Team eCommerce Next interviewed Mike Myer from Quiq to get more insights on Apple Messages for Business Following is our interview with him:
Why is Apple Messages for Business important for businesses?
Apple Messages for Business is important for businesses quite simply because nearly 50% of US consumers own an iPhone and there are over 1.5 billion iOS devices in existence. Given this adoption and usage, the opportunity to meet customers where they’re at is unparalleled. The iPhone is the Swiss Army knife of the new millennium; it helps people communicate, browse, make purchases, and more. iPhones make it easy to participate in a Zoom call with colleagues, organize a calendar, listen to a music collection via apps, and even take yoga classes.
Apple Messages for Business provides several upgrades over just plain SMS. First and foremost, instead of an anonymous phone number, your branding will appear in the conversation in the Messages app providing assurance to your customers that they are connecting with your brand and not an imposter. Apple Messages for Business also provides for a richer messaging experience with special messages for menus, time scheduling, authentication and payments.
Key learning from your ebook:
Why and how to get started implementing Apple Messages for Business. There is no reason for brands not to jump on Apple Messages for Business to help transform their customer communications. It helps create a custom and personalized experience for customers. Now is a perfect time to use the app that every iPhone user has already embraced, take sales to the next level, and strengthen relationships with your customers.
What are businesses doing wrong?
Many businesses either have not heard of or considered Apple Messages for Business. If they do, they may not fully consider their strategy for implementation or the value of a partner. As mobile adoption and usage continues to grow, savvy businesses recognize that rich communication services like Apple Messages for Business are no longer a nice-to-have. They are essential. Big online retailers like Office Depot and Overstock already use Apple Messages for Business to communicate with their customers.
What was the most interesting takeaway for Quiq as they were pulling this data together?
Just how large of an opportunity Apple Messages for Business is for enterprise-size companies who have high call volumes—and how straightforward the channel is to implement with the right MSP. Finding more efficient ways to answer customer queries is a constant challenge. Apple Messages for Business empowers agents to help more customers at the same time compared with voice calls – just like texting with multiple friends at the same time. By enabling Apple Messages for Business, brands can resolve calls before they reach an IVR queue; reduce voice support costs by shifting call volume to messaging, and help agents manage five or more conversations at a time. These changes ultimately increase customer satisfaction by reducing wait times.
What are brands doing wrong on the channel?
Not connecting their Apple Messages for Business experience to their holistic messaging strategy or fully considering the impact to customer service and agent experience. There is no reason for brands not to jump on Apple Messages for Business to help transform their customer communications. It helps create a custom and personalized experience for customers. Now is a perfect time to use the app that every iPhone user has already embraced, take sales to the next level, and strengthen relationships with your customers.
Final notes?
Adding Apple Messages for Business allows connected customers to engage with businesses in a way that is personal, easy, and frictionless using the Messages app on iOs.
About Mike Myer
Mike Myer is the founder and CEO of Quiq. Before founding Quiq, Mike was Chief Product Officer & VP of Engineering at Dataminr, a startup that analyzes all of the world’s tweets in real-time and detects breaking information ahead of any other source. Mike has deep expertise in customer service software, having previously built the RightNow Customer Experience solution used by many of the world’s largest consumer brands to deliver exceptional interactions.
RightNow went public in 2004 and was acquired by Oracle for $1.5B in 2011. Mike led Engineering the entire time RightNow was a standalone company and later managed a team of nearly 500 at Oracle responsible for Service Cloud. Before RightNow, Mike held various software development and architect roles at AT&T, Lucent and Bell Labs Research. Mike holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Computer Science from Rutgers University.
About Quiq
Quiq is the AI-powered conversational platform enabling businesses to engage with customers across the most popular digital messaging channels. Quiq is enterprise-grade SaaS software that supports SMS/text, Apple’s Messages for Business, Google’s Business Messages, webchat, Facebook, Twitter, call-to-text, Chatbots, and more. Quiq’s Conversational Platform provides the leading solutions for business communications for the world’s best commerce and care teams. Quiq for Commerce and Quiq for Customer Care combine features that allow for bots and human agents to help commerce and service teams increase efficiency, drive revenue, and improve customer satisfaction.