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In its quest to become a friend to businesses and use its huge user base, at F8 today Facebook announced Businesses on Messenger. A potentially exciting new tool for businesses to stay relevant and help them connect with their customers, Businesses on Messenger allows retailers to send messages to customers using Facebook Messenger.
Shopping online needs a refresh, most online and mobile shopping experiences are very similar; pick items, add them to a shopping cart, pick a delivery option, pay for the items and wait. If anything goes wrong, that’s when most online retailers (bar Amazon) really struggle. Customer service interactions are usually a nightmare where it takes 3 days for a retailer to respond to an email and phone numbers are very expensive 0845 ones.
This is where technology comes in; customers are taking to social media, especially Twitter to complain, ask questions and review products and Facebook is making a big push to get involved in this always on, instant communication between brands and their customers. Enter Businesses on Messenger. Basically the way it works is that on retailers’ websites a customer can sign up to receive communication via Facebook Messenger and it starts with retailers sending over an electronic receipt post purchase and updating customers on delivery of their items.
Where it becomes really exciting is when brands can start a conversation with individual customers to upsell items, recommend products, keep complaints to a minimum and engage people with their shopping. It also brings with it the ability for businesses to send marketing messages to customers and collect data. Here is an example of technology enhancing a shopping experience. It will be interesting whether customers take to it or they find it too intrusive.
Read more about it here.
