Ready For Facebook the Messenger Customer Service Revolution? 6 Steps Every Business Needs To Take Now

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Do you use Facebook to handle customer service? The Messenger app is fast becoming the centre of the action for customer interaction on Facebook, and your business needs to be ready.

Facebook Messenger is huge, and growing. At the most recent count in April 2016, it boasted over 900 million monthly active users (up from 700 million just a year earlier), and and over 1 billion messages are now sent between people and businesses each month.

As you probably already are aware, people are increasingly turning to social media to resolve customer service queries and now Facebook wants brands to use it as the cornerstone of their customer service efforts online, making Messenger a one-stop destination for businesses to connect with customers - and it's rolling out the changes thick and fast. If you have messaging enabled for your Facebook Page, fans will get in touch and they expect a response.

In this blog post, I'll show you the 6 big steps you need to get your business ready for customer service via Facebook Messenger.

1. Download and share your Facebook Messenger Code

A Messenger Code is a image (like a QR code or Snapchat's snapcode) that users can scan with their mobile's camera (within the Messenger app) to quickly start a chat with you, saving them having to search for your business manually. You can place it on your website, print it onto your marketing material, or anywhere a customer might want to prompt you with a message. Here's how to get yours:

Visit the Messages section of your Facebook Page and, at the bottom, look for a prompt to download and share your Messenger Code. Click the icon next to it.

Click the Download button to save your unique Messenger Code in one of three sizes: 300, 600, or 1000 pixels.

Before you place your code anywhere the public might scan it, test it in the Facebook Messenger app. In the People menu, tap Scan Code. Hover your camera over the code and, if it works correctly, a new Messenger conversation will pop-up instantly.

2. Set and share your Facebook Page username

To make it simpler for customers to find and contact businesses, Facebook is making usernames central to a Page's identity. In addition to a business name (your business may have duplicates or similar throughout the world), your unique username can be used to search for your business in Messenger. What's your Page's username? If you already have a vanity URL for your Facebook Page (e.g. facebook.com/500socialmediatips), then the bit after the forward slash becomes your @username, e.g. @500socialmediatips.

3. Manage your Message Response Times

People who send you a message via Messenger or your Page like to know, in advance, how long they can expect to wait for a reply. Obviously the quicker you are, the better. If you visit your Page at least once a week (who doesn't?!) and reply to 90% or more of your messages, your response time will appear in your Page's About section, and at the top of the conversation window in Messenger.

There are several options to help you manage your Response Time. Facebook recommends that you let it display your average response time automatically. Otherwise, you can choose a manual response time (ranging from "typically replies in minutes" to "typically replies in a day." If you choose one of the latter fixed options, you'll really need to be strict about meeting them so not to upset customers.

Set up your Messenger Greeting in the Messaging section of your Page Settings.

4. Write and save your Messenger Greeting

A Messenger Greeting is a short (maximum 160 characters) message that will appear to greet someone the first time they start a conversation with you on Messenger. It's a way of saying hello, letting people know what they can ask. Here's the greeting I have set up:

"Hi! Thanks for getting in touch with me on Messenger. Please send me any questions you may have and I'll get back to you as quickly as I can."

Set up your Messenger Greeting in the Messaging section of your Page Settings.

5. Write and save Instant Replies

Instant Replies are a way to send an automatic first response when someone messages your Page. There's some overlap here between Instant Replies and the Messenger Greeting, and you don't want an automatic message fired back to come across as cold or impersonal. 

Where I can see Instant Replies as being handy is to point customers in the direction of other sources of help (such as website FAQs) while they wait, or as a way to quickly respond to large numbers of customers asking the same question in the event of a customer service crisis.

Set up your Messenger Greeting in the Messaging section of your Page Settings.

6. Write and setup Saved Replies

Saved replies let you create and save a reply for later use, search through older replies to re-purpose it, and the ability to personalise replies instantly with your name, the customer name, your address, website, and more. They're like Instant Replies - perfect for answering common questions quickly - but with added customisation. Here's how to set them up:

Visit the Messages section of your Page and click on the speech bubble icon at the bottom.

Click on Manage Replies to edit your replies, or create a new one.

Here, I've mocked up a reply for a fictional company with a "quick reply" for people who ask about its delivery window. It's looking a bit impersonal, though.

Click "Personalize" for a quick way to add some personal touches to your Saved Replies. Here, you'll be able to add a a variety of automatically-generated "placeholder" elements to your messages. Importantly, you'll want to place your cursor at the part of the message that you want to insert the element, as that's where it will appear when chosen.

Here's how the personalization looks once it's been added. I've also uploaded an image from my computer. The placeholders will show you the preview of a message - in this case, I've used person's last name (Clinton) and Admin's first name.

Over to you

Will you be using Messenger to handle more of your customer service issues? Do you prefer it over other methods? Let me know in the comments below!

Andrew Macarthy is a social media consultant and the author of the #1 Amazon Web Marketing Bestseller, 500 Social Media Marketing Tips.

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