Pages Messaging will make it easier for business to connect with customers - and vice versa - across a range of platforms
People, Facebook says, want communication with businesses to be fast, convenient and efficient, just like their communication with friends. In response, Facebook has introduced Pages Messaging for businesses.
Pages Messaging consists of a raft of new features, designed to offer more ways for customers and businesses to connect.
The first of two main features to be rolled out relates to News Feed-based ads, which will be getting a new call-to-action button, ‘Send Message’.
This enables consumers – as may be self-explanatory – to send a message to a business directly from an ad.
While making communication more convenient for customers, this also adds a new analytics metric for the business. Businesses will be notified in every message which ad inspired the customer’s interest, effectively illustrating which ads are getting the best traction.
The Send Message call-to-action button can be enabled in all newly-created ads.
The second main feature allows page admins to respond to public comments in private messages.
This will be made possible by the addition of a Message option, in line with the existing Like and Reply options.
Clicking on Message will redirect page admins to the messaging screen, where they will be able to refer to the initial comment and craft a reply to be sent privately.
And those replies will be easier to put together than ever. Another new feature announced for Pages Messaging allows admins to create saved responses for common questions, in order to make mobile interactions with customers easier.
These saved responses will be fully editable and customisable, allowing admins to tailor a stock answer to suit a variety of questions.
Page admins who are worried that the apparent push to private messaging might make their customer service efforts less visible and make the business appear less responsive to customers’ concerns, Facebook will be adding notes to comments indicating that the customer received an inbox response.
Furthermore, the most responsive businesses will stand out in ways they haven’t before.
Facebook’s final feature in Pages Messaging adds a ‘Very responsive to messages’ badge to the pages of businesses that respond to 90pc of messages and have an average response time of less than five minutes.
Main image, via Shutterstock
