry to Sparkcentral options — an prolonged social inbox that may deal with further channels like stay chat, SMS messaging, and WhatsApp in addition to message statuses and routing, automations, customized digital brokers (chatbots), reporting, and extra.
Total, Hootsuite is a good social media administration platform — particularly with the Sparkcentral options — however should you’re solely seeking to handle Fb Messenger help and don’t want Hootsuite’s advertising and marketing instruments, you is perhaps higher off with a cheaper choice.
Value: Free trial obtainable. Plans begin at $99 per thirty days (consists of one consumer). Pricing for the social buyer care add-on is accessible by way of demo request.
4. Zendesk
Finest Fb Messenger customer support software program for groups with bigger budgets.
Zendesk is an omnichannel buyer communications platform. It permits companies to speak with clients by way of all main channels, together with social media and messaging platforms like Fb, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, Telegram, LINE, and WeChat.
When clients contact your organization by way of a social channel like Fb Messenger, Zendesk creates a ticket. From there, workforce members can reply and handle the contact from the agent workspace in the identical means they’d an incoming electronic mail or stay chat, utilizing options like macros (electronic mail templates), tags, assignments, automations, and buyer profiles.
One draw back to picking Zendesk is its price. Whereas Help plan customers can reply to public feedback made on their enterprise’s web page, they’ll’t handle personal messages despatched via Messenger. Zendesk Suite plans can handle each however come at a better price.
As well as, Zendesk tends to be a little bit extra difficult to arrange than different choices on the listing. Your workforce could have to put aside further monetary assets should you don’t have somebody in-house able to configuring the platform to satisfy your wants.
Value: Free trial obtainable. Zendesk Help plans begin at $19/agent per thirty days. Zendesk Suite plans begin at $49/agent per thirty days.
5. Crisp
Finest Fb Messenger customer support software program with flat charge pricing.
Should you’ve ever looked for stay chat software program, you’ll have come throughout Crisp. The platform was initially developed for chat, however over the previous few years it has grown right into a full-fledged buyer communications resolution.
Crisp helps electronic mail, stay chat, and several other social media and messaging platforms together with Fb Messenger. When Crisp customers set up the Messenger plugin, they’re able to reply to Messenger contacts alongside different communications from a shared inbox. From there, groups can use different Crisp options like chatbots, data base articles, and canned responses to reply to Messenger requests.
Generally, Crisp is a cheap software program selection for Fb Messenger help. The channel isn’t supplied on Crisp’s free plan, however for $25 per thirty days, as much as 4 workforce members can present Messenger, electronic mail, and stay chat help to your customers.
Nonetheless, potential subscribers needs to be conscious that Crisp doesn’t provide the power to reply to public Fb posts or feedback, and should you want different primary help options like a data base and reporting dashboards or different messaging channels like Instagram or WhatsApp, you’ll have to go for the dearer plan.
Value: Free trial obtainable. Plans together with Fb Messenger integration begin at $25 per thirty days (consists of as much as 4 consumer seats).
6. Entrance
Finest Fb Messenger customer support software program for omnichannel communication.
Entrance is a communications administration device that helps electronic mail in addition to social media and messaging channels like Fb, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, and SMS by way of integrations.
Via Entrance, companies can reply to each private and non-private Fb messages utilizing options obtainable inside your workforce’s shared inbox. Companies also can use Entrance’s auto-reply characteristic with Fb, however solely in response to direct (personal) messages.
Exterior of social media, top-of-the-line options Entrance gives is the power to route your particular person enterprise electronic mail into the app so you’ll be able to handle all work electronic mail (particular person and workforce) in a single workspace.
One factor of us ought to pay attention to, nevertheless, is that some reporting options are lacking from Entrance’s entry-level tier. Lacking out on reporting capabilities like filtering by channel may very well be an enormous drawback for these seeking to provide a number of avenues of contact to their clients.
Value: Free trial obtainable. Plans begin at $19/seat per thirty days.
7. Gorgias
Finest Fb Messenger customer support software program for groups that favor quantity based mostly pricing.
Gorgias is one other SaaS platform that has the potential to deal with social media help. It’s well-known within the ecommerce area as its deep integration with platforms like Shopify lets customer support brokers handle consumer orders from inside the help ticket.
In the case of Fb Messenger, Gorgias helps the administration of each public Fb commentary (wall posts and feedback) and personal communication by way of the Messenger utility. When any of those communications are initiated by way of Fb or Messenger, Gorgias creates a ticket inside your shared workspace.
Buyer timelines make it straightforward to evaluation buyer contacts and establish which messages had been delivered by which channel. This can assist your workforce resolve the place and the way to reply (similar to transferring a public remark into a non-public message, and many others.). Gorgias additionally has different helpful social help options like social macros (templates) for fast responses and automations to route social requests to devoted brokers.
