Configure a Facebook channel
Dynamics 365 Omnichannel for Customer Service lets you configure Facebook communication channels to take advantage of the social messaging platforms and engage with your customers through a personalized experience.
Prerequisites for adding Facebook support
There are a few requirements before you can use any social messaging platforms in Omnichannel for Customer Service. Social messaging must be set up through the Manage Omnichannel Instances page.
For more information on enabling social capabilities, see Provision Omnichannel for Customer Service.
To use Facebook Messenger, organizations need to have the following setup in Facebook:
A Facebook page with Messenger enabled. For more information, see Create and Manage a Page and Messaging
A Facebook application. For more information, see App Development
Messenger and Webhooks added to the Facebook application. For more information, see Setting Up Your Facebook App
For more information about how to Configure a Facebook channel.
Create a Facebook channel (application)
You need to create a messaging account record for each social messaging platform you intended to use (Facebook in this case). After you've created a messaging account for Facebook, you can create a Facebook workstream, and add the messaging account as a channel. Facebook messaging accounts can be created in the Customer Service admin center application. Navigate to Channels and select Manage next to Messaging accounts.
On the Add Account page, you'll need to provide the following information:
Name - Name of the Facebook application.
Channel - Set the channel to Facebook.
Application ID - Provide the ID of the Facebook application.
Application Secret - Application secret of the Facebook application.
You can obtain the Application Secret and ID by going to Settings > Basic from your Facebook application. They are in the App ID and App Secret fields.
After you save the account details, the Facebook Pages section becomes available. The Facebook Pages allows you to add the Facebook pages that allow a customer to connect to an agent.
When you add a new page, you can provide the following details:
Page Name - Name makes it easy to identify the page, but doesn't need to match the actual name of the Facebook page it's referencing.
Page ID - Add the ID of the Facebook page that this record is linked to. The page ID is available by selecting About and then copying the value in the Page ID field.
Page Access Token - The page access token from the Facebook application that is attached to the page. You can get the token from your Facebook application by going to Messenger > Settings and then copying the value of the Page Access Token field.
After you've successfully added the page, the values for Callback Uri and Verify Token are generated automatically. These values are used to configure webhooks in the Facebook application.
Customer Facebook workstream
After you've created your Facebook messaging account, you'll need to configure a new workstream to begin working with Facebook messages. You can create the workstream in the Customer Service admin center.
To create a social workstream, you'll need to define the following information:
Name - Simple name used to identify the workstream.
Type - Type of channel communication that the workstream will process. For social channels, the type needs to be set to Messaging.
Channel - The communication channel type for the workstream. The type must be set to Facebook.
Work distribution - How work items from this workstream will be assigned to agents. You can select one of the following options:
Push - Conversations will be assigned to agents automatically based on capacity and presence.
Pick - Conversations will go to the open work items section of the agent dashboard. Agents will pick the conversation they work on.
Fallback queue - Defines which queue to route items to by default if a conversation isn't automatically routed to another queue.
Customer Facebook workstream options
After you've created your workstream, you'll need to set up a Facebook channel that will use the workstream. This step is required and is done by selecting the Set up Facebook button.
Configure a Facebook channel with the following information:
Channel details - Defines the name, type and channel details. The type and channel field will be prepopulated and can't be changed.
Facebook Page - Defines the Facebook page that you want to use with the channel. This information will come from the Facebook messaging account you created earlier.
Language - Defines the language that will be associated with the channel.
Behaviors - Defines the behaviors to auto-perform when a customer starts a Facebook chat. You can turn on the following behaviors:
Custom automated messages - You can create your own personalized messages that will be used in different situations, such as when an agent is assigned to the conversation or when the customer is attempting to engage outside of business hours. For more information, see Creating custom automated messages.
Post-conversation survey - Uses customer voice to send a survey to the customer about their experience once the conversation is complete. For more information, see Post-conversation surveys.
Customer and agent experiences
Once a Facebook channel has been deployed, customers can initiate a conversation in any of the following ways:
Messenger on the Facebook page
Messenger app on a mobile device
Messenger widget on a custom website
If a customer initiates a conversation from the Facebook page, and then later switches to the mobile device, the previous conversation is persisted, and the customer can continue the conversation.
The agent receives the notification of the incoming chat request along with the customer details.
After the Facebook social profile is linked to a customer or contact record by the agent, subsequent Facebook conversations are linked to the customer records, and the customer summary is populated. If the customer isn't identified based on name, a new contact record can be created. The customer can send attachments only if you enable them. When the option isn't enabled for the customers, they can still attempt to send the file. However, agents won't receive the file and will see an error.
If the customer isn't identified based on name, a new contact record can be created.
