If you are using Instagram Direct Messages to communicate with your audience, you probably know how much work and effort it takes to answer every one of the questions you receive. The worst part is that some of them are repetitive, so you have to give the same answer over and over again to different people.
What if there was a way to save time by using pre-created messages to commonly asked questions?
It turned out there is – it is called quick replies.
What are quick replies?
Instagram has been hinting us about this new feature for a while, but what exactly does it do?
With Quick Replies, you can create messages that you can later use as answers to commonly asked questions.
For example, if you frequently get the same question about your shipping costs or the warranty of your products you can set up an answer for each one of these questions. Then, when the next customer asks you, you can easily insert the previously written message instead of writing a new. Think of it like a draft message or a note you can always send to whoever needs the information.
What makes them great?
Quick replies are great to connect and communicate with your audience. They can be extremely helpful for businesses and marketers. That’s why they are available only if you are using the Instagram Business profile.
Quick replies are easy to create and can save you a lot of time. So, instead of typing the same long message over and over again, you can save it as a quick message and simply add it to the chat box whenever you need it.
Why do businesses need them?
This new feature can be a great addition to your Instagram management. No matter the size of your business, everyone can benefit from using quick replies.
Makes Teamwork Easier
If an agency is managing the Instagram account of a company, quick replies will make sure that both sides are on the same page. The business can set up pre-formatted replies which will ensure that the agency they are working with, has the right information.
Help Your Brand Develop a Certain Style / Voice
If more than one person is managing the Instagram account of a company, quick replies can be used to stay consistent and keep the same brand voice when communicating with your audience. This will make it nice for the customer, as it will seem like every message is coming from the same person. And that’s a nice illusion, isn’t it?
Provide Detailed Information
If people are constantly asking the same question and the reply is long and detailed, chances are that you can miss some information when answering it over and over again. Formatting a quick reply in advance will reduce the pressure of answering fast to your customer and give you time to think of every information you need to include in this message.
Excellent Customer Service
If the business provides the customer with a detailed answer and a quick response, this would mean that they have excellent customer service. And who doesn’t want to have satisfied and happy customers?
Makes Running Giveaways Easier
There is a lot of fuzz during a giveaway and many people want to know more details than what you’ve added to the caption of the specific post. For example, people might be curious when the giveaway will end, how will the winner be drawn or will it cost something to collect the reward if the person wins (shipping). So, there is no surprise that some of them would contact you with some additional questions that they would like to know.
Using quick replies will make sure that the company is prepared for the giveaway before it even began. This will make the process easier when you run the giveaway and start getting very similar questions from different users.
But don’t think that quick replies are like chatbots. Their purpose is to help you create meaningful and quality responses, not to make you sound like a robot. Personalize each message and make sure to add a personal touch in each one of them. A simple “Hey Amanda!” at the beginning of the message is better than a cold “Hello!” or no greetings at all.
How to use them?
There are several ways to create a quick reply.
You can create it from scratch. To do that, simply tap on the Quick Reply icon in the message field.
When you are creating quick replies for the first time, you will get a screen that will help you understand the Quick replies feature better. All you need to do is press the (+) icon and write your first reply message.
Once you are ready with the quick message, you will have to choose a shortcut (which cannot exceed 15 characters) for the specific message. You will use the shortcut every time you want to add a quick message.
When you are ready, click on the tick in the upper right corner. Now, you will be able to see the quick reply you’ve just created from the quick reply icon in the message field (just like in step1).
Every time you want to use the quick message, you will have to write the shortcut and click on the quick reply icon.
Once you click the icon, the quick reply will appear and replace its shortcut.
From Settings
You can create, edit and delete quick replies from your Instagram Settings. To use this way, tap on your profile and click on the menu in the upper right corner. Then, click on Settings (in the lower right corner). When you get to Settings, find Business Settings. Under them, you will see Quick Replies.
You can see that I have one quick reply called shipping. If you want to add a new quick reply, click on the plus in the upper right corner.
You can also edit and delete quick replies by selecting the message you want to make the changes to.
Make sure to save it when you are ready.
From already existing text
The last way to add a quick reply is by selecting an existing message, that you have previously written in your DMs. You will see the option to Save Quick Reply.
This option will take you to “Add New Quick Reply”, where you will have to write a shortcut for the message.
Quick reply is a nice feature, which will make the communication between businesses, agencies and customers’ way easier. With their help businesses can improve their customer support and make their brand consistent, using the same expressions and writing style. Marketers will know what style they need to use, so they can match the company they are representing even better. Customers will be happy and grateful for the fast, detailed answer you’ve given.
If you want to know everything about Instagram and how to grow your account, you can check out my book “Master the art of Instagram”.