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Facebook Messenger Options You Should Be Using

Facebook Messenger has recently launched some new options for creating auto-responders and notices that Business Pages can set up to make responding to messages quicker and to accurately set expectations for further communication with the company.

Don’t Leave Your People Hanging

When someone writes a message to your Facebook Business page, they expect to hear back from you right away. If you don’t respond quickly, you can easily be perceived as being rude, non-responsive or even ungrateful for their question. And that would be a real bummer.

Your customers and patients are hungry for you to get back to them right away. So what do you do when you don’t have someone monitoring your Facebook page 24/7? How do you let people know you’ve received their message and when you’ll get back to them?

The answer lies in utilizing Facebook Messenger’s new options. Let us show you how.

How to Set-Up Automatic Messages on Your Facebook Business Page

  1. First you’ll need to access the “Settings” menu, then click “Messaging” (You must have admin access to your page in order to access these.)
  2. Once in your “Messaging” tab, scroll down to where it says “Response Assistant”
  3. Choose from three options for setting up messages.

The first option will automatically send a message back to the person who messaged you with a pre-written response. Facebook calls it your “Away Message.” You should set up an away message if you have someone on staff who responds to messages daily, but not instantly.

The second option is “Instant Reply.” It will send an automatic message to your customer to let them know something specific. (Keep in mind, all people who send you a message will get this same reply.)

For healthcare, we recommend setting up an Instant Reply about your policy in regards to answering personal health questions via Facebook (HIPAA regulations). It’s best practice not to answer health questions in a Facebook message. And, conveniently with Instant Reply functionality set up, you don’t have to constantly monitor your page and respond to each person! Below is an example of an Instant Reply for an endodontist’s page.

 

The third option, “Messenger Greeting,” is a bit different. This allows you to display a note prior to someone sending you a message. This is a handy way to let your customers know whether or not you reply via Facebook Messenger. You can also convey other important information such as office closings or technical difficulties. For example, “Our office is closed for the holiday” or “Due to a power outage, our scheduling system is down. Please call our office.”

Below is an example of a Messenger Greeting in action for the same endodontic practice Business page.

With these three new messaging options, there are endless ways to connect and communicate with your customers and patients—without being a slave to Facebook Messenger! Take the time today to set up a new automatic response message to help your team better manage client relations.