Value-wise, Gorgias’ Starter plan may very well be entry level in your firm in case your Messenger request quantity is low. It’s $10 per thirty days and consists of three consumer seats and 50 billable tickets. Nonetheless, most help groups will want one of many higher-tiered plans to accommodate further channels and ticket volumes.
Value: Free trial obtainable. Plans begin at $10 per thirty days.
8. Manychat
Finest Fb Messenger customer support software program for groups focused on chatbots.
Manychat is software program that goals to assist automate your buyer communications throughout messaging channels. The platform helps Fb Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, and SMS messaging.
The platform permits customers to create drag and drop chatbot flows to assist automate duties like nurturing leads, selling gross sales, and serving to clients with straightforward help points. Manychat bots also can assist clients e-book appointments, remind them of upcoming scheduled occasions, and individually have interaction with every one that feedback in your Fb posts or advertisements.
After all, not all interactions are appropriate for self-service decision. When a problem turns into an excessive amount of for a chatbot, Manychat lets your workforce hop on-line together with your clients, providing stay chat performance on Messenger, Instagram DM, and SMS channels. This helps your small business discover the steadiness between automation and in-person care that’s best for you.
Value: Free trial and plan obtainable. Paid plans begin at $15 per thirty days.
9. Sprout Social
Finest Fb Messenger customer support software program for groups who want evaluation administration instruments.
Sprout Social is one other well-known social media administration platform that may be a nice decide for corporations with a heavy social media presence.
The software program has useful content material publishing options, together with workflows to assist with the content material approval course of, development evaluation, social listening, complete experiences, asset libraries, and extra. Sprout Social additionally gives many issues to assist make social help simpler just like the social inbox, saved replies, message tagging, job assignments, chatbots, and the power to survey Twitter customers for internet promoter and CSAT scores.
Fb-wise, Sprout Social lets you handle a number of Fb pages concurrently. You possibly can reply to public posts and feedback on your small business’s web page in addition to to non-public Fb Messenger posts from the shared social inbox.
One useful characteristic of Sprout Social is its evaluation administration performance. Along with fielding buyer messages throughout your social media channels, you may as well monitor and reply to firm opinions posted on Fb, Google My Enterprise, TripAdvisor, Glassdoor, and Yelp, all from the identical acquainted Sprout Social interface.
Sprout Social has lots to supply; nevertheless, it does come at a worth level that’s considerably greater than the remainder of the instruments on this listing. Groups that solely need assistance managing Fb Messenger requests could need to discover different choices earlier than committing to Sprout.
Value: Free trial obtainable. Plans begin at $249 per thirty days. Further customers begin at $199 per thirty days.
10. SocialPilot
Finest Fb Messenger customer support software program for companies.
SocialPilot is a social media-specific platform, designed to assist groups handle their presence throughout all main social platforms: Fb, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, TikTok, and Google Enterprise Profile.
It does all the basic items like permitting groups to plan, create, and publish content material throughout a number of platforms. Groups can reply to feedback left on posts and tales in addition to to non-public messages despatched via Fb Messenger or Instagram.
SocialPilot additionally has collaboration options like with the ability to depart notes for teammates or purchasers, consumer permissions so that every individual solely has entry to the social profiles they should work with, workflows for content material approvals, and reporting dashboards for monitoring productiveness and posting quantity.
In all probability probably the most distinctive characteristic of SocialPilot is its personal label providing. On its highest degree plan, you might have the choice of customizing the SocialPilot interface and experiences in your personal purchasers, permitting you to resell the product as your personal social media administration resolution. It’s not an choice seen on many platforms, so it may very well be fascinating for companies seeking to open up further income streams.
Value: Free trial obtainable. Plans together with the social inbox characteristic begin at $42.50 per thirty days (consists of three customers).
Getting began with Fb Messenger as a customer support channel
If including Fb Messenger to your listing of customer support channels appears like the best transfer in your firm, right here’s the way to get began.
1. Create a method for delivering customer support by way of Fb Messenger
When deciding to launch a brand new help channel for your small business, it’s vital to start out with a plan. Round 80% of shoppers say that after a foul expertise, they’d fairly do enterprise with a competitor. This illustrates why it’s so vital to take the time to set your workforce (and clients) up for fulfillment.
Your technique ought to take a number of issues into consideration:
Demand: Are your clients lively on Fb? Do your Fb posts obtain a lot engagement? Do clients usually touch upon these posts with help points? Use your solutions to those questions that can assist you decide the demand for Messenger as a help channel.
Objectives: Are you seeking to improve buyer entry to help? Are you trying to remain aggressive with the help choices of different companies in your business? Answering questions like these will enable you higher perceive what a profitable channel launch will seem like in your workforce.
Integrations: Take into consideration what software program your workforce could already use, similar to assist desks, CRMs, buyer suggestions instruments, and ecommerce platforms. Will you want your organization’s Fb Messenger information to combine with these programs?
