The Ultimate Guide to Customer Engagement Using Apple Messages for Business

Despite the Android^TM1 OS enjoying more popularity around the world, no smartphone manufacturer dominates the market like Apple®². The tech giant boasts more than 2 billion active devices worldwide, and iOS leads the way for mobile operating systems in the U.S. market.

If you factor in that 100% of Fortune 500 companies are using Apple products, we’re talking about more than market penetration—it’s market supremacy.

With iOS devices being so universal, it’s no wonder organizations are using Apple Messages for Business for seamless customer engagement. By allowing discovery from web or map searches, and deflecting directly into Apple’s native Messages app, companies can offer support or issue resolution through a direct line to their favorite brands.

What Does Apple Messages for Business Offer?

Streamlined Brand Discovery

Consumers don’t need to switch between different apps when browsing then paying for a product or searching for a restaurant or shop on their iOS device. Apple offers multiple entry points to a messaging channel conversation through web search via Safari or Maps, and the Pickers tool allows for easy browsing or appointment booking. The process is then all completed with Apple Pay®³, which is integrated into the app for the ultimate single channel resolution.

Privacy Protection

With modern concerns about how big tech companies handle user data, Apple Messages for Business puts emphasis on privacy. Businesses only have access to a customer’s name or information if they choose to share, messages have end-to-end encryption, and Apple Pay hides both payment details and transaction information. It’s not immediately clear to consumers the protections they are receiving, but it ensures great CX by not feeling they are being followed by ads or having their actions spied on.

Built for Automation

Apple Messages for Business is an ideal channel to implement automated customer experiences. Using a solution like Verint Messaging and Verint Intelligent Virtual Assistant, you can deploy bots for scalable automated conversations, working for both customers and agents. They allow common queries like order tracking to be handled efficiently by purpose-built bots, giving agents enough time to deal with more complicated issues. It enables CX automation, which provides exceptional experiences across the entire spectrum of customer interactions.

Three Apple Messages for Business Features to Enhance Your CX Strategy

Pickers

Pickers are interactive menus within the tool that come in two different formats: List and Time.

List Pickers: perfect for showcasing products or services, with an easily navigable list that reduces friction in the buying process and Apple Pay rounding off the seamless transaction.

Time Pickers: Your virtual diary secretary. Time Pickers are a straightforward booking system, showing available times and dates that customers can choose for virtual or in-branch appointments, which are then added to their iOS calendar.

Chat Suggest

When consumers tap on a business’ registered phone number, Chat Suggest offers the chance to begin a digital conversation over Messages instead. By deflecting customer queries or high intent searches straight to a digital channel, a more cost-effective, scalable and asynchronous brand/consumer conversation begins.

In both scenarios the customer is presented with a more seamless experience from their favorite brands—either with efficient issue resolution or a more interactive, single channel retail transaction.

Apple Wallet

Nearly 60 million U.S. smartphone users are expected to be using Apple Pay by 2025. The convenience of being able to complete transactions using a cell phone clearly appeals to modern consumers. So, the integration of Apple Wallet®³ into the messaging function presents a real advantage for eCommerce companies. If card details are saved to a customer’s device, the entire sale—from browsing to checkout—happens in a single conversation in-app.

Using CX Automation to Engage Customers on Apple Messages for Business

Private messaging channels are an integral part of modern customer engagement. Rather than just being a richer alternative to website live chat, their asynchronous nature means that conversations can take place at any point across the customer journey, with humans and bots combining to provide exceptional digital CX.

Customer Engagement: Appointment Booking

The rise in digital engagement by retailers, telecom providers and financial institutions offers companies the chance to innovate and engage customers when not in-store or branch.

How it works

1. The customer clicks on Chat Suggest when searching for a brand via web search, Spotlight or Maps
2. Pickers offers the customer the chance to pick a date and time for a virtual or in-store appointment
3. Details are automatically added to the device’s calendar and reminders are sent prior to the appointment.

Why it works

• Single channel resolution: Getting a customer to your website is only half the battle; 98% of visitors usually leave without converting. With a captive audience in digital messaging channels, there’s a much lower chance of drop off. Conversations are episodic and therefore crafted at a customer’s convenience (meaning, brands aren’t dependent on the customer remaining on a website for the entire transaction). The appointment booking process is straightforward and offers the opportunity for continual personalized engagement as part of the same conversation—appointment reminders, future bookings, and special offers based on previous interactions.
• Staff forecasting: By scheduling appointments, companies can predict their required staff numbers on and given day. It means they can effectively manage the numbers required for pre-booked meetings and walk-ins and still provide the best possible service to in store customers.

Customer Acquisition: M-Commerce

M-commerce, or mobile commerce, has grown hugely in popularity since the pandemic—annual spending via mobile phones has more than doubled to $387 billion since 2019.

Apple is well-placed to capitalize on that popularity. From product recommendation and discovery to recurring orders, Apple Messages for Business provides brands with a platform to showcase their products across the customer lifecycle and keep the entire brand/consumer relationship within the same channel.

How it works

1. Companies showcase their products and services using Apple’s “Pickers” feature
2. Augmented Reality (AR) is offered to provide an enhanced digital shopping experience
3. The customer completes the transaction in-channel safely and securely using Apple Pay

Why it works

• An enhanced shopping experience: No switching between apps to browse or buy a product or service and for brands in the furniture, beauty or retail spaces, AR offers the ultimate ‘try before you buy’ experience. Shopify says conversion rates for products with AR content are 94% higher than for those without.
• Secure and effortless payments: Verint’s State of Digital CX report found that 74% of consumers view a good digital experience as important. Having as few steps as possible between a customer seeing what they want and paying for it, is essential for creating exceptional digital experiences and achieving high conversion rates. Apple Wallet is built right into the Messages app, meaning there’s no need to remember a long card number or where it’s being sent; all that information is already there, ready to go.

Find Out More About Verint Messaging

Given Apple’s global popularity and huge market share for mobile handsets in countries such as Australia, Japan and the United States, Apple Messaging for Business can be a highly effective and far-reaching customer engagement tool. Working in conjunction with Verint Messaging, brands can make it as straightforward for brands to communicate with their customers as it is for them to message their family and friends.

¹Android is a trademark of Google LLC.

²Apple is a registered trademark of Apple Inc.

³Apple Pay and Apple Wallet are registered trademarks of Apple Inc.