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Facebook is finally working on providing actual customer service

The Oversight Board is making this a priority.

by
Joy Okumoko
August 29, 2022

Image: Unsplash

Facebook’s parent company Meta is assembling a customer service team to help address account and content-related complaints.

The Oversight Board is making this a priority. The Board, though formed and funded by Meta, acts independently.

It can advise Facebook on issues and make recommendations regarding the company’s content policies.

Since 2020, the Board has received more than a million requests. Most of them are appeals from users with account or content-related problems, according to Bloomberg.

Why Meta is focusing on customer content complaints

mark zuckerberg metaverse globe — Image: KnowTechie

Arguably one of the biggest social networks, Meta has more than 3 billion users across its family of apps like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

While this is impressive, the same cannot be said of the company’s handling of customer complaints regarding its content policies.

Brent Harris, Meta’s VP of Governance, asked a pertinent question,

“How do we provide care and customer service and responsiveness to people about why their content has been taken down or why their accounts are taken down?”

Part of the problem is in its processes. For instance, Facebook relies heavily on AI to make content moderation decisions, and those processes can sometimes make the wrong call.

Facebook Is FINALLY Building a Customer-Service Team to Tackle Complaints

It could tackle issues such as locked, suspended, hacked accounts

It's mind-blowing that a company with nearly 4 BILLION customers, still doesn't have a customer service team https://t.co/rQS9XGgTVc
— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) August 25, 2022

The Oversight Board believes that by increasing human input, cases of wrongful content removal or blocking of accounts will reduce.

Also, appeals will be attended to faster, thereby improving customer service delivery and user satisfaction.

Tackling Facebook’s customer service woes

Although Facebook has a dedicated Help Center, it is essentially a FAQs page. You can find helpful content and videos, but won’t be able to reach a customer service rep.

In fact, after several failed appeals, most users have had to directly contact Meta employees to seek help with blocked accounts or removed content.

The Board has reportedly made hundreds of recommendations to Meta, 73% of which have either been implemented or under consideration.

The recent customer-service improvement drive isn’t part of those recommendations, however, the Board touched on Facebook’s content complaints as part of the broader issues needing attention.

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