When customers take the time to message the business on Facebook or Instagram, it’s easy to assume they’ll wait for the response before taking action.
But that’s not a realistic approach, especially when the average customer has high expectations and tons of other options to consider.
Meet customer expectations:
Most customers expect to receive a response to social media inquiries within a day.
That time frame may sound relatively reasonable until to consider that nearly 50% of customers expect a response within an hour.
If the team isn’t consistently responding within an hour, he/she are certainly not alone.
Across all social media platforms, companies take an average of 6 to 7 hours to respond to customer inquiries.
There are many reasons why the average team response time might be between 6 and 8 hours or more.
Perhaps they only have time to check the Meta Business Suite inbox a few times a day.
Maybe the team is only online during normal business hours.
It is important to know that the approach may not meet customer expectations. The result could be unhappy customers, lower loyalty, or missed sales opportunities.
Seize sales opportunities:
Some of the messages that come in on Facebook and Instagram may fall into the realm of customer service.
When someone receives inbound inquiries from potential customers (new or returning), the equation changes completely.
Nearly 70% of leads end up buying from the company that responds to their message first.
That means if the team waits 6 or more hours to respond, the company could miss out on a lot of potential sales.
So if they respond quickly, they may be surprised at how little time they have to respond.
Companies that get back to prospects within 10 minutes are 100x more likely to convert leads.
To seize more sales opportunities and improve customer acquisition, the team could set up a system to respond to new message notifications and respond immediately.
However, if the team can’t provide 24/7 coverage, Meta’s automated responses can help.
Building trust with the audience:
Responding to Facebook and Instagram queries can be a great way to build credibility and establish trust with prospects.
If the team tends to respond quickly to Facebook messages, the page will automatically display a “Highly Responsive” badge next to a call-to-action (CTA) to send messages, which can encourage more prospects to send messages.
To make sure the team is responding within certain time frames, track Facebook messaging metrics in Business Suite.
To check, go to the Business Suite Insights panel and open the Messaging tab.
Then scroll down to check the team’s response rate and time.
While automating responses can certainly help improve customer acquisition and build trust, it’s important to note that these automations don’t contribute to messaging performance metrics. This means it’s still important for the team to manually respond as efficiently as possible, especially if they want the page to display that badge.
6 Ways to Set Up Automated Replies on Instagram and Facebook:
Automatic replies can be a great solution to this problem and are remarkably easy to implement. Here’s how to use Business Suite and the Instagram app to automate replies.
Set up an out-of-office message:
If the team responds promptly to DMs during the workday, set up an automated out-of-office message to respond immediately after work.
To set up such a message, open Business Suite, navigate to the Inbox, and click the Automations button in the top right.
Click the Create Automations button and select Out-of-Office Message. Choose the channels (e.g. Messenger and/or Instagram) that want the message to be delivered through. Set the times they want the out-of-office message to be automated (e.g. when the team is away). Then write the out-of-office message. Since anyone who DMs while are out will see the message, make sure it’s relevant to as many people as possible. Adding bullet points for common issues can help users get the information they need efficiently. If capturing sales opportunities is a top priority, add information aimed at warm leads right at the beginning of the message. Instead of making them wait until the next business day, give them the opportunity to take the next step in their buyer’s journey. For example, if leads frequently ask about costs, include a link to a price comparison page. If the company offers product demos or free trials, direct them to the sign-up page.
If the company sells products in retail stores or an ecommerce store, direct them there where they can start shopping right away. It’s also helpful to specify exactly when prospects can expect a response from the team.
Make sure to follow through on the promise.
This can go a long way in building trust.
To make the out-of-office message sound a little more personal, click the star button to automatically insert customer names.
Then click the Preview in Messenger button to see exactly how the message will look to customers and double-check the links.
Add an instant reply:
The biggest benefit of out-of-office messages is that they’re automatically activated when the team isn’t online.
Everyone gets a response with important details when they message the company outside of business hours.
An instant reply lets respond to any initial message immediately.
This feature is ideal for connecting with prospects who have never reached out before.
Note that it won’t work if they are replying to prospects who have already started a conversation.
To set up this feature, follow these steps to find Instant Reply in the automation menu.
Choose whether they want the message to appear in Messenger, Instagram, or both. Then use the 500-character limit to write a message.
Simply copy and paste the out-of-office message and adjust the timing.
If the team usually responds to messages within an hour, need to provide such a long list of resources.
