7 Ways to Utilize Facebook Messenger to Communicate with Customers

Communicating with customers is an important part of managing a business online, which is why you should invest in messaging services that help make it easier for you to talk to your customers and vice versa.

Luckily, a lot of online platforms already have a messaging system in place in their platforms so that you don’t have to go to another platform or application to communicate with your customers. One social media platform that does that is Facebook with its Facebook Messenger application.

With the Facebook Messenger feature, you can send private messages to your friends and with a business account. You can also use it to communicate with your customers.

In fact, Facebook Messenger has a lot of exciting features, and there are lots of tricks to using it that can help you be a better communicator to your customers. Below are seven ways you can use Facebook Messenger to communicate with your customers. 

Why Businesses Should Take Advantage of Messenger

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If you’re not convinced yet to start using Facebook Messenger, then you may be missing out on a lot of opportunities for your business. There are plenty of benefits to using Facebook Messenger when it comes to business management, which is why a lot of people use them.

First of all, it's fast and convenient. When it comes to responding to customer queries, it is vital that you respond as soon as possible. At best, it can be slightly inconvenient to your customer, and at worst, it can be detrimental to your reputation. Thus, you should always look for ways to quicken up the process of talking to customers.

Secondly, it's free. You don't have to pay any amount of money to respond to a private message, and customers don't have to pay to be able to send you a message. Although it does use data, if you're on Wi-Fi, then you don't have additional costs to worry about. You can even receive and send calls.

Another perk to using Facebook Messenger is that it's an excellent tool for when you're collaborating with other people. You can even send files and links over it. You can also record messages or videos or send pictures on it as well.

There are lots of benefits to using Facebook Messenger, so if you plan on improving your communication with your customers, then the perks that Messenger provides is helpful for your goals.

How to Use Messenger to Communicate with Customers

Answer questions about products and services

To be able to push a customer towards a conversion, you should do your best when answering all of their queries, especially ones related to the products and services that your business is offering. If you don’t, then you could be missing out on a prospective customer due to a lack of response which is unfortunate, to say the least.

If you have frequently asked questions about your products and services, then you can even set up a chatbot to answer these questions for you. If you don’t want to do that, you can simply create an FAQ ready so that you can type in a pre-answered question.

The important part is that you adequately and quickly respond to the questions of your customers. They will appreciate you addressing their concerns and can avoid any disgruntled customers from leaving negative feedback about your business.

Plus, when you answer questions about your products and services, then they are more likely to want to transact with your brand. Sales work doesn’t only happen face-to-face or in emails. They can occur on Facebook Messenger too.

Handle customer complaints

Although responding immediately to customer queries can help reduce the number of customer complaints that you get, sometimes this is unavoidable.

When you encounter a public post on Facebook or a comment on your page that is negative about your business, you can immediately respond to their concerns using Facebook Messenger.

In fact, Facebook now has an additional feature where if you respond to comment through Messenger, it will automatically show on the post or comment itself that you have already replied to the customer through a private message so you wouldn’t have to prompt a customer to message you directly to deal with their problem.

Due to the fact that this is an automatic feature on Facebook, it means that you don’t even have to set this up. It will just happen. All you need to do is click Message below the comment that they made instead of Reply, and you can automatically send a private message to the person. Aside from that, it will leave a message that shows you’ve responded to them.

Of course, to be able to do this, you need to be an admin or a moderator of a page.

When customer complaints aren’t done through a post on a timeline or a comment on a post, what you can do to manage customer complaints is by conducting customer service through Facebook Messenger.

By making sure that you conduct your customer service through Facebook Messenger, your customers won’t get too frustrated that they stop trying to look for a solution entirely with their problem. Your Facebook Messenger is much easier to access than, say, your phone number after all.

If you’re guiding your customers through a problem, it is also much easier to guide them through Facebook Messenger because they can send photos over it. Aside from that, the call feature also helps and you can even video call too so that they can show you the problem much easier.

As a customer service tool, Facebook Messenger is an efficient tool in the business today, and with the constant updates it’s getting, it will only be getting better.

Deliver your content via Facebook Messenger

Newsletters are one of the undying ways that you can communicate with your customers.

It’s a more in-depth look at how a business operates, and your customers get to know your business better. Plus, it’s high-quality content reaching your most high-quality target audiences as well.

However, not a lot of people want to be receiving newsletters in their email when your content is on Facebook. Going across multiple platforms is quite a bit of a hassle, especially within this digital realm full of conveniences. Thus, it is your job to make it easier for them ‒ at all times ‒ to interact with your business.

