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Enterprise AI Chatbot Solutions are Failing Businesses: Why Agentic AI is the Path Forward

Posted on Mark Kowal

The integration of AI into enterprise operations is no longer a futuristic concept—it’s the present. From customer service to supply chain management, enterprises are adopting AI at an unprecedented rate, transforming workflows and outcomes. The global AI chatbot market is expected to be worth $455 million by the end of 2027, underscoring its growing importance. But while conventional AI chatbots have proven beneficial, they are no longer enough in an era demanding higher adaptability, smarter decision-making, and process integration.

Enter agentic AI, the next leap in enterprise technology. Evolving beyond chatbots, agentic AI agents offer enterprises proactive and autonomous solutions designed to optimize operations across departments.

This blog will explore the limitations of traditional enterprise AI chatbot solutions, introduce agentic AI as a transformational catalyst, and highlight how enterprise leaders can leverage it for sustained competitive advantage.

What is an enterprise AI chatbot solution?

Enterprise AI chatbot solutions are software platforms driven by artificial intelligence, natural language processing (NLP), and machine learning (ML) to automate customer interactions and internal processes. With natural language understanding (NLU), these chatbots can interpret customer intent, offer personalized responses, and escalate complex issues to human agents.

Legacy conversational AI in enterprise AI chatbot solutions

Conversational AI in enterprise solutions represents technology that enables natural, human-like interactions between businesses and their customers through intelligent chatbots and virtual assistants. These systems combine the technologies described above—Natural Language Processing (NLP), Machine Learning, and Deep Learning—to understand, process, and respond to human language in context.

But as we will see, agentic AI takes over from conversational AI to handle complex dialogues, remember conversation history, understand user intent, and provide personalized responses across multiple channels and languages in a way that prior-gen AI could not. These solutions can integrate with existing business systems (like CRM, ERP, and knowledge bases) to automate customer service, sales support, and internal operations, while continuously learning from interactions to improve accuracy and effectiveness.

Core features of enterprise AI chatbot solutions

1. Handling high volumes of requests

Enterprise chatbots aim to manage thousands of simultaneous interactions, offering round-the-clock availability without human intervention.

2. Escalation to human agents

When complex issues arise, chatbots transfer customers to live agents without losing conversation context for continuity and smooth interactions.

3. Integration with other enterprise tools

Integrating AI chatbots with existing tech stacks improves efficiency and customer experience. By connecting with tools like CRMs, ERPs, HR systems, and helpdesk software, chatbots access data to deliver personalized, accurate responses. For instance, they can check inventory, update orders, or enable targeted upselling, streamlining operations and enhancing service quality for customers and employees.

4. Support for internal processes

Beyond customer service, chatbots help employees with onboarding, training, and data collection, making them indispensable for growing enterprises.

Benefits of enterprise AI chatbot solutions

Cost savings

Automating repetitive tasks reduces reliance on human agents, leading to savings in labor costs.

Enhanced operations

Chatbots streamline workflows, reduce wait times, and improve customer satisfaction scores.

Scalable and consistent service

Whether answering FAQs or managing complex queries, these bots offer consistent service quality at scale.

However, despite their utility, traditional enterprise AI chatbots remain reactive—responding to instructions, but unable to anticipate problems or dynamics. This is where agentic AI paves the way forward.

From chatbots to agentic AI for enterprises

Agentic AI represents an evolution in enterprise artificial intelligence. While chatbots are reactive tools limited to predefined interactions, agentic AI agents are capable of proactive decision-making and autonomous action. With capabilities rooted in real-time adaptation, agentic AI has redefined AI’s role in the enterprise landscape.

Chatbots vs. agentic AI agents

Reactive vs. proactive

Chatbots react to user queries; agentic AI anticipates needs before they are expressed. For example, instead of merely answering a customer’s inquiry about delayed shipments, agentic AI could autonomously identify delays, notify affected customers, and initiate remediation.

Static decision-making vs. dynamic learning

Where chatbots rely on static rules, agentic AI improves continuously by learning from interactions, refining its predictive capabilities.

Siloed functionality vs. cross-departmental efficiency

Traditional chatbots typically serve a single function (e.g., customer service). Agentic AI spans departments, breaking silos by automating workflows in HR, supply chains, marketing, and more.

