Facebook Messenger is about to change in a big way — say hello to new customer service and sales-focused tools for businesses.
Announced at F8 Refresh, Facebook’s annual developer conference, the keynote speech focused on bringing more Messenger capabilities to businesses of all sizes.
From being able to nurture a responsive customer experience, to providing product recommendations — Facebook Messenger could be your ticket to growing your chat-based solutions in 2021.
Facebook Messenger: A New Focus on Customer Communication and Sales
“Our vision is for messaging to be the primary way people and businesses communicate,” shared Facebook’s VP of Business Messaging, Emile Litvak.
And with a fleet of new Messenger features that focus on bringing brands closer to their customers, Facebook is certainly making tracks in the right direction.
Addressing Facebook’s goal for the future, Litvak explained that business communications should be as “convenient, unobtrusive, and personalized as possible.”
Here are three key changes coming to Facebook Messenger:
New Login Connect with Messenger: Provides the ability to message brands without having to be logged into the platform.
New Feedback Template: For quick, user-friendly feedback all managed via automated Messenger chat.
The Release of the Messenger API for Instagram: To provide one place to manage all your customer communications on Instagram and Facebook.
New Login Connect with Messenger
With Login Connect with Messenger, customers will be able to opt into messaging with businesses directly from the Facebook Login flow.
That means there’s one less barrier to overcome for customers looking to connect with the brands and businesses they follow on Facebook.
Source: Facebook
This change could spark a whole range of new customer conversations! Allowing businesses to seamlessly deepen their engagement by offering more personalized and efficient customer care.
Login Connect is currently in closed beta and will be widely available in the coming months. However original testing with brands like eTicket, NewChic, and Chatbooks look positive — so far, brands have seen more than 70% of users opt into messaging with Login Connect enabled.
Once the feature rolls out fully, businesses can look forward to more sales and service-related perks like:
Boost in customer engagement: According to Facebook, brands in the beta test were able to send personalized welcome messages, offers, and product recommendations through the Messenger Platform.
Stronger, more personalized, customer care: Login connect paired with automated messaging allows brands to cut down time spent answering basic requests and focus on top-notch customer service.
Don’t forget! You can plan, schedule, and automatically publish to your Facebook Business page with Later — and it’s free!
Facebook Releases New Automated Feedback Template for Businesses
Being able to receive feedback from customers is a huge asset for brands and businesses.
This information can weigh heavily on your product development, as well as help you make better business decisions for the future.
But getting your customers (or followers!) to provide you with valuable feedback is the hard part – enter the automated feedback template from Facebook.
Source: Facebook
Announced today, Facebook has released a new Customer Feedback Template so Facebook Developers can integrate a seamless feedback experience to users, all through their Messenger chat window.
Sound like something you’d like to have? Check out this article from Facebook for Developers to learn how to get started with Messenger Templates.
Facebook Releases the Messenger API for Instagram
We can’t mention Facebook, without covering Instagram — and F8 unveiled some big news for brands on both platforms.
Facebook revealed that the Instagram Messenger API is being made available to all developers and businesses!
What does this mean? With a new Messenger API for Instagram, businesses will be able to streamline their customer service tools, be more efficient, and build trust with their community.
Back in 2019, Facebook launched a beta test for brands like H&M and L’Oreal, the Messenger API allowed businesses to access Instagram’s messaging tools and integrate them with their existing systems.
And with this rollout coming to all brands, big and small, this could be a game-changer.
In fact, a global survey found that 75% of people want to be able to message a business and 64% prefer messenger over email or the phone.
Source: Facebook
As Instagram users turn to messenger to communicate with businesses — whether it’s to ask a question, get some help, or complain — having a scalable, automated solution on the platform can be invaluable.
Get all the details about the Instagram Messenger API and how to access it here**!**
Facebook — and their suite of other platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp — are great solutions for brands and businesses looking for ways to easily and effectively communicate with their customers.
With the transition to messaging only accelerating, Facebook’s move into customer service comes as no surprise.
The future of commerce is conversational!
What’s yet to be discovered is how brands can easily implement and optimize their workflow with these new tools and functionalities. Be sure to watch this space!