Price range: Based mostly on the objects above, you’ll be able to resolve what sort of price range you need to allocate to the venture. Provided that Fb Messenger is a free service, the fee could also be minimal. Nonetheless, in case your social help demand is excessive, further headcount or devoted instruments could also be needed.
2. Decide your staffing and coaching wants
In case your workforce is already managing different social media or stay chat channels and your quantity is predicted to stay constant, then it’s possible you’ll not want so as to add any further workforce members. Should you anticipate your help demand to extend with the addition of the brand new channel (or for different enterprise components like seasonality or a product launch), then it is perhaps price contemplating further hires or establishing a devoted social help workforce.
In the case of coaching, Fb Messenger is sort of intuitive and most of the people have already got familiarity with messaging providers. That being stated, the way in which you help clients by way of a social platform will be fairly completely different from different channels. Contemplate placing collectively a fast greatest practices information for these new to social help. Talk about voice and tone in addition to the channel’s technical limitations. Additionally, define any eventualities when the corporate would possibly favor {that a} buyer be transitioned from messaging to a different channel.
3. Contemplate the way you would possibly incorporate AI
There’s lots of buzz round expertise like ChatGPT as of late, and plenty of customer support instruments are already beginning to incorporate the expertise into their characteristic set. If it is smart in your workforce to make use of AI, it’s good to map out how it is going to be included into your help expertise.
Some widespread chatbot help duties embrace initiating returns and exchanges, offering monitoring data, and answering easy questions with the assistance of a data base. Relying on which duties you delegate to AI, you might be able to depend on native Messenger instruments. Extra difficult actions could require third-party software program.
Along with deciding what help duties can have AI help, make a plan for a way clients can bypass AI if they like to talk to your workforce. Whereas some clients love fast decision via bots — 62% of on-line clients would use a web-based chatbot as an alternative of ready for a customer support consultant — others don’t.
Other than preferences, some queries require nuance and care that solely a human can present. Don’t make your clients run round in circles; solely use AI in locations the place it could enhance your buyer’s expertise.
4. Arrange your Fb Messenger instruments for customer support
As soon as your whole planning is full, it’s time to stand up and operating with Fb Messenger.
Begin by deciding how your workforce will view, reply to, and handle Fb Messenger requests. Although we’ve already mentioned examples of third-party instruments, let’s recap the forms of instruments you’ll be selecting from:
Fb Messenger apps: Should you’re a workforce of 1 otherwise you obtain low help quantity, you can begin out by utilizing Messenger’s iOS, Android, or Desktop functions. You may also reply by way of the Fb web site itself.
Meta Enterprise Suite inbox: For companies the place a number of individuals are managing your Messenger requests as a workforce, you should utilize the Meta Enterprise Suite inbox. It has lots of the performance a help workforce wants, together with collaboration options, chatbots, and analytics.
Social media administration software program: In case your advertising and marketing workforce is utilizing social media administration software program, you may as well give buyer help brokers entry to the platform. Many social media instruments include reporting and integration capabilities in addition to collaboration instruments like a shared inbox.
Buyer help software program: In case you are already utilizing a assist desk or shared inbox device, it might be attainable so as to add Fb Messenger as an extra channel. It will mean you can hold all buyer communications in a single place and make the most of your software program’s collaboration, group, and reporting options.
When you’ve determined, comply with these steps to arrange Fb Messenger for customer support:
Flip Fb messaging on for your small business web page. Listed here are directions on the way to flip messaging on (or off).
Should you’ve determined to make use of one thing aside from the Messenger apps to handle requests, arrange these instruments.
Bonus: If your small business has a web site, think about including the Fb chat plugin to high-traffic pages. It will create further entry factors for purchasers to speak together with your workforce, even when they aren’t Fb customers.
5. Get the phrase out and set buyer expectations
Now that your Fb Messenger channel is stay, it’s time to get the phrase out!
If your small business has a weblog, think about writing a submit that asserts the brand new help channel. Embrace your help workforce’s enterprise hours and anticipated response time. You may additionally need to take time to debate any chatbot experiences clients could run into and allow them to know the way to bypass them if they like.
You may also get the phrase out by posting in your Fb web page, mentioning it on your small business’s different social channels, and together with the announcement in different buyer communications, like advertising and marketing newsletters.
6. Measure the success of Fb Messenger as a help channel
Seek advice from the targets you outlined for the channel again in the first step. Use the reporting instruments in both Meta Enterprise Suite or inside your chosen communications platform to measure success.
Keep in mind, it takes time to really perceive the impression a brand new help channel has had in your help efforts. Should you don’t see the outcomes you had been in search of straight away, think about sticking with it for at the very least three months. This will provide you with sufficient information to guage the channel’s efficiency and alter your technique as wanted.
Assist Scout + Fb Messenger
Should you’re in search of a buyer communications platform that’s all over the place your clients are, Assist Scout gives a 15-day free trial and gives all the assets wanted that can assist you ship high quality buyer help.