Customer Service on Instagram: An Overview of Instagram Customer Support

Do your clients utilize Instagram? If so, consider leveraging the platform to address their queries. This article provides comprehensive insights on delivering exceptional customer service for Instagram users. Additionally, we’ll acquaint you with select features from ChatsHero that can enhance your Instagram customer service experience

Instagram Customer Service vs Traditional Channels

In the realm of customer support, companies have traditionally relied on channels such as email, web chat, or phone calls. Unfortunately, these conventional methods possess inherent limitations, which we will delve into below.

Limitations of Traditional Channels

The conventional support channels lack the ability to trace conversations comprehensively, as they do not provide agents with an overarching view of customers’ chat history. For example, phone calls do not generate a transcript for agents to reference later.

In the case of web chat support, agents face challenges in tracking customers once they exit the website. This deficiency in customer traceability complicates the identification process, leading support agents to repeatedly request the same information when a returning customer seeks assistance.

Email support often results in fragmented conversations due to simple oversights, such as customers using different email addresses for inquiries or agents forgetting to CC relevant decision-makers. The consequence is prolonged resolution times.

Moreover, conventional support channels often fall short in meeting customers’ expectations for response time, as they neglect to update them on the status of their cases or the availability of agents.

Extended wait times on phone calls or emails that seem to go unanswered can lead to customer frustration. Dissatisfied customers may ultimately abandon the support process and seek alternatives among your competitors.

Given these drawbacks, is there a more effective solution for customer support? Continue reading to discover the answer.

Advantages of Instagram Customer Service

Instagram, a widely popular social media platform among Gen Z and Millennials, initially designed for sharing visual content, has evolved into a platform where businesses engage with their customers.

So, what are the advantages of utilizing Instagram direct messages as a support channel?

First and foremost, Instagram DM provides support agents with access to the conversation history within a messaging inbox. This capability enables agents to gain insights into past or recurring issues, make informed decisions, and offer improved attention to customers. Consequently, there’s no need to request the same information multiple times, leading to faster resolution times.

Instagram DM offers support agents and customers the ability to step away from a conversation and resume it later without losing essential contact data or conversation history. Additionally, businesses can utilize Instagram auto replies to effectively manage customer response times, preventing customers from feeling neglected and forming a negative perception of the customer service when agents are unavailable. In the following sections, we will delve into two crucial aspects that businesses should be aware of before delving into customer support on Instagram.

Understanding Instagram Customer Service: Key Considerations

To ensure a smooth start, it is advisable for you and your support teams to acquaint yourselves with the following concepts:

1. Different types of Instagram DM inboxes

2. Messaging rules governing the Instagram DM API

Let’s begin by examining the various Instagram DM inboxes and determining which one aligns best with your needs.

Instagram DM Inboxes Categories

For micro and small businesses with limited conversation volumes and lacking a dedicated support team, the Instagram app inbox serves as the ideal choice. Its key advantages include being free, user-friendly, and accessible across multiple devices simultaneously.

However, it falls short in providing essential organizational tools for contacts and conversations, making it less suitable for medium-sized businesses.

For such businesses, the Meta Business Suite Inbox presents a superior option. It incorporates basic management tools like manual contact assignment, labels, and notes. To utilize this inbox, you need to connect your Instagram account to your Facebook Page initially.

This inbox accommodates multiple users, but it’s crucial to grant your support team access. The Meta Business Suite also empowers you to construct customer profiles, allowing you to enrich them with details such as phone numbers and email addresses.

Furthermore, support agents have the capability to categorize Instagram messages as Done, Follow Up, or Important, enhancing the organization of the inbox. However, with the expansion of your business, the volume of conversations managed by your support teams also increases.

For medium to large businesses seeking seamless Instagram usage with multiple users, the Instagram DM API emerges as the preferred solution. It provides native messaging features, including generic and product templates.

As an API, it lacks a front end, requiring integration with a messaging inbox like ChatsHero. This connection grants access to organizational and messaging tools not available in the Instagram app or Meta Business Suite Inbox, which will be introduced later.

If you believe the Instagram DM API aligns with your company’s needs, it’s essential to familiarize yourself with certain messaging rules.

