Facebook has been pushing messenger for customers to be able to connect with a business to get their questions answered. Users of Facebook are familiar with the system and can contact an organisation as easily as they can communicate with friends.
However, messaging businesses via Facebook Messenger is just a glorified email; the organisation’s representatives can answer straight away, in a few hours or not at all! The implied connection is not instant as the one you get via web chat systems.
Web chat connects a visitor to a business via a button on their website, in their emails or digital documentation. The chat happens in real time with both the visitor and operator present in a session, transferring text based messages.
Chat Functionality
The actual chat functionality available to the operator is far more advanced than that of Facebook Messenger. Whilst in a chat a user has access to a library of agreed replies to frequently asked questions that they can send the answer to the visitor’s enquiry, speeding up their response time and providing an accurate answer.
Some web chat systems can automatically navigate the visitor to a specific page, which opens up a new window in their browser, using this feature ensures the visitor has the correct information they need to make a decision, whether that’s making a purchase or trying to research subject matter, using this feature ensures the visitor has the correct information they need to make a decision.
To help advise the visitor when they can’t comprehend what they are seeing, the Co-browse functionality can be used to view the page the visitor is having difficulty with and assist them exactly, speeding up time dealing with support queries.
Supervisors are able to view the chat between an operator and visitor in real time, allowing them to monitor that the chats are appropriate and the representatives are accurately responding. If they are struggling to answer a question the supervisor can be invited into the session so it now becomes a three way chat, alternatively they can privately message the other user internally and provide them with the response to copy and paste into the chat.
Additional Functionality in the Web Chat System
As part of the website chat system, organisation can view the behaviour of their website visitors, this includes:
• Their IP address
• Their browser
• Their device
• Their location
• The pages they have viewed
• The duration they have been on the website
Being able to observe visitors’ actions, allows organisations to improve the customer experience by monitoring effects of any changes they have implemented to the website and identifying any pain points for the customer.
The web chat system also reports on the data collected whilst visitors are in chat and browsing the website. This allows analysts to benchmark their results and measure their Return on Investment (ROI).
Facebook Messenger Vs Web Chat Systems
Customers prefer web chat over email and telephone for its instant nature, they do not have to navigate a complicated telephone menu, wait on hold, in a queue or hours for a response.
Many corporations block the use of social media in the workplace therefore web chat is more appropriate and advanced for business use. There is also a question of privacy, as a Facebook user, have you ever spoken with to an organisation just to find their advertising on your wall?
Hello. Facebook is a great platform for the promotion, but there is one flaw, so much competition, i think that a for good promotion on Facebook need team at least 3 people. Thanks for great post
Thanks for your comment Mihail, glad you enjoyed the article.