It looks like customer support via Facebook is about to get more useful, thanks to a new feature from startup Freshdesk.
Freshdesk helps businesses manage their customer service through traditional channels like email and phone, as well as social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Now it’s integrating with the messaging feature that was part of the new Brand Pages that Facebook launched in February. In the new Pages, users can send a private message to a brand the first time, and brands can respond.
That’s pretty appealing from a customer service perspective, because it means you can offer details that you wouldn’t want to share in a public Facebook or Twitter posting — such as your password or your credit card number. Companies are probably using those private messages for customer service already, but Freshdesk says it’s the first customer support platform to offer this kind of integration, allowing businesses to manage these messages in the same interface as all of their other customer communication. I suspect competitors will be following suit.
Earlier this year, FreshDesk raised a $5 million round from Tiger Global Management and Accel Partners.
