In recent years, many companies (if not almost all) have adopted Instagram as one of their main communication channels: this is due to the large number of people who write and interact with companies every day using this social network which, thanks to its popularity, has greatly improved interactions.
After this success, many experts in the field of marketing, communication and customer management have realized this great opportunity to exploit and have decided to give more corporate use to the Instagram Direct function. However, this resulted in various difficulties for users of the social network in terms of simplicity of use, management, and efficacy of the service, as the platform was not created for that purpose and hence was not particularly functional.
Various solutions have been proposed in response to this challenge, but none of them have proven to be effective, such as the links of the Instagram profile that directed their users to another external platform (WhatsApp or Telegram) where they could be served. This feature has been used until today, but by now Facebook has decided to give way to the Instagram API and thus allow external applications such as Callbell to manage Direct messages directly on their platform through the API in bulk and with multiple agents.
Facebook recently announced that it would begin making Messenger API functionality for Instagram available to the public. This is undoubtedly great news, as it assures us that after implementing it, Instagram can be used proactively together with other external tools in order to offer better support to users, thus allowing to assign incoming conversations on Instagram to different agents in a single platform, improve work flexibility, efficiency in the distribution of requests and a much wider control of your service agents.
As previously said, the most significant issue or inconvenience that businesses have encountered when using Instagram as a commercial communication channel is the inefficiency of the processes. This is due to the fact that the platform was not designed to be used in this way; yet, the enormous number of users who are accustomed to using it forces all businesses to do their best to provide optimal assistance.
And this is where the Instagram messages API comes in, because it improves the efficiency of the processes used by businesses to provide support to their users via Instagram, by 100%. With this API of messages you can in fact connect your Instagram account with external tools that will allow you to manage all the messages you receive in a single platform where all your agents will be connected, you will then have the possibility to distribute conversations, assign chats, classify them according to their priority, make detailed statistics of messages and agents, also having the ability to manage messages from other communication channels such as Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp.
a) Manage messages sent via Instagram Direct
You will be able to manage all the messages you receive on Instagram Direct, including replies to stories with external tools like Callbell. This will allow multiple agents to connect to Callbell and answer to each message quickly and easily. You will be able to assign messages to different agents, classify them according to their priority, and analyze customer service quality etc.
b) Provide a better communication experience
Customer satisfaction in terms of pre and post sales attention is very important and on several occasions it defines the loyalty that a customer reserves for your company. You can arrange and allocate chats to each agent using the Instagram API and a good external solution capable of handling messages, offering a 100% personalized and fast service because everything will happen in real time, thereby improving the client’s experience.
c) Increase the response rate of messages
By using the Instagram API you will be able to improve the quality of your replies. For starters, you may link several agents to a single account and respond to messages much faster, classify discussions according to their relevance, and better manage all open chats, all of which has a direct impact on your responses.
d) Overview of each customer regarding satisfaction.
The external platforms that we can connect to the Instagram API offer the opportunity to consider each customer in a general way, functioning as a CRM, or rather allow you to observe the entire sales and after-sales process of each customer, allowing you to detect those factors that influence the decisions of each person, noting the general environment of your company, your agents and thus having an idea of how to proceed with your company.
There are several companies that can help you connect the Instagram API to your business; however, this time we will recommend a tool called Callbell which, despite its modest cost, allows you to perform more functions easily, quickly, and efficiently.
First of all, for the integration to work, Callbell saves all messages that arrive in your inbox on Instagram Direct and displays them in their own, then assigns the conversation to one of the available agents who will answer the question and send the message. For this integration to work, businesses must meet certain requirements that Instagram imposes on its users, namely:
1) Your Instagram account must be registered as a business account;
2) The Instagram account must be linked to a Facebook page;
3) You must allow access to messages after connecting all the tools.
Note: at this stage it is possible to integrate only pages with more than 1000 followers due to the restrictions provided by Instagram.
Once you have met all the mandatory requirements, for the integration to work properly, you need to go through all the steps to connect Instagram to Callbell.
To do this, go to Settings> Integrations and then click Connect and select the Instagram page you want to integrate and, subsequently, the Facebook page to which you connected the Instagram page, then provide all the necessary permissions. Once you have completed all these steps, you will start receiving messages from your Instagram Direct account directly to your Callbell account.
As you will see, the integration of the two platforms is very simple and gives you great advantages in terms of process improvement and response If you want to know more about how the integration of Instagram and Callbell works, click here.
Frequent Questions
What can you do with the Instagram messages API?
The Instagram API is extremely useful for many things, for example to manage Instagram Direct messages through external tools such as Callbell, improve the conversion rate of messages by responding more fluidly and quickly by managing a multi-agent team, view the statistics of your business, of your customers and each agent belonging to your team.
Moreover, not only will you be able to manage incoming Instagram messages via external platforms, but you can also handle replies to stories, posts, reels, manage messages through Instagram and any interaction with your account through Instagram Direct.
What are the requirements you need to enable the Instagram Messages API?
To enable the Instagram Messages API, you must meet a set of very simple, yet essential requirements to use the features provided with the API. These include: having 1000 or more followers on your account, the Instagram account must be registered as a business account within the Facebook business manager, the Instagram account must be previously linked to a Facebook page, and your account must also allow tools external access to messages.
Keep in mind that in order to enable the Instagram messages API you must do it through an external tool such as Callbell, so as to have access to all the advantages that derive from the API.
About the author: Hello! I am Alan and I am the marketing manager at Callbell, the first communication platform designed to help sales and support teams to collaborate and communicate with customers through direct messaging applications such as WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram and Instagram Direct
