Derek: Hello, everyone, Derek Johnson with tatango.com.
We're here at Mobile World Congress 2019.
We're actually not in the GSMA Innovation City anymore.
We are on Hall 8.1, and we are in the CM.com booth.
It is a massive booth here, and I have Saskia from CM.com.
First off, Saskia, what is CM.com?
Saskia: CM.com is a provider for messaging.
So, instead of only sending SMS, we are also enabling enterprises to send all business
messages to any chat platform that is available.
Derek: Cool.
So, in addition to RCS, that's SMS and Apple Business Chat, right?
Saskia: Absolutely, but also WhatsApp or LINE if you're in different locations.
Derek: And you have a demo.
A lot of people have been showing RCS.
Would you guys do a lot of RCS?
Would you have a demo for us about Apple Business Chat?
Saskia: That's correct, yes, Apple Business Chat, that's what we want to show.
I want to add one thing about CM.com.
So, we are ensuring that we can provide conversational commerce, and it's way more than just providing
messaging for companies.
So we're combining a lot of features to make sure that the message that a consumer receives
is rich and complete as possible to final payment.
Derek: Okay, okay.
So, walk us through this Apple Business Chat demo.
Saskia: I will, yes.
So, what I have in front of me is an iPhone and from almost any version of iPhones recently
where you can start using Apple Business Chat.
So, imagine you have a website where you can trigger...or you're searching and browsing
on the web, and you can start using Apple Business Chat.
And you can initiate a flow.
So, in this case, I'm using a QR code, but it could be a link on a website or it could
be messages initiated from any organization.
Oh, shit.
So, what you see is that, instead of all the round...the round logos, those are users.
This is a square logo and that's business messaging.
Derek: And a business could customize that with their font, their logo, everything like
that?
Saskia: Absolutely, yes.
So, once you're verified as an organization, then once you have the tick box and green
means that you're in production.
So, this is still beta version, so if you want to try it with your iPhone, unfortunately
it doesn't work but you will also have your logo.
So that's how you recognize official businesses.
Derek: And the QR code that you just scanned is on the table, that could be in a retail
restaurant space, and it's essentially triggering a message to start the conversation.
Saskia: Yeah, that's correct.
But it could also, for instance, if you're in Maps or if you're looking and browsing
for something, if you're on a website or, for instance, a hospital where you want to
make an appointment with a doctor, you could also have a link there that you open via your
iMessage.
Derek: Do you think the QR code...because I haven't seen QR codes for a while, but they
seem to kind of be coming back.
Do you think that will be the way that people engage with Apple Business Message or will
it be through search or a combination of everything?
Saskia: I think it's a combination of many things, but via search I think we find most
of the successes.
Derek: So what happens now?
Saskia: What happens now is that I have opened an Apple Business Chat, and I'm going to show
you what it's going to look like.
So here I have...can you cut it out?
Derek: Oh, no, it's...well, yeah, we can edit it.
Saskia: Okay, thank you because I want to start again.
Derek: Yeah, no problem.
Saskia: So, what we have now is it scans a QR code, and I will receive a message where
I can place an order and I can initiate a flow as a user.
So, what's going to happen is communicating to my bot which, in this case, I have links
to my merchandize shop via which you can order coffee [inaudible 00:03:46].
Yeah, but this could also be your own store, your websites via which you have your online
browsing, your retail shop for instance, but it could also be hospital where you have all
those options, for instance, which doctor appointment you want to make.
But, here, we have the categories, so we're searching and we're going to order coffee.
Derek: And this is all within Apple Business Chat.
You don't have to got to different website.
It looked really great kind of what was just displayed there.
Saskia: Yeah, it's very clean and you don't have to stay in session, so you don't have
to browse.
You don't have to navigate to any...you remain in there.
So, you already mentioned you want to have coffee, so that's what you get.
So I have ordered coffee now for you, and the next thing it's going to ask if I want
to have more...
So, in this case, I'm going to say no but obviously, if you want to shop further, then
that's definitely an option.
So, I'm going to say, "No, I don't need anything else."
So, what it will do now, it will ask me when I want to pick it up.
Imagine in the morning you want to have your Starbucks done and ready for you; that's of
course possible that you can have a pick-up time, but it's way more expected in a user
story like a hospital where you want to make your doctor's appointments.
So, here, I can select times, I can also select dates.
So, I'm going to say we're going to pick it up at 5, and then it will be ready for you.
The next thing now it's going to make a confirmation which I can immediately add to my calendar,
but even nicer is that I can pay immediately in this channel.
Derek: The payment is really interesting because that really completes the whole flow.
Right now, with SMS, usually you have to kick them to a mobile app or a website.
You've done the whole process and stayed within iMessage.
Saskia: Absolutely, yes, no need to leave a channel.
Derek: And I know, okay, a lot of people are going to be asking, "What's the difference
between RCS and iMessage?
Do they compete?
Do they coexist?"
Where do you see kind of all of these different messaging channels for a brand coming together?
Saskia: For brands coming together, they should not have the headache on which device the
user is using, so as you connect via [inaudible 00:05:50] and they reach all those different
devices without a headache of understanding.
And it's going to have a similar experience depending on which phone a user yes.
So, I think they will coexist especially because Apple is not part of RCS yet.
Derek: And what about the brands that you work with?
What have they been telling you about?
Because I know you guys do a lot of Apple Business Chat at work, what's their experience?
Are they happy?
Are they missing things?
What's their experience been?
Saskia: People are very convenient using it.
It's so user-friendly.
It fits in the design of the app that you're used to.
Derek: And, do you see maybe Apple Business Chat almost replace mobile apps for some brands?
Saskia: Yes.
Derek: Okay, that's it.
Saskia: Absolutely.
Derek: So really conversational commerce could eventually replace a mobile app.
Saskia: Yes.
Derek: That's the plan.
Saskia: Yes, that's the plan.
Yes.
Derek: Awesome.
Is there anything you guys have learned here at CM.com about building these experiences
whether it's RCS or Apple Business Chat that maybe was brand new for your thinking or things
that you hadn't thought about but brands are experiencing now that you could help maybe
some of our viewers if they're building their own conversational app to maybe not make the
same mistakes that maybe you have or you've gone through.
Saskia: Yeah.
Obviously it's open for conversation, right?
So, you get a lot of responses.
If you're used to send one-way messages, then expect huge amounts of questions back, so
be prepared of which channels you're opening because people have lots of questions.
Yeah, because it's so convenient to chat, that's one, and it requires huge amounts of
departments to work together because this already has payments, so you need a financial
department.
It has the design department.
You need to have the website department but also the support needs to be ready because
they want to k now which campaign you have sent.
Derek: Very interesting.
So, really involving everybody in the company and then secondly, if you open up a channel,
be ready for inbound messages on that channel.
Saskia: Yes, absolutely.
Derek: Well, that was a great demo.
It's very interesting to see Apple Business Chat here at Mobile World Congress 2019.
We are with CM.com, Saskia, and she just showed us an awesome demo from Apple Business Chat
about how to order a coffee and pay for it right within messaging.
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