8 Use cases for driving engagement on Apple Messages for Business

Recently Apple released Message Forms, a fantastic feature for driving customer engagement and bringing more interactivity to messaging. In this blog post, we’ll explain how to use it and get the most out of it.

When Apple does something new, we follow them immediately.

Why is that?

Because Apple wants to ensure the same excellence in customer experience for their products and services, no matter who is providing them. We take the same approach at Infobip – which is probably why we get along so well.

Apple Messages for Business is one of the most effective channels you can use when it comes to improving customer service and earning direct benefits from incorporating it into your contact center.

Message for Business Forms is the latest addition to Apple Messages for Business. This is a powerful feature that, when used correctly, can provide significant benefits to businesses.

Luckily, we have extensive experience in designing successful use cases for our customers, and we chose the best ones to demonstrate how you can expand existing uses. You only need a little creativity to take advantage of the digital channel, since Apple Messages for Business can give you even more than you bargained for. In a good way.

Would you consider introducing a digital channel to your communication strategy if we told you that 57% of your customers want the right message at the right time, 60% want it on the right channel, and 70% want it quickly? We gained these insights from surveying telecom customers around the world, but we can all agree that they apply to any industry, since customer expectations are pretty much universal. Customers want multiple options for communicating with businesses and waiting on hold to speak to an agent is definitely not an option. There’s no way a human could provide this level of customer service; a chatbot must do the heavy lifting, right? Call deflection is a helpful solution that transfers incoming customer calls to their preferred digital channel.

But the channel can’t do all this by itself.

What is essential is what it under the hood. In this case, our chatbot platform and cloud contact center solution can handle the majority of the work.

This is augmented by our customer data platform, which stores all collected information, conversation history, and context, including responses from Forms in Apple Messages.

Message Forms are a big addition to the existing rich features (such as list and time picker, rich links, 3D files, Apple Pay, quick replies, etc. ) in boosting conversational customer experience.

By enabling Messages Forms, you can simplify customer data collection and enhance your lead generation. When you need to collect information from customers, Message Forms allow you to search and quickly enter the information in a carefully structured way.

Message Forms use standard Apple interface elements, such as tappable items with single or multiple selections, and day-picker wheels, which iOS users are already familiar with. Text entry point boxes, support the quick-type keyboard to allow users to autofill the information from their personal contact card. When a user completes the Form, it can review their answers and make necessary changes before sending the responses.

There are plenty of use cases where Message Forms can help you shine. And, when combined with other features, Apple Messages is the channel that your customers will absolutely love it. Here are eight of the most common ones.

Even before the pandemic, people searched your website for more information about loan offers or credit card applications to avoid long lines in branches or on the call. They all want the same thing: a quick response and a smooth acquisition process, and the winner is whoever meets these expectations. Remove unnecessary friction by allowing your customers to submit their applications with Apple Messages by filling out all the necessary boxes – and without having to download and print PDF files. Send them a loan calculation based on the information they provided or the documents they must sign (digitally, preferably).

Nothing is worse than planning an evening with Netflix and popcorn, only for your internet connection to fail and ruin your plans. You get frustrated just thinking about calling customer service and waiting for hours for them to fix the problem.

When they tap on your phone number on their iPhone, you give your customers messaging as the first option for submitting the request.

Once they start the conversation and choose the request type from the list picker, they can provide the details you need to solve the problem quickly, such as information about the account owner, router type, description of the issue, etc. If a chatbot cannot resolve the issue, a live agent can take over and call back the customer using the responses submitted through the Forms.

Scheduling an appointment with your doctor or hairdresser can be highly inconvenient – especially when no one answers the phone. It appears to be very simple, but why does it take so long every time you have to do it?

That doesn’t have to be the case!

Instead of calling, choose messaging. This leaves spare time for your customers and staff to focus on other, more important tasks.

You return home from a long day at work, thinking about food but not in the mood to do any cooking. You grab your iPad or iPhone to find your favorite restaurant with a messaging option because it is the quickest way to select and order food.

The options are endless, and you can almost smell it in your kitchen, but your final call is PIZZA, yaaay!

Okay, you’ll take a personal pan pizza (because you’re watching your calories).

You can choose your toppings so you add extra cheese (you’re no longer counting calories) and more mushrooms.

That looks awesome! You’re almost done; all you have to do now is type your delivery address and pay with Apple Pay.

And just as you’re about to double-click for payment, the smell of a burger from the apartment next door makes you change your order.

Not to worry! Change your responses in Forms going one step back and submit your final order. It’s so simple, right? 

We’ve gotten used to shopping from the comfort of our own homes, haven’t we?

And this works well as long as we know exactly what we’re looking for, which isn’t always the case. Sometimes we need the kind of help that we’d usually get if we were shopping in the store.

Be present in your customers’ homes and help them through the entire process, from searching for your brand to selecting their preferences and paying.

Send them Message Forms, provide multiple options, and deliver a 3D file with the product based on their inputs and offer the same experience they would have in your store.

Vacation planning can be stressful and takes a lot of time, which we always have very little of.

But, hey, finally taking some time off, and booking your trip to Hawaii is only a few steps away.

Searching for the best option on an iOS device and using the Apple Messages for Business chatbot to complete the booking within the messages seems less stressful.

By tapping and typing, your customers can select their destination, travel dates, and any other relevant information. When they’re done, they submit the responses and follow the Apple payment instructions.

Using the same interface, they can easily do check-in, select the preferred seats with the built-in iMessage app and store the boarding pass in the Apple Wallet because the trip has yet to start, and Apple Messages for Business follows your customers through the entire journey.

If they need more information about the flight, gate, or report the lost baggage, they can always go back to the conversation and choose from the options.

Buying a car is not an impulsive decision and almost always requires assistance from the start.

Don’t lose the opportunity to provide your customers with the information that could help them to make that decision.

Make it easy for them to schedule a test ride for the car they are interested in by filling out the Form with all the requirements like type, model, engine, power, etc. They can select the nearest location as well as the date and time of their choice.

If the customer postpones the decision, all the information is stored and ready for re-engagement.

Getting customer feedback is essential for improving your customer services operations and communications strategy.

Sending a CSAT survey within the message is convenient because it allows customers to easily navigate on the channel with which they are already familiar.

Introduce Forms in Apple Messages and collect customer satisfaction responses to shape your business decisions and communication.

Because all data is saved, you can use the insights to create special offers for your most loyal customers and know how to approach them the next time they contact you.

Also, prevent the churn of those who rated your service with the lowest score.

Although some of these use cases might sound complicated, it doesn’t have to be that way As we said in the beginning, all you need to do is have a little creativity, listen to your customers, and know what you want to achieve.

We can do all the heavy lifting and help you design the right use case on your iOS customers’ desirable channel.

CIAK Auto, an automotive spare parts distributor, is one of our customers who has already benefited from the introduction of digital channels.

Switching from calls to digital channels, such as Apple Messages for Business, resulted in a 79% reduction in average response times. The key takeaway is- As soon as you go digital, you’ll start reaping the benefits.