Messaging Rules for Instagram DM API

Businesses utilizing the Instagram DM API for customer service must establish a human escalation pathway.

Relying solely on automation to handle incoming conversations is discouraged. While bots have their applications, they may be insufficient for addressing specific customer problems. Ensure your Instagram audience is not frustrated by always providing them with the option to converse with a real person.

To deter businesses from spamming their clientele, Instagram has instituted a 24-hour messaging window for the Instagram DM API, initiating when a customer initiates contact with a business.

During this window, businesses and customers can freely communicate. Once the 24-hour period elapses, the business is unable to send messages to the customer unless the customer reopens the messaging window by initiating contact.

Now that you’re acquainted with the messaging guidelines, let’s explore how you can enhance your customer service on Instagram using the Instagram DM API with ChatsHero.

Achieving Quick Wins in Instagram Customer Service with ChatsHero:

To utilize the Instagram DM API with ChatsHero, ensure that you fulfill the following prerequisites:

1. Your Instagram account is a business account.

2. Your Instagram business account is linked to a Facebook Page.

3. Access to messages is granted in the account settings.

Follow our documentation to seamlessly connect Instagram DM API to ChatsHero. This empowers your customer support teams with features that enhance the efficiency and quality of their service.

Elevating Customer Service on Instagram: Leveraging the Human Agent Tag for Complex Inquiries

The Instagram DM messaging window presents limitations for customer support. Fortunately, Meta is currently experimenting with a Human Agent Tag across selected messaging platforms, including ChatsHero.

This feature is automatically available to all ChatsHero users, allowing them to extend the 24-hour messaging window to a generous 7 days.

The Human Agent Tag enables support agents to dedicate additional time to addressing intricate issues. Furthermore, they have the ability to follow up with customers on the subsequent business day when inquiries are received over the weekend.

Instagram Customer Service: Implement Advanced Automation for FAQ Responses, Customer Routing, and Case Escalation

ChatsHero’s primary feature is its Workflows, which companies can utilize to automate various processes across their teams, including customer service. These Workflows are extremely adaptable, providing limitless possibilities for customization.

Explore the following methods to enhance your customer support on Instagram:

Implement automated greetings and responses to enhance customer experience and alleviate the workload on agents.
Construct an FAQ menu to offer automated solutions to frequently asked questions. With this approach, you can provide up to 10 responses, surpassing the limit of 4 provided by Instagram’s native auto-reply feature.
Develop a routing Workflow to guide customers to the appropriate support team based on their specific needs. Customize branches using customer data or support team criteria such as language or region. Employ your preferred contact distribution logic to automatically assign them to an available agent.
Utilize the Shortcut button to manually initiate Workflows during customer interactions on the messaging console. This feature proves valuable for escalating cases or generating support tickets on external CRM platforms like Zendesk or Zoho without exiting the platform.

Gain Insight into Customers' Chat History with Contact Merge in Instagram Customer Service

In regions where messaging platforms like WhatsApp or Messenger are widely used, a single customer may reach out through various channels. This can lead to fragmented conversations dispersed across different channels.

The Contact Merge tool combines multiple customer profiles to form a unified customer story, offering customer support agents enhanced access to the Contact’s data and chat history. This facilitates a deeper understanding of their cases and enables more effective assistance.

Unlock Advanced Reports and Analytics for Instagram Customer Service:

Within the ChatsHero Reports Module, discover comprehensive insights into agent productivity, workload tracking, conversation monitoring, and resolution time measurement. This module provides all the necessary tools to identify long-term trends or focus on specific cases.

The Reports Module is equipped with various filters, providing managers the capability to obtain more precise insights into the performance of their support teams.

By accessing this information, managers can identify areas for enhancing customer service and ensuring that support agents meet their Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

You’ve reached the conclusion of the blog. Interested in connecting with your customers on Instagram using the top customer communication platform? Join ChatsHero now and create an account today!

Additional Resources

Interested in delving deeper into conversational support across various messaging platforms? Explore the following articles:

Utilizing Telegram for Customer Support

1. Leveraging WhatsApp for Customer Support
2. Implementing Viber for Customer Support