Facebook last week formed partnerships with two retailers — online apparel site Everlane and flash sale site Zulily — to let them use its Messenger Platform as a customer service tool.
Through integration with ZenDesk, retailers can have "personal, real-time conversations," with customers through the standalone messaging app, according to Facebook. These may include updates on order confirmation, shipping delivery times and receipt confirmation. Delivery time updates include a map indicating where the item is located along its route.
The chat service partnership will also allow stores to "be available to your customers in a more personal way and answer any questions that come up." An example was given of a customer deciding to switch his sweater order to the color black.
In a separate release, Zendesk said customer service teams can manage multiple Messenger chats at once, collaborate with one another to solve a customer's issue, and access chat history to easily continue a conversation after a break.
The assumption in much of the coverage was that Messenger may evolve into an e-commerce tool. Facebook offered two examples of how it could drive commerce. One was a message to a customer from Zulily: "Good news! The item you wanted is back!" The other was a message back from an Everlane customer on a shipping update: "Excited for this to get here! Can I buy another one in grey?"
According to Facebook, more than 600 million people are using Messenger every month, and it accounts for more than 10 percent of all mobile calls made over Wi-Fi.
Writing for Fast Company, Mark Wilson noted that Messenger could become just another annoying customer service tool if brands rely on automated-answering options to save labor costs. With texts tougher to ignore than e-mail, fliers and even phone calls, it could lead to intrusive marketing pushes, although he held out hope.
He wrote, "It's enticing to imagine a day when I can text Amazon, 'Send me four of the cheapest, best-rated 60W light bulbs you've got.' Here's hoping we can trust businesses to honor our wishes, and let us dictate the conversation on our terms."
- Facebook Messenger Business - Facebook
- Facebook Starts Turning Messenger Into a Shopping Platform - Re/code
- Zendesk partners with Facebook to power Businesses on Messenger - Zendesk
- Facebook turns Messenger into a shopping platform and app store - MacWorld
- How Facebook Plans To Turn Shopping Into Texting - Fast Company