ASAPP Messaging Updates - Customer Channels

ASAPP enables Form Messages, a native Apple Messages for Business (AMB) format that replaces Omniforms (link to a web form) with a rich, multi-page interactive experience. You can gather customer information through customizable forms that present a single field per page and let your customers review their entries before submitting—all without leaving the Apple Messages application.

This enables you to deliver a more seamless and aesthetically pleasing experience for your customers, consistent with other Apple applications.

ASAPP supports WhatsApp Business as a messaging channel, enabling your customers to interact with virtual agents and have conversations with live agents in their preferred messaging app.

This expanded channel support gives you the ability to offer robust messaging experiences to your WhatsApp users, encouraging them to choose messaging more often and have more satisfying interactions in a familiar setting.

Authentication in Apple Messages for Business Feature Release

ASAPP now supports customer authentication in Apple Messages for Business. With this new functionality, customers can securely log in to their accounts during interactions, allowing them to access personalized experiences in automated flows and when speaking with agents.

Customer authentication is intended for any interaction where making use of account information creates a better experience for the customer:

• Any live interaction with an agent: Enable your agents to greet and validate who they’re speaking with, review historical customer conversations, and quickly reference relevant account attributes.
• Automated flows: Present data related to a customer’s account (e.g., booking details) or take actions on behalf of the customer (e.g., make a payment).

Identifying a customer in an interaction also adds valuable context when reviewing historical interactions in Insights Manager for reporting or compliance purposes.

Expanding support for customer authentication in this channel should:

1. Reduce the share of interactions that are directed to agents due to customers being unable to access automated flows that require authentication.
2. Reduce the share of interactions that are directed to agents due to customers being unable to access automated flows that require authentication
3. Expand the share of interactions with agents that benefit from account information and conversation history, reducing effort to identify customers and search for account information

Quick Replies in Apple Messages for Business Feature Release

ASAPP’s automated flows support quick replies for customers that use the Apple Messages for Business channel. Quick replies display response options directly in the messaging interface, allowing customers to make an inline choice with a single tap during an ongoing conversation.

As in ASAPP’s customer channels for web and mobile apps, quick replies are used to give customers a defined set of response options, each of which leads to a corresponding branch in an automated flow. Key use cases for quick replies in automated flows include the following:

1. Discovery questions to better specify a customer issue or account detail
2. Ensuring the customer’s issue has been addressed by an automated flow

Using quick replies in Apple Messages for Business is expected to reduce friction that can cause customer drop-off and frustration before fully completing a flow or reaching an agent to better assist with an issue.