Reply privately to comments
In digital communication, not every interaction with your customer needs to be in an open forum. Customers often raise questions, concerns, or feedback that are best addressed privately, especially when they involve sensitive information, personalised support, or detailed follow-ups. To cater to this need, the Private Reply feature helps you handle interactions, keeping the conversation more personalised and out of the public eye.
What is a Private reply?
The private reply feature allows you to respond to a comment on your post through a direct message instead of replying in the comment section. This ensures your reply is visible only in their inbox, maintaining privacy and offering a more personalised communication experience. Whether it's about addressing a product issue, handling a complaint, or simply moving the conversation to a more appropriate channel, replying privately brings professionalism to your customer engagement.
Imagine you run a travel company, and you've just posted on your social media about a new travel package. The post gains attraction, and several users start commenting and showing interest.
One potential customer comments, asking for details on customising the package. Rather than replying publicly, you choose to reply privately to that customer, which avoids a lengthy thread in the comment section. This allows you to provide a personalized response tailored to their query or even share sensitive information like pricing or customized offers securely and move the conversation toward a potential booking in a one-on-one setting.
This not only maintains the professionalism of your public comment section, but also improves the customer experience by making them feel valued through direct communication.
Feature availability
- The Private Reply feature is currently only available for comments on Instagram Professional and Facebook posts.
- This feature is accessible in Professional, Premium, Agency, and Agency Plus plans.
How to Reply Privately
In Zoho Social, you can send private replies in both the Posts tab and Inbox.
1. Reply privately via the Posts tab
You can access the Private Reply option from the Posts tab. Any reply you send will not be visible in the public comment section.
Now, let’s look at how you can reply privately from the Posts tab by following these steps:
- Navigate to the Posts tab in your Zoho Social dashboard.
- Click on Published Posts to view all the content you've shared.
- Select a post.
- In the comments section of that post, hover over the comment you want to reply to.
- Click the Reply Privately option.
- A message box will appear where you can type and send your response directly to the user's inbox (on Instagram or Facebook).
This private reply can be viewed in the posts tab (only visible to you) or even in the messages tab for easy access and follow-up.
2. Reply Privately via the Inbox Tab
You can also send private replies directly from the Inbox tab to manage comments efficiently.
- Navigate to the Inbox tab in your Zoho Social dashboard.
- Locate the comment you wish to respond to.
- The Reply Privately option will be visible in the detailed view of the comment, when you click on the interaction in the inbox.
Once a private reply is sent to a comment, the Reply Privately option will turn into a message that the user has "Replied privately".
When you hover over the "Replied Privately" label, you'll be able to view the message you previously sent, along with a direct link to the conversation in the inbox.
How to view and manage private replies
Once a private reply is sent, you can easily track and continue the conversation through the Messages tab in your Zoho Social dashboard. Here's how:
- Navigate to the Messages tab.
- Click on the conversation where you sent the private reply.
The message will be displayed with:
A tag indicating that it was sent as a private reply.
A link to the original post where the comment was made.
Once you reply to the comments, you will not be able to send another private reply to the same comment.
Note:
- A private reply can be sent only once, and it must be within seven days of the original comment. After this, the option to reply privately will no longer be available.
- If there is no response to the private reply from the recipient within 24 hours, you won't be able to continue the conversation further.
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