Cost vs. ROI

Agentic AI is already providing faster time-to-value than last-gen enterprise AI chatbot solutions. While implementing agentic AI requires an initial investment in technology and training, the returns justify the expenditure. Organizations typically see ROI through reduced operational costs, increased efficiency in process completion, higher customer satisfaction scores, and improved employee productivity.

When evaluating costs, consider not just platform pricing, but also integration expenses, training requirements, and maintenance—then weigh these against projected gains in automation, reduced error rates, faster resolution times, and the ability to scale operations without proportional increases in headcount.

Practical applications of agentic AI in enterprises

1. Customer service

Agentic AI can revolutionize customer service by going beyond simply answering customer queries. Imagine an AI that not only resolves issues efficiently, but also analyzes customer sentiment, behavior, and usage patterns to predict potential churn well in advance.

By identifying dissatisfied customers, it can automatically trigger personalized retention efforts, such as offering discounts, tailored recommendations, or proactive solutions, ensuring a more seamless and satisfying customer experience while boosting loyalty.

2. Human resources

Agentic AI can significantly streamline and enhance human resources operations. For example, it can handle the initial stages of hiring by screening resumes and applications for relevant skills and experience, thereby reducing the workload of HR teams.

It can also manage interview scheduling, ensuring candidates and hiring managers are aligned with minimal manual intervention. Once employees are onboarded, agentic AI can be used to monitor engagement and morale through sentiment analysis of internal communications or surveys, helping HR teams identify potential issues, such as burnout or dissatisfaction, before they escalate. This proactive approach fosters a healthier and more motivated workforce.

3. Supply chain management

In the realm of supply chain management, agentic AI can help businesses maintain agility and cost-efficiency. By analyzing historical data, market trends, and real-time inputs, it can accurately anticipate demand surges and adjust inventory levels dynamically to prevent shortages or overstocking. This is particularly valuable during peak seasons or unforeseen disruptions.

Moreover, agentic AI can optimize logistics by suggesting the most efficient routes and delivery schedules, reducing costs and improving supply chain performance. By automating these complex processes, businesses can react faster to changes in demand and ensure smoother operations.

These examples illustrate why enterprises can no longer rely solely on static chatbot solutions. Agentic AI offers dynamic, intelligent, and proactive capabilities that go beyond traditional automation, driving better outcomes across various business functions. Investing in these advanced AI solutions is becoming essential for staying competitive.

9 key features that set agentic AI apart in enterprise applications

To fully grasp agentic AI’s potential, it’s essential to understand the distinct features that differentiate it from its chatbot predecessors.

1. Contextual understanding

Agentic AI excels at maintaining context across multi-turn conversations, enabling more natural, human-like interactions compared to general chatbots, which often reset or lose track of context.

2. Proactive adaptability

Agentic AI evolves dynamically by analyzing patterns, allowing it to predict user needs and act without user prompting. For example, an agentic AI might automatically notify customers of service disruptions and provide alternatives.

3. Enhanced decision-making

Agentic AI provides real-time data-driven insights, enabling businesses to act swiftly and effectively. By analyzing patterns, it identifies opportunities and offers strategic recommendations.

4. Scalability without compromise

Despite handling vast interactions, agentic AI maintains the precision and personalization that differentiate high-quality customer experiences from generic ones.

5. Dynamic integrations

With the ability to integrate into multiple systems—be it CRMs or ERPs—agentic AI streamlines sophisticated workflows and data sharing, and facilitates cross-departmental communication effortlessly.

6. Multilingual capabilities

Designed for global enterprises, agentic AI can carry out region-specific conversations in multiple languages, ensuring effective communication across borders.

7. Security and compliance

Given the growing scrutiny of AI technologies, agentic AI comes with built-in safeguards to ensure user data is protected and compliance thresholds are met.

8. Human handoff recognition

Unlike basic chatbots that can create frustrating experiences when escalating to human agents, agentic AI possesses sophisticated recognition capabilities to identify when human intervention is necessary.

The system can intelligently determine the complexity and emotional nuance of interactions, seamlessly transferring conversations to human agents at the optimal moment, while providing them with full context and relevant customer data to ensure a smooth transition.

9. Learning and adaptation

Agentic AI continuously learns and adapts from interactions, improving over time and delivering increasingly accurate and efficient responses.

