Best practices for customer service through Facebook Messenger

Best practices for customer service through Facebook Messenger

Conversational marketing is a huge buzzword in customer service these days, and with an estimated 2.77 billion users currently using messaging apps worldwide, it’s easy to see why.

As one of the largest of those apps, Facebook Messenger is the perfect medium to engage with your customers. It is fast, efficient, and mobile. It has fantastic features to manage conversations with your customers, and interact with them in a meaningful way.

Here are several important points to bear in mind to ensure you use this fantastic tool to its best advantage.

Acknowledge every (potential) customer’s input

People expect a response when they interact with you, even if it’s just a simple ‘like’. Ideally, you should aim for a 100% response! This may seem like a daunting task, but there are ways to optimise this process and make your customers feel part of your business community.

Record the most common customer inquiries and create pre-written, customisable replies that can be copied and pasted to save your agents time. However, remember to personalise these pre-written replies by including the customer’s name and making the message applicable to their specific inquiry.

A speedy response is vital

To maximise your conversion rates, it’s crucial that you respond quickly to all customer queries. This is particularly important with Messenger, which shows a colour-coded ‘response badge’ to indicate how quickly enquiries tend to be answered.

Quick responses will not only enhance your brand’s reputation, but will also boost customer satisfaction. It will improve your customer retention rate by showing customers you’re consistently engaged with them and fully committed to your relationship with them.

Related content: 7 top tips for after-hours customer support

Be friendly, welcoming, professional, and efficient

It’s become standard good practice to use a customer’s first name when communicating with them. Your customer support team should do likewise and use their first name when interacting with customers. This is especially vital when they are dealing with customers who are upset or frustrated.

This brings home to your customers that they are dealing with fellow human beings. It defuses the situation, making a positive resolution more likely. Your agents should always sound friendly and happy to help the customer, and then do so efficiently and professionally.

Choose the right customer support reps

Social media can easily turn into a bit of a minefield in the wrong hands! It is vital to ensure your agents are well-chosen, well-trained, and well-versed in customer support before they start engaging on Messenger.

Your agents should be articulate, good at communicating, and have excellent language and typing skills. All communications with customers must be clearly worded and free of mistakes, so that no misunderstandings happen.

It’s also important that managers are available to jump in and help agents should it become necessary.

Utilise Facebook Messenger as an effective pre-sale resource too

Messenger can offer a lot more than just customer support. It’s a great

pre-sales resource to connect with potential customers who are browsing your Facebook page, but may not be confident enough to ask questions on your wall.

Messenger allows customers to ask questions in private while they are thinking about buying an item. Having an agent engage with them, answer questions and make suggestions might just be the encouragement they need to make a purchase.

Create Standard Operating Procedures

When dealing with customer enquiries, it’s important that all your agents follow standard processes, or SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures). This ensures that all agents are ‘on the same page’ when responding to customer queries.

Clear SOPs also guide agents through dealing with the different kinds of enquiries, as well as troubleshooting in the case of a problem. It helps avoid mistakes, and agents making promises you can’t keep.

SOP’s also guide agents as to when a conversation should be private, i.e. when sensitive/confidential information is involved. Customer support agents should also be empowered to make decisions to ensure a smooth process.

Go above and beyond whenever possible

Average customer support is okay, but it’s those times when you really ‘wow’ a customer that can go viral and help build your brand’s visibility. Exceeding customers’ expectations and really delighting them can have a major impact on your success. These special cases will also enhance your brand’s image and make your business stand out from your competitors.

Promote your Messenger channel effectively

Don’t forget that your customers must be able to find you easily and interact with you seamlessly. Your business page username and Messaging icon should be prominently displayed to make it easy for customers to find your business on Facebook and on the Messenger app.

Not sure where to begin?

We know that utilising social media effectively is not easy and takes sophisticated and specialised skills and expertise to do well. If you’re not confident that you can do this on your own, Digital Customer Care Company is there to help!

Let our experienced Facebook Messenger team help you to harness this powerful tool efficiently (and in multiple languages) to boost your brand’s profile and success.