How Messenger API for Instagram helps driving business outcomes

The Messenger API for Instagram has several features that help drive business outcomes by turning people into customers, and into long term advocates.

Ways to Reach Out to a Business on Instagram

There are several ways to reach out to a business and start a conversation on Instagram. 

Imagine that you are casually checking your Instagram stories and see a nice sweater posted by a brand you follow. You can directly reply to the story and ask about the other colours they carry the sweater in. Alternatively, you can browse the shop catalogue and reach out to the business after seeing the product, or messaging the business directly from their profile. 

Another way you can reach out to a business on Instagram that has been tested in beta is by commenting on their posts. For example, businesses will post about their products or the latest offerings, and users may comment on their posts seeking help or asking questions. With this feature, businesses can message the users who need direct, one-to-one feedback back to respond to their inquiries. When a business responds quickly and communicates in a personal way, this builds trust and loyalty in the brand and turns users into customers. 

Benefits of the API

The API allows businesses to manage their messages on the same communication platforms that they already use for other channels. As businesses have already invested time and energy into these platforms, the API allows them to save on the investments and keep all their messaging in one place. 

The API also integrates Instagram messaging with existing tools and systems, such as CRM, inventory management, and analytics. This equips agents with customer data and insights that they need in order to provide custom experiences for individual consumers. 

Finally, the API allows businesses to build automated flows that will increase customer satisfaction and agent efficiency. By offloading agents from simple tasks, they are able to respond to customers with complex inquiries at a faster rate. The automation also provides consumers with immediate answers to their questions. 

Key Features of the API

There are five key features of the API that helps businesses create new opportunities to provide solutions to their customers. 

By designing the automated flow based on structured inputs from people, Ice Breakers and Quick Reply includes predefined options for people to tap on and flow through conversations with businesses. These features set clear expectations on options available to users, and makes it easier to get a conversation started to get the answers that they need. Ice Breakers and Quick Replies are especially helpful to automate responses for frequently asked questions or help triage questions before bringing in a live agent. 

The most powerful messaging experiences combine automation and live chat, which makes the handover protocol an important process for customers to have a seamless experience in messaging. 

The generic template is helpful when businesses want to make the product discovery or recommendation process easy for their customers to browse through in a highly visual way that also includes a call to action aspect. The generic template allows developers to build a carousel with multiple options of products that people can view, as well as buttons for people to take action and click on. 

As mentioned earlier, sometimes businesses get comments on their posts from users that require one-to-one help. Private reply enables businesses to follow up on the comments and message the users to offer the support that they need. 

With the features and benefits the Messenger API for Instagram offers, there are several ways it can drive business outcomes as the user experience is improved by seamless transitions and instant responses to their questions.