One way to do this is by delivering your prime piece of content directly through to their Facebook Messenger.

A lot of people are uncomfortable with sending out their email to random businesses, so this is an excellent alternative. You won’t have to ask people to fill in a form so that they can get your content through email. Instead, they can just opt to get it delivered through Facebook Messenger. Content marketing through Facebook Messenger provides outstanding results, and you’ll find yourself getting higher open rates more than ever before.

Facebook Messenger has three types of broadcast messages that have their own guidelines. With these guidelines in place, the user experience is prioritized, but you still have the opportunity to communicate with your customers.

The three broadcast messages are Non-Promotional Subscription Messaging, Promotional Broadcast Messages, and Follow-Up Broadcast Messages.

The Non-Promotional Subscription Messaging must be like a newsletter that provides news and updates to your subscribers. If not, they must help with your subscriber's productivity in some way. It can also be a message that helps them keep a personal track on something like a date or food eaten or something similar.

Although you can’t advertise your business and products here, you can instead give them the option to receive further information about sales and deals that you have for your business.

With Promotional Broadcast Messages, these are the messages where you can directly advertise your services and products. You can, of course, send this directly through Facebook Messenger. However, you can only send these messages to people who you have interacted with on Facebook Messenger within the last 24 hours.

Last but not least, there are the Follow-Up Broadcast Messages. You will only have the ability to send these messages after you’ve sent a Promotional Broadcast Message. It will be available after 24 hours have passed since you sent a Promotional Broadcast Message.

This type of broadcast message sends reminders to your audience about the promotion that you have. It’s your last chance to push them to avail of your promotion.

By making use of these options on your Facebook Messenger, you create a better and more efficient way of communicating with your customers about certain promotions. Aside from that, it’s a great way of making your brand’s overall branding on Facebook better.

Confirm their attendance to your event

Another way to use your Facebook Messenger is for confirming someone’s attendance to your event.

If you have a working knowledge of the broadcast messages on Facebook Messenger, then you can send a message confirming their attendance. Once they’ve chosen whether they want to attend or not comes the next step.

You can have an automated response message based on whether they plan on attending or not. This will make it extra convenient for you to keep track of all the people who will be attending the event.

With the automated response in place, you wouldn’t have to spend too much of your time trying to reply to each response. It’s a great way of using Facebook Messenger for your convenience as well as your customer base.

Provide services using chatbots

Chatbots are another way that you can have a more effective and efficient time trying to service your customers.

Of course, you have to install them first and since this part can be a bit more technical, you can choose to get a professional to work with you to create a chatbot that works properly while also providing the right responses.

With Facebook Messenger chatbots, you can have conversations with your customers with automated messages from presets you’ve set up. This way, you can entertain queries that are more productive and relevant to your goals without neglecting the needs of your customers.

Another benefit to Facebook Messenger chatbots is that you can have a higher response rate because the response to a message will be automatic. You can create menu options for your customers to choose from based on the most common queries that you get through the Messenger.

You can even use chatbots to successfully guide a prospect to a different kind of conversion that isn’t just a sale. For example, you can push them to book an appointment or go to your website.

Setup Instant replies

Speaking of setting up chatbots to improve your response rate, you can set up instant replies on Facebook Messenger as a way to improve your response rate positively.

With instant replies in place, you can send out a message immediately after receiving a message from a prospective customer.

If you want to turn this feature on, then follow the steps below to activate it:

1. Go to the Settings of your Facebook page.
2. Go to the Messaging option. You can find it in the left column.
3. There’s a heading that says Send Instant Replies to anyone who messages your Page. Under that heading, choose the Yes option.
4. Change your instant reply by choosing the Change option. Type your new automatic reply and then click Save.

With this option, your client’s message is instantly validated. You can try setting up an automatic reply that assures your client that a sales representative will get in touch with them soon.

For a more efficient way of communicating with your customers, you can have a set list of responses so that you don’t have to spend too much time thinking of a response. This way is especially convenient for someone who’s busy and can’t respond to every query personally.

Sell directly within Messenger

If you’re based in the U.S., then a new Facebook Messenger feature helps you to sell products and services straight to someone through Messenger. It’s still not complete but you can try applying to see if you are allowed to get a hold of the program.

Wrap up

There are lots of things that you can do with Facebook Messenger that can help you have better communication with your customers. Above is a guide that can help you find improved ways to utilize Facebook Messenger to its fullest, so use it.