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Ask DN: How do you feel about Facebook chat for live chat support?

over 7 years ago from , Web Developer at Goodbytes

I'm about to launch a new start up and will have the obligatory 'live chat' widget (annoying little icon floating at the bottom-right of the viewport) on there.

Lately I've seen a buzz around Facebook chat integration as business can now chat with customers from their websites. How do you feel about this replacing the traditional live chat integrations?

I can see benefits to both but yet to see a Facebook integration that 'just works' and gives a potential customer instant access to our sales/support.

Any recommendations for either Facebook or other?

4 comments

  • Jessa ClarkJessa Clark, over 7 years ago (edited over 7 years ago )

    I worked at a company that partnered with Facebook to introduce it. The user interface as of December 2015 for handling incoming chats was absolutely awful and glitchy, worst help desk type software I've ever used.

    I would recommend Intercom over FB.

    1 point
  • Michael FMichael F, over 7 years ago

    Thanks for the input guys, it seems Intercom is a popular choice but may be a little overkill for now.. It would definitely be the weapon of choice when the budget increases... I stumbled across 'Crisp.im' on my travels which is free and from initial testing, works really work... It doesn't provide much in the way of stats or management, but for a basic chat tool it's great! I'll probably run with this and evaluate my needs as I go on... Their online app integrates nicely into another app I am using: Rambox, which brings all my chat services (Messenger, Skype, WhatsApp, etc..) into one place.

    0 points
  • Chris MessinaChris Messina, over 7 years ago

    It depends on your needs and volume of interactions, but I'd highly recommend Intercom, or some other tool like Smooch Web Messenger.

    I just tried to host a live chat session with 10 people simultaneously (write up coming soon) and it was ATROCIOUS. The current Facebook Page Messages tool clearly wasn't designed to scale between many simultaneous conversations the way that messenger.com was. For now I'd suggest that you avoid Facebook's own tools if you expect to get any volume of inbounds.

    0 points
  • Brian FryerBrian Fryer, over 7 years ago

    As a user, I love it.

    I attended a concert earlier this year, and needed to know if I could bring a particular type of chair to the venue. I hopped on venue's Facebook page, started a conversation with Messenger, and sent them a photo of the chair-in-question. They responded in <20s (sadly, I couldn't bring the chair; better to know beforehand, though).

    If you get a decent amount of traffic to your Facebook Page (or from Facebook to your website), using Messenger for support might be worthwhile.

    0 points