Facebook now offers an official Messenger customer chat WordPress plugin, thereby making it easier to add Facebook messenger customer chat widget to hosted WordPress sites. Hence, you no longer have to be copying and pasting codes here and there, just to embed a live messenger customer chat widget on your site.
The plugin is a snippet of JavaScript code that runs on your WordPress website. There will be a small Messenger chat bubble that loads with your website in the lower right corner. Your customers can click on it at anytime and message you. It works on both mobile and desktop.
For you to set it up for your website, you will need to have a published Facebook Page and be logged into Facebook on your computer or device. If you do not have a Facebook Page, you can create one for free here. Once you have your Facebook Page ready, you can then follow the steps below.
Installing
To install the Messenger customer chat plugin:
- Log in to your WordPress dashboard, navigate to the “Plugins” menu and click “Add New”.
- In the search field, type ‘Messenger customer chat’ and click ‘Search Plugins’. Select the plugin authored by ‘Facebook’. You can install it by simply clicking ‘Install Now’ and ‘Activate’ it.
CONFIGURE PLUGIN FOR FIRST USE
After activating the Messenger customer chat plugin, click on “Customer Chat” on the sidebar of the admin dashboard and click on ‘Setup Customer Chat.’
A new window will appear for setting up the plugin and you will be asked to select the Facebook Page you want to use. You need be an administrator of the Page.
Next, you will go through the plugin setup with the following steps:
- Select the language, customize the default greeting message (optional) and click “Next”.
- Select your custom color and click “Next”
- Cick on ‘Finish’ to save these settings and click ‘Done’ to close the window.
The Messenger customer chat plugin code should now be visible in your WordPress Dashboard.
The Messenger customer chat plugin code should now be visible in your WordPress Dashboard.
Finally, click ‘Save Changes’.
That’s it!
You’re all set. Now all visitors to your WordPress website will see the Messenger customer chat plugin and can message you.
Note
- You can always go back through the setup process or edit the code manually.
- If you would like to hide the Facebook messenger customer chat widget on specific pages or want to customize it further, try “WP Chatbot Plugin” for WordPress.
- You don’t need to have a Messenger bot before you can add the widget to your website. The only requirement is a Facebook page but if you set up a chatbot for the facebook page, you can automate replies to messages you receive from your customers through the customer chat widget on your site.
- You can see all messages and responses to your Facebook Page in your Page Inbox. Navigate to your Facebook Page on Facebook and click on ‘Inbox’ at the top.
