SaaS-based startup Freshdesk unveils 'private' customer support for businesses on Facebook

Freshdesk, a SaaS-based customer support platform, has announced a new feature that will help businesses integrate traditional customer support with the Facebook messages on the 'brand pages'. Now customers, who are interacting with companies via Facebook, won't have to change their support platform (such as calling or e-mailing) to share some personal or sensitive information. Freshdesk's all-new private customer support platform will keep those messages "off the air" – so that those don't show up on the Facebook site but companies can still access those and help their customers accordingly.

Connecting with customers via social media platforms is a popular trend but one can't possibly ignore the downside. Publishing critical information like account details, credit card number or contact details on a public platform is undoubtedly a high-risk activity that most consumers would want to avoid. But the new solution will enable them to share such crucial information by keeping it 'offline' and therefore, strictly 'private'.

In other words, the new solution seems to be offering an online help desk that enables businesses and customers to interact on a social media platform (Facebook, to be precise) with the privacy intact, in case you are sharing some sensitive data.

"As customers have shifted to interacting with brands through Facebook messages, Freshdesk has a created a way for businesses to get the information they need while catering to customers' need," said Girish Mathrubootham, CEO of Freshdesk.

An additional feature will also enable a brand to move the conversations to the company's own message box and thus leave the brand page on Facebook less cluttered. With Facebook messages integrated via Freshdesk, companies can interact with individual customers on one-to-one basis and also engage with the community on Facebook. What's more, Freshdesk automatically converts these Facebook messages into support tickets that agents can respond to.

Founded in October 2010 by Mathrubootham, former vice-president (product management) at Zoho Corp, Freshdesk is a Tiger Global and Accel Partners-backed company. It had raised its last round of funding earlier this year from the existing investors. The company offers customer support software for small and medium enterprises looking for a Cloud-based interface.