How to get started with agentic AI

Transitioning from conventional chatbot solutions to agentic AI may seem daunting, but it can be achieved with a structured approach.

Step 1: Conduct a needs assessment

Evaluate your enterprise’s current processes and identify areas where greater autonomy and efficiency are required.

Step 2: Choose the right agentic AI solution

You’ll need to decide whether to build or buy your AI, or buy-to-build. Prioritize solutions like Quiq’s AI Studio, which focus on AI practices like scalability, integration, and observability.

Step 3: Plan for phased implementation

Adopt a phased strategy to minimize operational disruptions during the transition from traditional tools to agentic AI systems.

Step 4: Train your teams

Equip employees with the resources and skills needed to leverage agentic AI effectively within their workflows.

Step 5: Monitor and optimize

Continuously analyze the impact of agentic AI on KPIs like cost savings, customer satisfaction, and employee productivity. Use this data to refine operations.

Agentic AI is the strategic advantage of tomorrow

The transition from basic enterprise AI chatbot solutions to the cutting-edge potential of agentic AI has begun. Enterprises that adopt this new technology will unlock operational efficiencies, improve customer experiences, and gain competitive advantages that were once unimaginable.
Agentic AI is not just a tool—it’s a strategy for building future-ready enterprises prepared for the demands of a dynamic business ecosystem.

Apple Business Updates – A New Way To Proactively Engage Customers on Apple Messages for Business

Posted on Max Fortis

Key Takeaways

  • Businesses can now start the conversation. Apple’s new update lets companies send approved messages to customers without waiting for them to reach out first.
  • Limited to approved use cases.  It currently applies to things like order updates or offering to switch a phone call to messaging.
  • A smoother experience for everyone. Customers get faster updates, and businesses can reduce call volume while improving response times.
  • Privacy and accessibility are built in. Apple doesn’t read messages, and non-iPhone users will still receive messages through SMS.
  • Requires an approved provider.  Businesses need to work with an Apple-approved partner, like Quiq, to use this feature.

In mid-September 2024, Apple announced an exciting improvement to Messages for Business called Business Updates that will allow your business to proactively contact your customers in specific use cases—improving the customer experience, security, and making it easier for you to connect with your customers.

What is Apple Messages for Business?

As you’re no doubt aware, one of the most used apps on an iPhone is the Messages app. Apple Messages for Business is the technology that makes it possible for businesses to interact with their customers using Apple Messages. For customers, their conversations with businesses live alongside their other messages with other Apple devices (blue blurbs) and SMS messages (green blurbs) and work just like any other conversation.

This is a powerful way for contact centers like yours to reach the more than 1 billion people worldwide who use iPhones for daily communication, so it’s worth paying careful attention to.

Apple’s Big Announcement – Business Updates

Business Updates will allow you to reach out to your customers proactively, in a private and secure way, utilizing just their phone number and Apple’s pre-approved templates.

This will have positive impacts on both customer experience and your business. As you can see, there’s no downside here—which is why we’re so excited about it!

1. How will Business Updates Improve Customer Experiences?

Previously, Apple provided a world-class branded experience for businesses to message with their customers right inside the Messages app everyone is used to. In order to prevent spam and protect privacy, Apple previously required that customers send the first message. This limited the use cases for Apple Messages for Business to inbound customer support questions. As compared to SMS, this eliminated the ability to send proactive notifications, such as order updates.

Apple Business Updates lets businesses send proactive messages to customers—and it protects against spam by only allowing this option for approved use cases. This is great for business, too: a little over 60% of customers have stated they want businesses to be more proactive in reaching out, and (in a charming coincidence), offering text messaging can reduce per-customer support costs by about 60%. It’s nice when things work out like that!

Let’s say a little bit more about those use cases. Initially, Apple is focused on sending proactive, business-initiated messages related to orders, but a “Connect Using Messages” notification is also supported, which businesses can use to switch phone calls to Apple Messages.

The data indicates that IVR is a sensible self-service option, but this ability to switch will give customers the choice to switch channels from a call to text messaging, meaning you can better meet them where they are and meet their preferences.

This is all done using templates. The full list can be found in Apple’s documentation, but here are a few samples. The first two are examples of “Connect Using Messages” which could be used to offer a customer the option to switch a phone call to messages:

Apple Messages for Business

2. How will the Apple Messages for Business Update Improve Your Business?

Now, let’s turn to the other side of the equation, the impact of the announcement on your business operations.

