[MUSIC PLAYING]
FEI GAO: Hi everyone, my name is Fei Gao.
I lead Channel Partnerships for Google's Business
Communications products.
Today, we're going to talk about Business Messages,
and how to set up brands for success.
If you're new to Business Messages,
please check out our introduction video
to learn more about what is Business Messages,
and how it helps brands meet customers where they are.
In this video, I'm going to cover three key questions
that you will want to review with brands as you help them
along the journey to adopt Business Messages.
Answers to these questions will help
you understand brands' customer journey,
identify areas to make an impact,
and ensure a successful rollout.
Well, let's take a look at the three questions.
The first question you may want to ask a brand
is, where do consumers typically start their interaction
with that brand?
Do their customers usually start from Google Search
and then make their way to the brand's website or call
center for help?
If so, the search based nonlocal entry points are great
places to launch the Business Messages experience.
Or, are customers more interested
in a brand's physical locations, and as a result,
come in from local search or Google Maps?
In that case, search and map based local entry points
probably will have the quickest impact
as brands start their Business Messages journey.
We just looked at two types of entry points
on Google Surfaces, local and nonlocal.
In a situation where a customer interactions start directly
from a brand's website, or their own channels,
you may want to guide the brand to also launch
Business Messages through web widget and URL based entry
points.
The URL can be embedded in a variety of brand owned channels
such as QR code, text messages, emails, and social media,
which enables brands to interact with their customers
seamlessly.
Now that you know where customers begin their journey,
next you will want to understand typical use cases
brands handle, and the conversational
experience they want to offer.
I will walk you through a few vertical specific examples
to help guide your discussion with brands
and trigger ideas on where to begin.
First, retail.
Here are some of the most common use cases
we have seen in the retail segment.
As you can tell, they are usually
tied to a few scenarios such as checking product availability,
getting product recommendations, store information,
or other status inquiries.
Trying to identify top intents and optimizing the experience
accordingly will enable you deliver major business
impact, leading to enhanced conversational design,
CSAT improvement, and cost reduction.
For example, Rich Cards and Google DialogFlow integration
can be used to show product availability, and even
aisle information.
A carousel of product pictures could
be used to guide customers through their shopping,
or make recommendations.
Smart Welcome Messages and Chips can be launched quickly
to provide store information that delivers
immediate business value.
In the automotives industry, typical use cases
tend to be more around inventory checking for cars and auto
parts, and scheduling appointments for test drives
or services.
Being able to provide rich images and links to details,
as well as calendar integration for appointment making
can help auto dealers meet the expectations of today's
mobile savvy car shoppers and achieve business goals
in a modern and innovative way.
For the telecommunications vertical,
service status, subscription plans, usage and billing,
and device troubleshooting tend to be asked most frequently.
Using Welcome Messages to update outage alerts,
Rich Cards to provide plan details,
and oAuth authentication to provide personalized care
experience will help brands drive loyalty,
grow engagement with your customers,
and lower acquisition and support cost.
In addition to these rich features that
come with Business Messages, we also
see bots being used very frequently in this vertical.
Automation through Chips and integration with DialogFlow
could be interesting in assisting device and service
troubleshooting.
Finally in the logistics segment,
tracking, scheduling, and shipping costs inqueries
are most common user journeys, as you see in the examples
here.
Like the other three verticals, Business Messages
offers a new way for logistics spenders
to connect with their customers where they are.
Trying to dive deeper into the specific challenges brands
are facing can help prioritize integrations and customizations
that are best suited for their needs.
After understanding the customer journeys and industry specific
use cases, the third areas to dive into
is a brand's rollout strategy.
Will Business Messages be used as an acquisition channel,
a customer care channel, or a combination of both?
Answers to this question will dictate
how the conversation flow needs to be designed,
and stakeholders involved.
Also, are there specific countries
the brand wants to pilot with.
Do they plan to use live agents only, or add bought upfront?
Figuring out the plan will help the brand
better prioritize geographies and resources
as they start on this journey.
We want to ensure a successful rollout,
and can work with you and the brand
to establish a launch plan that is best suited
for their situation.
Lastly, if you are a Google My Business partner
and manage a large number of SMBs,
we have a dedicated verification program
that can help you streamline the Business Messages launch
process.
This program requires you to obtain expanded overall scope
from the brand.
Once this is done, the auto verification
will help you reduce agent and location verification
times when launching a large number of SMBs
in a scalable manner.
This concludes my video today.
I'm super excited about our partner ecosystem,
and am eager to see what you build with Business Messages.
To learn more about Business Messages features and best
practices, I recommend you check out our Getting Started
and Ongoing Maintenance videos.
And as always, if you have any questions,
please feel free to email us at bm-support@google.com.
Thank you for watching.