There have been many changes made to the Facebook Pages messaging system and Facebook has shared some smart tips:
- Turn on messaging when you’re ready
Messaging is a feature that Page admins can turn on and off for their Page, and once you’ve enabled messaging for your Page, people will expect you to respond. So turn on messaging only when you can commit to responding to messages. Learn how to enable messaging for your Page.
It’s often been said that no presence is better than a poor online presence. Turn on messaging when you are ready to answer messages. Even if you only check it once a day, you must make the time to answer incoming messages.
- Have a plan in place to be responsive to incoming messages.
Depending on how many messages you anticipate, assign a person or a team of people to take the lead with monitoring and responding to messages. Bear in mind that if you are running adverts with the “Send Message” call to action, you may receive quite a few messages from people.
If you are a small business or individual, initially it may just be you. As you grow and you have more queries it may work better to have a particular person, who understands your brand and vision, to answer queries.
- Set a response time to set expectations.
Response times are notes that show up in the About section of your Page and in the chat window when someone messages your Page, and they tell people when they can expect a response from your business. Page admins can choose to show that they respond either “within minutes”, “within an hour”, “within hours” or “within a day”. Set a response time for your Page that is accurate to set expectations with people who send you messages.
Set a longer time than you expect, you never know what may happen and you don’t want to disappoint potential/current customers.
- Use Instant Replies to greet customers.
When you have messaging enabled for your Page, you have the option of turning on Instant Replies to send an automated reply to anyone who messages your Page. Where appropriate, this feature can be used to greet customers and thank them for reaching out before someone is able to respond personally. Learn how to turn on Instant Replies.
This is great way to confirm that their message has been received and that you will reply in time.
- Write the way you’d speak to someone in person
Messaging is a direct and personal communication channel, so make sure that your tone is friendly and respectful. Write to your customers in the same way that you’d speak to them in person. It’s also important to think about the context of messaging before you reply to or initiate a message with a customer. Messages are immediate by nature, meaning that they have the ability to get the attention of the recipient straight away. So we suggest using messaging to provide updates, such as shipping notifications and order confirmations, and for other conversation topics that are best discussed in real time.
Be approachable but professional, people like to talk with people not robots and your personal approach will help you gain return business and referrals.
- Be helpful and to the point
Facebook messages don’t have a character limit, but we still recommend keeping your messages short and to the point. Be clear about which question you’re answering and which action you recommend. You may also consider signing your messages with your name, not just the business name, to personalise the communication.
What do you love/dislike about the new Facebook Pages messaging system? Have you used it to help your business? Share your experience in the comments below.