Apple has released Business Updates in iOS 18, the newest iPhone operating system that was announced in September 2024, allowing businesses that work with an Apple Messaging Service Provider (MSP), like Quiq, to initiate a conversation with a customer from their branded experiences. Order updates and converting calls to messaging (discussed above) are two obvious early use cases.

Consistent with Apple’s commitment to security, Apple does not read messages or store conversations. In a world more and more besieged by data breaches, hacks, and invasions of privacy, your users need not fear that Apple is using the messages inappropriately.

A final note: Android devices, or devices that do support Apple Messages for Business, will automatically fall back to SMS when messages are sent in Quiq. This means that you can configure your business processes to send notifications to all customers and Quiq will make sure they are delivered on the best possible channel.

The Future of Apple Messages for Business

Contact centers and CX teams are always looking for new ways to better meet customer needs, and this announcement opens up some exciting possibilities. You can now reach out in more ways and integrate more robustly with the rest of the Apple ecosystem, leading to a reduction in distraction and search fatigue for your users—and a reduction in expenses for you.

If you want to learn more about how Quiq enables Apple Messages for Business, you can do that here.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is Apple’s new Business Updates feature?

Apple’s Business Updates feature allows companies to send approved, proactive messages to customers through Apple Messages for Business – without requiring the customer to start the conversation.

What types of messages can businesses send?

Right now, proactive messages are limited to Apple-approved use cases like order updates, appointment reminders, or offering to switch from a phone call to messaging.

Do customers need to opt in to receive these messages?

Yes. Customers must have shared their phone number and consented to receive messages from the business, ensuring compliance with Apple’s privacy standards.

How does Apple protect customer privacy?

Apple doesn’t read or store message content. All conversations are end-to-end encrypted, and customer data stays private.

What happens if the customer doesn’t use an Apple device?

If the recipient isn’t using an iPhone or iPad, messages will automatically be sent via SMS to ensure they’re still received.

How can businesses get started with Apple Business Updates?

To enable this feature, businesses need to work with an Apple-approved Messaging Service Provider (MSP) like Quiq to handle setup, approvals, and integration.

National Furniture Retailer Reduces Escalations to Human Agents by 33%

Posted on Mike Zinne

A well-known furniture brand faced a significant challenge in enhancing their customer experience (CX) to stand out in a competitive market. By partnering with Quiq, they implemented a custom AI Agent to transform customer interactions across multiple platforms and create more seamless journeys. This strategic move resulted in a 33% reduction in support-related escalations to human agents.

On the other end of the spectrum, the implementation of Proactive AI and a Product Recommendation engine led to the largest sales day in the company’s history through increased chat sales, showcasing the power of AI in improving efficiency and driving revenue.

Let’s dive into the furniture retailer’s challenges, how Quiq solved them using next-generation AI, the results, and what’s next for this household name in furniture and home goods.

The challenges: CX friction and missed sales opportunities

A leading name in the furniture and home goods industry, this company has long been known for its commitment to quality and affordability. Operating in a sector often the first to signal economic shifts, the company recognized the need to differentiate itself through exceptional customer experience.

Before adopting Quiq’s solution, the company struggled with several CX challenges that impeded their ability to capitalize on customer interactions. To start, their original chatbot used basic natural language understanding (NLU), and failed to deliver seamless and satisfactory customer journeys.

Customers experienced friction, leading to escalations, redundant conversations. The team clearly needed a robust system that could streamline operations, reduce costs, and enhance customer engagement.

So, the furniture retailer sought a solution that could not only address these inefficiencies, but also support their sales organization by effectively capturing and routing leads.

The solution: Quiq’s next-gen AI

With a focus on enhancing every touch point of the customer journey, the furniture company’s CX team embarked on a mission to elevate their service offerings, making CX a primary differentiator. Their pursuit led them to Quiq, a trusted technology partner poised to bring their vision to life through advanced AI and automation capabilities.

Quiq partnered with the team to develop a custom AI Agent, leveraging the natural language capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs) to help classify sales vs. support inquiries and route them accordingly. This innovative solution enables the company to offer a more sophisticated and engaging customer experience.

