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How to Use Facebook as a Customer Service Extension

Reagan Boone • May 19, 2015

An interesting “Top 10” list has been making its way through the social media circuit lately: Facebook’s virtual population now exceeds China’s physical population.  With 1.39 billion monthly active users, your customers have more opportunity to experience your brand through social media than ever before.

FB customer service 1

Population of Facebook is larger than the Population of China

Most retailers and companies with a direct-to-consumer eCommerce operation already have a Facebook presence.  You may use your Facebook business page to post new content and products, share images and marketing material with your fans, and provide a call-to-action like “Shop Now” with the recently introduced feature.  You may allow fans to sign up for email marketing or to enter seasonal promotions and contests.

Example of Facebook Business Call-To-Action button

Some retailers create even immersive brand experiences through custom applications.  For example, the L.L. Bean “Base Camp” app encourages users to post photos with a specific hashtag to Twitter or Instagram.  The Facebook app allows visitors to vote on favorites, and winners receive gift cards.  Other retails integrate a community ask-and-answer platform like Get Satisfaction.

What’s next for customer service through the social media giant?  Personal interaction!   At the recent F8 developer conference, Businesses on Messenger was announced.  As the Facebook Messenger platform is opened up to app developers and publishers, eCommerce retailers will have the opportunity to take advantage of the new features in exciting ways.

Some of the ideas for generating additional persona interaction include:

  • Live Chat through both your Facebook business page and your eCommerce Site
  • Respond to common customer service questions like “where is my order” using a custom layout and live tracking information.
  • Send order history and invoice information
  • Send shipping and order confirmation messages through Messenger instead of (or in addition to) email.
  • Send push notifications for special sales and back-in-stock notifications.

Facebook intends to provide a customer service and live chat channel and to “reinvent the way people communicate and interact with businesses.”  With a tagline of “personal, real-time conversations with your customers,” dozens of use cases for eCommerce retailers exist.

 

   Live chat through both your Facebook business page and your eCommerce site. 
 
   Respond to common customer service questions like “where is my order” using a custom layout and live tracking information.
   
 FB customer service 5  Send order history and invoice information.
   
 

 

FB customer service 6

 

 Send shipping and order confirmation messages through Messenger instead of (or in addition to) email.
   
 FB customer service 7  Send push notifications for special sales and back-in-stock notifications.

 

Contact LYONSCG today for more.

Reagan Boone is a Senior Technical Architect at LYONSCG and a fifteen-year veteran of eCommerce architecture and software engineering.


Reagan Boone

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Reagan Boone

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