Facebook knows that businesses are at the heart of its platform. Businesses invest in ads and hence, keep the blue machine going. So it makes perfect sense for Facebook to take good care of those businesses, right? And oftentimes, that means helping them take care of their customers.
Today, Facebook is rolling out a new Inbox for Facebook Pages with a set of features that will help businesses communicate better with their customers.
Also Read: Businesses Can Now Add Facebook Messenger To Their Websites
The new Inbox for Facebook pages comes with a new set of controls and features that allow businesses to better serve their customers. Starting now, you can specify your average response time (which is still automatically calculated by Facebook), set an “away” status, enable instant replies and access CRM-like information about each user who messages you.
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Not only is the new Inbox more intuitive and better organised, it is now a CRM powerhouse: it helps businesses set customer expectations – with the average response time and “away” message – and sped up instant replies process.
But more than everything else, it is the new CRM-like insights provided for each user who has messaged you, that will make the real difference.
On the right side of the thread, Facebook shows you the basic information about the person you are talking to. Obviously, this is of great help when it comes to making conversations more personal, and showing your customers that they are special and unique to you.
You can also use this space to set keywords for specific conversations and add notes for other admins to follow up later.
Michael Sharon, Facebook product manager for Pages, explained in a statement:
[quote]People can contact businesses anytime and from any device, so we’re offering new tools for Pages to better manage their customer interactions. Now it’s easier than ever for Pages to address both the public comments and private messages that people send them, in order to build and maintain strong relationships and grow their business.[/quote]
With Messenger now working directly on websites and more and more companies starting to use it for customer services – check the Hyatt case study here – Facebook knows that being able to have the right conversations with their customers is what will drive more businesses into investing more on its platform.