The AI Agent was designed to retrieve accurate information from various systems—including the company’s CRM, product catalog, and FAQ knowledge base—ensuring customers received timely, relevant, and accurate responses.

By integrating this AI Agent into webchat, SMS, and Apple Messages for Business, the company successfully created a seamless, consistent, and faster service experience.

The AI Agent also facilitated proactive customer engagement by using a new Product Recommendation engine. This feature not only guided customers through their purchase journey, but also contributed to a significant shift in sales performance.

The results are nothing short of incredible

The implementation of the custom AI Agent by Quiq has already delivered remarkable results. One of the most significant achievements was a 33% reduction in escalations to human agents. This reduction translated to substantial operational cost savings and allowed human agents to focus on complex or high-value interactions, enhancing overall service quality.

Moreover, the introduction of Proactive AI and the Product Recommendation engine led to unprecedented sales success. The furniture retailer experienced its largest sales day for Chat Sales in the company’s history, with an impressive 10% of total daily sales attributed to this channel for the first time.

This outcome underscored the potential of AI-powered solutions in driving business growth, optimizing efficiency, and elevating customer satisfaction.

Results recap:

  • 33% reduction in escalations to human agents.
  • 10% of total daily sales attributed to chat (largest for the channel in company history).
  • Tighter, smoother CX with Proactive AI and Product Recommendations woven into customer interactions.

What’s next?

The partnership between this furniture brand and Quiq exemplifies the transformative power of AI in redefining customer experience and achieving business success. By addressing challenges with a robust AI Agent, the company not only elevated its CX offerings, but also significantly boosted its sales performance. This case study highlights the critical role of AI in modern business operations and its impact on a company’s competitive edge.

Looking ahead, the company and Quiq are committed to continuing their collaboration to explore further AI enhancements and innovations. The team plans to implement Agent Assist, followed by Voice and Email AI to further bolster seamless customer experiences across channels. This ongoing partnership promises to keep the furniture retailer at the forefront of CX excellence and business growth.

Google Business Messaging is Ending – Here’s How You Should Adapt

Posted on Max Fortis

Google Business Messaging (GBM) has long been one of the primary rich messaging channels for Android, but it’s now in the process of being phased out.

GBM is being sunsetted, but that doesn’t mean your customer experience has to suffer. This piece will walk you through the main alternatives to GBM, ensuring you have everything you need to keep your organization running smoothly.

What’s Happening with Google Business Messaging Exactly?

According to an announcement from Google, Google Business Messaging will be phased out on the following schedule. First, starting July 15, 2024, GBM entry points will disappear from Google’s Maps and Search properties, and it will no longer be possible to start GBM conversations from entry points on your website. Existing conversations will be able to continue until July 31, 2024, when the GBM service will be shut down entirely.

What are the Alternatives to Google Business Messaging?

If you’re wondering which communication channel you should switch to now that GBM is going away, here are some you should consider. They’re divided into two groups. Group one consists of the channels we personally recommend, based on our years of experience in customer service and contact center management. Section two deals with communication channels that we still support but which, in our view, are not as promising as alternatives to GBM.

Recommended Alternatives to Google Business Messaging

Here are the best channels to serve as replacements to GBM

  • WhatsApp: WhatsApp enables text, voice, and video communications for over two billion global users. The platform includes several built-in features that appeal to businesses looking to forge deeper, more personal connections with their customers. Most importantly, it is a cross-platform messaging app, meaning it will allow you to chat with both Android and Apple users.
  • Text Messaging or Short Message Service (SMS): SMS is a long-standing staple for a reason, and with a conversational AI platform like Quiq, you can put large language models to work automating substantial parts of your SMS-based customer interactions.

Other Alternatives to Google Business Messaging

Here are the other channels you might look into.