Instead, give time-sensitive prospects an easy way to move further along in their buyer’s journey.
Then make sure to follow up promptly.
Share contact information:
Look for common themes in Facebook and Instagram messages.
If most customers simply want the store address, hours, or direct email address, Business Suite gives them an easy way to automate the replies.
The only catch is that these automations only work in Messenger.
To set up these automations, look for the Contact Info, Location, and Hours options in Business Suite.
Note that all three options allow add a button with a URL at the end of the message.
Business Suite will auto-populate the Facebook page URL, which is helpful if the page already has relevant contact information or hours listed.
Having the option to add a URL manually.
So if hours vary or pop-up locations are constantly changing, direct customers to a different URL with the most up-to-date information.
Create FAQs:
Use FAQs to create a sort of self-service knowledge base with any combination of questions and answers.
Set up FAQs for the Facebook page and Instagram profile.
To use Business Suite and the Instagram app to integrate both channels.
To display FAQs in Messenger, set them up in Business Suite.
Select the Frequently Asked Questions template, add a new entry, and then write a custom question and answer.
Also add media or interactive buttons to frequently asked questions that can help prospects view valuable resources.
Make sure having the “Add to menu” switch turned on so the question appears in the FAQs list.
Turn questions on and off based on seasonality, customer trends, and other factors.
Scroll through messages received over the past 60 or 90 days and make note of the most frequently asked questions.
Alternatively, review message threads with prospects who ultimately converted and reuse the questions they asked before purchasing.
Note that people who message the Facebook page for the first time will automatically see a menu of FAQs in Messenger.
Anyone who has an ongoing conversation with the business can open the menu in Messenger by clicking and selecting a question, but the list won’t be as obvious.
FAQs for Instagram:
After have added all of the FAQs in Business Suite, open the Instagram app and navigate to the account’s business settings.
To use the same FAQs from the Facebook page, tap the “Import Questions” option.
Then, select up to four questions to import to Instagram.
Note that any questions to import will replace any questions which manually set up in the app.
If the imported questions contain interactive buttons, note that these will not carry over to Instagram.
URLs and CTAs must be added manually.
The Instagram audience matches a different customer profile or asks different types of questions.
Instead, tap “Add Question” to set up custom FAQs for Instagram.
It’s important to note that Instagram users will only see the FAQs when they first start a conversation with the business.
If are already having an active conversation with them in DMs, they won’t see the FAQs.
Create Custom Automations:
All of the automation options above are available as templates in Business Suite and Instagram.
They’re easy to set up and require little to no configuration.
However, if need something more advanced, create a custom workflow.
In Business Suite, go to the Inbox section and select Automations. Instead of using a template, click the Start from scratch button. Then, create the ideal automation for the incoming requests.
Automating messages with specific labels is a good place to start. Set up a labeling system with the team.
For example, use a “Prospect” label for people who have expressed interest in the product or service.
A prospect who is ready to buy might get a “High Intent Prospect” label.
Note that will need to apply custom labels manually.
In some cases, such as when a user books an appointment on the page, Business Suite automatically adds meta-created labels to inbox conversations.
Set up a custom automation based on the labeling system.
Select “Label was added” as the primary condition.
Then select the labels to trigger the automation.
To avoid overwhelming warm leads with messages, set a time frame for the response.
Use Business Suite’s message status feature to streamline the automation.
Use the platform’s follow-up option to track important active messages and add that status as another condition in the automation.
Select “Send message” for the action.
Then write a follow-up message designed to move prospects further along.
Consult with the sales team to find the right language to successfully convert prospects into new customers.
Respond to selected comments:
Warm leads send the company a message to start or continue a conversation.
While they can’t automatically respond to every comment using Meta’s built-in tools, send DMs based on comments with specific keywords.
Open the Business Suite’s Inbox Automations and select the Custom Keywords option.
Then enter up to five keywords or phrases to trigger the automation. For example, create an automation for prospects who comment with pricing-related questions.
Then write a message that directs warm leads to pricing details.
Include all the necessary information in the message itself. Add interactive buttons to prompt prospects to visit the website.
To give prospects multiple options for the next step, add multiple interactive buttons so prospects can choose the one that best fits their needs.
Streamline the company’s Facebook and Instagram inboxes with automated replies and help the team respond to incoming inquiries more efficiently.
By providing faster responses and automatically delivering relevant information, reach more customers and make more sales.