Facebook announced Wednesday that through a partnership with Skype they will begin offering their users free video calling in addition to a group chat service. These new communication features are sure to be a hit with the average Skype and Facebook users, but can also be used to improve a company’s customer relations management. Facebook and Skype have laid the groundwork for company’s to freely and effortlessly communicate with customers that “like” their page through Facebook.

Instead of relying on dedicated video chat programs, business could theoretically rely on Facebook’s new free video calling service. For instance, a business like Marlabs on Facebook could theoretically establish a Facebook video chat support line for customers or invite customers that have recently posted questions to the company’s Facebook wall to a video chat. Although, there is has been no word if multiple users can connect to the same Facebook video chat, but a company could still use Facebook’s video calling service to connect with a few users on an individual basis to bolster their reputation. On the similar note, a company could use Facebook’s new group chat service, which can accommodate multiple users, to hold Question and Answer (Q&A) sessions for customers.

Group chats and Q&A sessions are an effective way to engage a community and since Facebook will allow users to save the transcripts from group chats sessions, even the people that are are otherwise unable to attend a chat session can still find the answers to important questions or concerns. Question and Answer session are useful for customer relationship management because it is a quick way to address what are usually common concerns for a customer base that might have only recently become an issue. Not to mention that Q&A sessions are one of the easier ways to effectively disseminate information. The truth is that many users will not check a company’s website directly or for support if they have a question, but Question and Answer session are usually popular online and are usually reposted on social sites (e.g. forums, blogs, et cetera) or in the media. One of the main pillars to good customer relations management is interacting with customers and today Facebook may have just simplified that process for thousands of businesses and over 750 millions users.

Find out more about Facebook’s group chat and video chat services at the official Facebook blog