  • Live web chat: When wondering about whether to invest in live chat support, customer experience directors may encounter skepticism about how useful customers will find it. But with nearly a third of female users of the internet indicating that they prefer contacting support via live chat, it’s clearly worth the time. This is especially true when live chat is used to provide an interactive experience, readily available, helpful agents, and swift responses. There are plenty of ways to encourage your customers to actually use your live chat offering, including mentioning it during phone calls, linking to it in blog posts or emails, and promoting it on social media.
  • Apple Messages for Business: Unlike standard text messaging available on mobile phones, Apple Messages is a specialized service designed for businesses to engage with customers. It facilitates easy setup of touchpoints such as QR codes, apps, or email messages, enabling appointments, issue resolution, and payments, among other things.
  • Facebook Messenger: Facebook Messenger for Business enables brands to handle incoming queries efficiently, providing immediate responses through AI assistants or routing complex issues to human agents. Clients integrating with a tool like Quiq have seen a massive ROI – a 95% customer satisfaction (CSAT), a 70-80% resolution rate for incoming customer inquiries automatically, and more. Like WhatsApp, FB messenger is a cross-platform messaging app, meaning it can help you reach users on both Android and Apple devices.
  • Instagram: Instagram isn’t just for posting pictures anymore – your target audience is likely using it to discover brands, shop, and make purchases. They’re reaching out through direct messages (DM), responding to stories, and commenting on posts. Instagram’s messaging API simplifies the handling of these customer interactions; it has automated features that help initiate conversations, such as Ice Breakers, as well as features that facilitate automated responses, such Quick Replies. Integrating Quiq’s conversational AI with Instagram’s messaging API makes it easier to automate responses to frequently asked questions, thereby reducing the workload on your human agents.
  • X (formerly Twitter): With nearly 400 million registered users and native, secure payment options, X is not a platform you can ignore. And the data supports this – 50% of surveyed X users mentioned brands in their posts more than 15 times in seven months, 80% of surveyed X users referred to a brand in their posts, and 99% of X users encountered a brand-related post in just over a month. By utilizing X business messaging, you can connect with your customers directly, providing them with excellent service experiences. Over time, this approach helps you build strong relationships and positive brand perceptions. Remember, posts—even those related to customer service—occur publicly. Thus, a positive interaction satisfies your customer and showcases your company’s engagement quality to others. Even better, the X API enables you to send detailed messages while keeping the conversation within X’s platform. This avoids the need for customers to switch platforms, enhancing their overall satisfaction.

How to Switch Away From Google Business Messaging

Even though GBM is going the way of the Dodo, the good news is that you have tons of other options. Check out our dedicated pages to learn more about SMS, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger, and you’re warmly invited to consult with our team if you are currently using GBM with another managed service provider and are not sure what the best direction forward is!

Top 3 Things to Know About Apple Messages for Business

Posted on Max Fortis

Key Takeaways

  • Apple Messages for Business offers a native, seamless channel. It allows customers to message a business directly via the iOS/macOS Messages app – accessible from Maps, Search, Safari, Siri, or within your app.
  • It supports rich, interactive experiences. Beyond plain text, you can send images, links, lists, schedule appointments, accept payments via Apple Pay, use augmented reality, and more.
  • It enables both automated and human-powered interactions. You must have live agents available, but you can also layer in AI agents to handle common tasks to provide 24/7 service.
  • There are strategic advantages to adoption. Use Message Suggest to shift traffic from calls to messaging, enhance your brand presence in Apple’s ecosystem, and reduce friction by meeting customers in a familiar channel.

How much do you know about Apple Messages for Business?

We know what you’re thinking. Not *another* messaging platform.

But hear us out. Business Messages is one of the most organic messaging experiences you can offer your customers.

There’s no denying that Apple knows how to create a great customer experience. From their Genius Bars to their MacBook packaging, there’s care and attention paid to every small detail.

And that extends to their Business Messages feature. We’re answering three basic questions to help you discover what it is and how to use it to improve your customer experience below.

What is Apple Messages for Business?

Apple Messages for Business allows users to connect with your business through Apple’s native Messaging app on their iOS- or macOS-enabled devices. With more than 1 billion iPhone users, you have a simple way to connect with your customers.

When you enable Apple Messages for Business, users get one-on-one access to your representatives directly in Maps, Safari, Search, Siri, Spotlight, and even within your iOS app. All they have to do is click the messaging icon, and they’re taken to their messaging apps.

Your customers don’t need to navigate through an automated phone tree, search for an email address on your website, or download an app—they can simply open up the Messages app and start chatting with a customer service representative right away.

What can you do with Apple Messages for Business?

Besides enabling customers to connect with you as easily as they do with their favorite people, Apple Messages for Business offers a variety of features you can leverage to improve your customer experience.

Rich messaging

So much more than a text. Rich messaging allows you to send images, links, share a location, read receipts and more.

