Sick of slow customer service? Soon you’ll be able to get help 24 hours a day on Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger
Lots of us use smartphone apps like WhatsApp and Messenger to get responses from customer service people.
And more and more companies are also been using AI to triage interactions with customers and – hopefully – point you in the right direction for help.
Also read: WhatsApp Plus arrives on iPhone – will you pay for it?
Now Meta is launching a ‘Business Agent’ feature. Boring name, but what it means is that even small companies will be able to use Instagram DMs as well as WhatsApp and Messenger to help you with queries 24 hours day a, 7 days a week thanks to AI.
You’ll no longer have to wait for a human to come online at 9am, have your message go unread for days or to go through an automated step-by-step system only to find out you can’t get an answer to what you wanted.
The idea is that companies can easily get started with the agent with just a few clicks for smaller and Meta says that it will also interact with other systems that larger companies use. The system can even book appointments in Google Calendar as well as accept payments.
And you can even leave it voice notes rather than having to type out long messages. Meta adds that it is also improving the discoverability of companies in WhatsApp directly by rolling out usernames, so you won’t have to go somewhere else first as you can see here:
Users will also be able to book appointments directly from chats – perhaps someone has shared the contact details for a hairdresser, then the ideal scenario is that you would be able to book directly in the same chat.
Of the launch, Mark Zuckerberg said during Meta’s Conversations event in London that “whether you’re a clothing shop in Birmingham or a bakery in São Paulo you can offer the same always-on, highly-personalised experience as a major brand.”
Meta demonstrated on stage how easy it was for a company to set up the system – although you do need to spend time inputting information such as services you offer and what they cost. The system is also able to pass you off to a human where it is required.
You can also share your past chats with the system so it can better understand how you interact with customers.
Meta added that there are now over a billion messages per day globally between customers and businesses on its platforms and over one million companies using the apps to interact with customers.
Zuckerberg added that the system would be able to take on more responsibilities in future, with abilities such as “digesting what came in overnight and surfacing what your customers are asking for. As our models advance, your agent will take on more and eventually help you run your whole business.”
Dan Grabham
Editor-in-Chief 
