Facebook might crush traditional CRM
The Kustomer acquisition, Checkout and Shops features highlights what's to come.
The Zuck with Shopify’s Tobias Lutke
If I was Zendesk or Intercom, i’d be watching Facebook really closely. If you run an e-commerce business and have been saving money on traditional chat software (Zendesk / Intercom) by using the Facebook Messenger on your website, you’d have noticed the slew of new features that FB rolled out this year. FB has been working with Shopify to integrate commerce functions (Checkout on Instagram and Shops). But more excitingly, it has finally started working on its janky chat features.
I run a small e-commerce business and customers LOVE messaging me on social media. Instagram and FB usually. I used to have to chat with them across both platforms until recently when FB integrated chat across all its social media assets into a clean backend on the Facebook Business Suite. This is what it looks like :
Best of all, it is free.
The Kustomer acquisition says a lot about Facebooks ambition to become the dominant toolkit for businesses to manage their customers. From pre-sales to post-sales and more.
The value proposition is very clear. I almost purchased a basic Zendesk subscription, but decided not to when these new features rolled out a few months ago (in 2020). I have always thought that the FB chat function on my website was a hack for cheap businesses like mine. Now, I think it will form a cornerstone of my customer acquisition strategy and I fully intend to build on these tools. If Facebook starts charging for it, I probably will pay for it since it is pretty deeply integrated with my Shopify website.
It also helps that they’re native to the advertising platform I use. A platform I am increasing my ad spend on by the way.
This is an absolutely terrifying news for traditional CRM companies. Facebook owns the rails to the customer (social media), sells ads that help businesses find customers, and is now becoming an operating system of sorts for the customer’s journey from prospect to client. As with all new innovations, this is starting out a little janky (these features do feel slightly cobbled together). However, do not rule out FBs ability to build something smooth eventually.
This is a company that was failing at making its core-asset (The Facebook) into an app during the mobile revolution. It eventually succeeded. I wouldn’t bet against Facebook making its business suite so good that every small business starts using it. Just like how every small business has a Facebook Page these days. And, if you already have the Business Suite, why would you pay to use Zendesk or Intercom?
I highly recommend reading Packy McCormick’s excellent article about Facebook. I love confirmation bias and I have been a Facebook investor for sometime which is a very uncool thing these days. Packy helped reaffirm my beliefs in the company.
**Disclaimer : This is not investment advice as I am not a licensed investment guy. I own shares in Facebook as of writing. It forms 11% of my portfolio.