SmallBusinessNewz

Businesses have found Facebook to be a great platform for customer support for some time now, but more companies are finding ways to improve how this is actually done.

Parature has a Facebook app that adds a support tab to your Facebook page (Hat Tip: Leena Rao). In addition, the company says:

Facebook fan page administrators can enable fans to search your knowledgebase, submit tickets and chat with customer service agents - all direct from Facebook using Parature Chat, Ticket and Knowledgebase. And your customers can even share their service experiences with their own Facebook friends.

The company lists the following benefits:

- Efficiently monitor all Facebook wall posts and comments in real time - take immediate action, route and assign issues that would otherwise be unmanageable

- Monitor, listen and engage with your customers on your Facebook fan page. Multiple departments, including HR and Marketing, can monitor posts and take immediate action.

- Provide immediate support - allow customers to find an answer or ask a question

- Increase customer retention and loyalty - provide a consistent level of service to your customers wherever they are, on your support center or your Facebook fan page

- Improve overall community sentiment - enable your fans to share their service experiences with their Facebook friends
 
- Increase customer response times
 
- Enable any number of fan page administrators to monitor fan pages
 
- Integrates seamlessly with Parature Customer ServiceTM software
 
- Easily installs on your Facebook fan page in just minutes

I think we're going to see more and more small businesses simply setting up Facebook pages rather than websites, simply because of the ease with which it is able to be achieved, and the massive user base of Facebook. Consumers will also increasingly turn to Facebook pages to engage with the businesses they wish to maintain a connection with. Having an clear-cut way for them to access customer suppport could be a major benefit.

Parature's app is not the only way to lend customers support through Facebook, and I'm sure we can count on many more options to come out as time progresses. I have not personally used the service, so you shouldn't consider this an endorsement. However, it may be worth looking into if you're looking to establish a better direct connection with customers through Facebook. It may have disadvantages.

Have you used this? Let us know what you think of it.