Send a rich link that displays website information from within the message. Customers can verify it’s the information they’re looking for before tapping the link, and they’re provided an easy way to get back to the conversation after they’ve visited the site.

Retailers can use messaging to send product images, insurance companies can ask for pictures of car damage, or you can share nearby brick-and-mortar locations.

Appointment scheduling

Let customers schedule appointments right from within messaging. Customers can see if it conflicts with their schedule, automatically add the appointment to their iCal, and get reminders to ensure they don’t miss it.

Augmented reality

Help customers decide if a product fits in their home. Using their iPhone camera and augmented reality, customers can visualize a product in their homes.

List picker

Simplify customer choice by letting them pick from a pre-populated list. Use it to help them pick locations, item size, color, or service.

pay to chat apple pay

Accept payments with Apple Pay

Eliminate abandoned carts by completing sales right within Messages. You can send payment requests with Apple Pay and make it so much easier for customers to complete a transaction. No more entering in extra information, and no getting up from the couch to get your credit card… Just instant gratification.

Collect (secure) customer information

What’s one thing customers hate most about customer service? Having to repeat themselves and give out their information to multiple people. Apple Business Chat removes this obstacle by providing the customer information you need. Plus, messages are long-lived. No matter when a customer reaches out, their previous conversation will live in the messaging platform so you can pick up right where you left off. Just like messaging a friend.

What are the benefits of using Apple Messages for Business?

Apple Messages for Business provides many opportunities to delight customers while still streamlining your customer support process. Benefits of Apple Messages for Business include:

  1. The ability to encourage messaging with Message Suggest.
  2. Delivery of a seamless customer experience.
  3. Incorporation of both live agents and chatbots.

Encourage messaging with Message Suggest

Typically, customers can message you by tapping a messaging icon. But you can boost messages and reduce your call volumes with Apple Message Suggest. Customers can tap on your business phone number from anywhere within iOS or macOS, including websites, social media, business directories, etc., and they’ll be given the option to message instead of call.

Adding Message Suggest can help reduce call volume and drive traffic to messaging, which is often more efficient and cost-effective.

Deliver a seamless customer experience

Think of Apple Messages for Business as an extension of your brand experience. You control your business contact info the user sees when they search your name, including logo, contact information, and more.

You can even customize the call-to-action text for Apple Suggest. Instead of the standard, “Why call when you can message?”, consider a simple “Text us” or an encouraging “Get faster service when you send a text.”

Incorporate both live agents and chatbots

One of the requirements for having an Apple Messages for Business account is having live agents available to respond to customer inquiries. But that doesn’t mean you have to have someone at the ready at all times. You can still use AI agents at specific points of the interaction to ensure instant service at all times.

Use bots to:

  • Welcome customers
  • Automate the checkout process
  • Gather customer information
  • Troubleshoot simple customer issues
  • Collect feedback

Since messaging can happen at any time, you can use bots to service customer questions 24/7, such as:

  • Checking order statuses
  • Canceling an order
  • Scheduling appointments
  • Confirming account balances

You can still utilize bots to help you deliver the best experience to your customers while tapping in live agents to provide that one-on-one support.

Take a deep dive into Apple Messages for Business.

We’ve just scratched the surface on what you can do with Apple Messages for Business to surprise and delight your customers. By giving customers a way to connect with your business that they know, love, and use daily, you’re creating a comfortable and inviting experience for them. P.S. To use Apple Messages for Business, you’re required to use a messaging service provider like Quiq.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is Apple Messages for Business?

It’s a native iOS and macOS feature that lets customers message your business directly through Apple’s Messages app – from Maps, Safari, Siri, or your app without needing to call or email.

What features does Apple Messages for Business offer?

Businesses can send rich messages, schedule appointments, collect secure customer information, enable augmented reality previews, and accept Apple Pay payments within chat.

How does Apple Messages for Business improve customer experience?

It streamlines support by removing friction – customers can start conversations instantly and pick up where they left off, similar to texting a friend.

Can Apple Messages for Business integrate live agents?

Yes. Companies must have human agents available, but can also automate common requests using AI agents to provide 24/7 support.

What are the main benefits for businesses?

It helps reduce call volumes with Message Suggest, builds trust through Apple’s secure ecosystem, and enhances brand perception with a seamless, familiar messaging experience.