Use automation to acknowledge messages and answer the few questions that always get the same reply. Keep anything involving judgement, dates or problems with a person, and make reaching that person one tap away.

The pitch

The offer arrives by email or in an advertisement for a webinar: put a bot on your Facebook page and it will answer customers around the clock, book appointments and sell while you sleep.

For a small business that answers messages between other jobs, it sounds like relief. Messages arrive at night and on Sundays, and every slow reply feels like a customer lost.

Some automation genuinely helps. Some of it stands between a customer and the person they were trying to reach, and keeps them there.

The difference is rarely the software. It is whether the question needs a person.

What a page can already do

Before buying anything, open the messaging settings on your page. None of what follows needs a bot.

The fourth is the one most pages never set up. A saved reply is written once, carefully, then sent by a person who has read the question and can adjust it to fit.

What a Messenger bot actually is

A bot is a program connected to the page's Messenger account. For small businesses it is almost always scripted: buttons and keyword rules written in advance by whoever set it up.

It does not understand the message. It matches words. A customer who types price gets the price list; a customer who types I need it by Friday may get the Friday opening hours.

That works when customers ask predictable things in predictable words. It works badly when they write the way people actually write: several questions at once, with dates, measurements and a story attached.

Messenger's rules also limit what a page may send people who have not written recently, so past conversations are not a broadcast list, whatever the pitch implies.

Where automation helps

Acknowledging a message is the clearest win. An instant reply saying who will answer, and roughly when, turns silence into a promise.

Out-of-hours messages are the second. An away message giving the next opening time and a link to book online lets the customer act tonight instead of waiting.

Then the handful of questions that always get the same answer: hours, address, parking, how far ahead to book. Those can be answered automatically, or by a person with a saved reply, and nobody loses anything.

Where bots lose people

A menu that loops is the commonest failure. The customer types a question, gets four buttons, none of which fits, types again and gets the same four buttons.

A bot given a person's name and photograph is worse. Customers who discover they were writing to a script feel tricked, and they are not wrong.

Complaints should never meet a bot. Somebody already annoyed, offered a menu, becomes somebody annoyed in public.

And depending on how it is connected, a conversation the bot has answered can look handled in the page's inbox, so nobody on staff ever opens it.

A worked example

A formalwear rental shop in Abbotsford fits suits and tuxedos for weddings and graduations, and takes most first enquiries through its Facebook page.

Last winter it bought a bot as part of a marketing package. Every message received the same reply: four buttons for prices, styles, booking a fitting and hours.

Real messages look nothing like that. A mother writes that her son graduates in early June, is six foot four with long arms, and wants slim navy. A groom asks about seven groomsmen in three cities.

The bot offered each of them the four buttons. Some tapped through; others stopped writing, and staff only saw those conversations when somebody phoned, annoyed, to ask why nobody had answered.

The shop switched the bot off in May, before the summer weddings. An instant reply now says a fitter answers messages between ten and six, Tuesday to Saturday, and links to the fitting calendar.

Saved replies cover deposits, return dates and group bookings, sent by whoever picks up the message. The away message gives the next opening time.

Making the person easy to reach

Whatever automation stays, the route to a human should be visible at every step. A button saying talk to a person, or a line saying type your question and someone will reply, is enough.

State honestly when somebody reads messages. A customer told someone will reply by ten tomorrow waits calmly; one promised an instant answer and given a menu does not.

Sign replies with a first name where you can. It tells the customer a person has taken the question on.

And give somebody the inbox as part of their job, with a time each day to clear it. Automation that acknowledges a message is only honest if a person follows it.

Questions to ask a bot seller

If you are offered a bot, a few questions sort the useful from the expensive.

Ask what happens when a customer types something the script does not recognise, and ask to see it happen. Ask how a conversation reaches a person, and whether staff are told.

Ask who can change the script once the setup is finished, and what each change costs. Ask whether the bot will message people who did not ask, and how that fits Facebook's rules.

And ask what the monthly fee buys that the page's own settings do not.

The counter-case

Some businesses really do get the same few questions all day: a venue asked about parking and start times, a shop fielding questions about one product.

There, a well-built bot with clear buttons and an obvious way out to a person can save real time, and customers who only wanted the parking details are content.

Even then, it should handle the predictable and hand everything else to a human quickly. Automate the acknowledgement and the routine answers; keep judgement, dates and complaints with a person.

Where to start

  1. Read your last thirty messages from customers.
  2. Sort them into routine questions and judgement calls.
  3. Set an instant reply saying who answers and when.
  4. Write saved replies for the routine questions.
  5. Add an away message with the next opening time.
  6. Give one person the inbox each day.
  7. Test any bot with a real customer's message.

Step two decides how much to automate. It usually shows a few questions repeating endlessly and the rest each needing a person, and the automation should cover the first group and nothing more.

Choosing which platforms deserve your time at all is the question behind Pinterest for a business that sells renovations.

Frequently asked questions

Does my Facebook page need a Messenger bot?

Usually not. A page's own settings already send an instant reply, an away message and a greeting, and saved replies let staff answer routine questions in seconds.

What is a Messenger bot, exactly?

A program connected to the page's Messenger account. For small businesses it is usually scripted: buttons and keyword rules written in advance, matching words rather than understanding them.

When does automation help with messages?

When it acknowledges a message and says when a person will reply, answers out of hours with a booking link, or handles questions that always get the same answer.

Where do bots frustrate customers?

When a menu loops with no option that fits, when a bot pretends to be a person, and when complaints or questions about dates and details meet a script.

How should customers reach a person?

Through a visible option at every step, such as a button or a line saying to type the question. State honestly when someone reads messages, and keep to it.

What should I ask a bot seller?

What happens with an unrecognised message, how conversations reach staff, who can change the script and at what cost, and what it does that the page's own settings cannot.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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