KATIE OSBERG: Hi, there.
My name's Katie Osberg, And I link global retail partnerships
for Google's new and exciting suite of business communication
products.
Today, my colleague Sean and I cannot be more thrilled
to share our most recent launch, Google Business Messages.
But before we dive into what our product is,
or even how it works, it's helpful to understand why
this technology is so critical.
As with all great tech evolutions,
the solution often stems from a problem,
and ours is no different.
So, briefly, I'm going to ask you
to put your user hat on for a moment
and humor me as I pose a few questions.
How many of you have experienced at least
one or more the following situations
over the last couple of months?
Might you have had to rebook travel?
Perhaps you remember the feeling of going to multiple stores
and still not finding the product you were looking for.
Or could it be that you were working from home,
or perhaps your kids were completing
their e-learning course, and suddenly your internet
went out?
In all of those situations, users
needed to get in touch with brands or businesses.
But because there was an outreach spike,
these critical connections were seemingly impossible.
Almost every business was promoting
on either their website or answering machine
that call volumes were up and wait times
were exceptionally long.
Few provided alternative means to get in touch,
and resolution-- at least in a manner that was convenient--
say, on the user's terms--
seemed impossible.
Now, if I am the customer, when I hear "exceptionally long wait
times," I think, great.
This is going to take forever.
And who has the time to wait on hold anymore?
Time and attention has become increasingly more valuable.
And while exacerbated by the global pandemic,
this concept is not new.
Users are just simply pulled in too many directions.
But the same can be said for businesses now.
In addition to the overwhelming demand
to speak to someone caused by the global pandemic,
it's no secret that businesses have also
been tasked with an influx of new responsibilities.
For example, most are instituting new health
standards to keep employees safe,
and many are adjusting their operational protocols
to meet new and evolving consumption behaviors.
Absent of user demands to diversify interaction channels,
businesses are going to have to rethink
the way they communicate with customers, such
that interactions are more meaningful,
result in resolutions, and ultimately drive
connections that count.
Now, we at Google understand that we're
often responsible for facilitating that connection
between a user and a brand.
And over the last 20 years, we've
worked to perfect the art of surfacing
the right product, service, and business in the moments that
matter.
But as technology evolves, we've come
to understand that surfacing a call button--
or perhaps a link to a Contact Us page--
might not be the most effective way
for us to facilitate this connection.
In fact, these connections can be
incredibly expensive for businesses
and extremely frustrating for users.
Did you know that businesses spend $1.3 trillion
on 265 billion customer service calls each year?
And 67% of people raised their hand
indicating that they would rather message a business
than speak with a person.
The communication experiences of today
are expensive, frustrating, and frankly inconvenient.
Which is why users have begun to demand conversational messaging
solutions, not just from Google, but from their favorite brands
and businesses.
To be successful in this space, it has become abundantly clear
that three things must be true about your messaging
experiences.
They must be asynchronous, enabling users
to pick up and exit the conversation
at their convenience.
Automated, returning responses to users in real time.
And finally, assisted, helping users
to determine which products or services are right for them.
Today, as a result of these learnings,
we couldn't be more excited to share
how we've evolved the Google search experience to facilitate
making connections that count.
Over to you, Sean.
SEAN FALCONER: Thanks, Katie.
My name is Sean Falconer, and I lead
developer relations for Google's business communication
products.
And I'm going to take you through our conversational
solution, Business Messages.
So, what exactly is Business Messages?
Business Messages lets your customers message
your business directly from your Search and Maps results.
As Katie described, many business conversations
begin on a Google surface like Search or Maps.
And until recently, customers are both
calling your business for support or digging
through your website to find the correct means to contact you.
With Business Messages, you can provide customers
high-quality help through your Search and Maps results.
Instead of the customer being redirected to your phone system
or website, they will see a message button
where they can begin a conversation
with your business.
So, how do you go about creating a conversational experience
for your business with Business Messages?
Let's take a look.
As a consumer, your customer user journey
begins as it does today, by searching for that business
on Google Search.
Once you find the business you're trying to contact,
instead of only seeing Call, Directions, and Website
buttons, business enabled with Business Messages will also
have a Message button.
Tapping on the message button will
launch a conversational surface where you can begin
chatting with that business.
These conversations can begin on an iOS or Android device.
Behind the scenes, what is happening is
the messages sent from consumers are passed through the Business
Messages API through to a messaging
partner or your business directly
via a configured webhook.
Once you receive the message, you can pass that message
to a live or digital agent.
This diagram shows this process in a little more detail.
The user or consumer begins on Search or Maps,
looks up a business, opens a conversation
with that business, is greeted with
a customized welcome message, and begins a conversation.
Messages from the consumer are passed
through the northbound API and push your webhook
as a JSON object.
The webhook parses the received object
that contains the consumer's message, the preferred
language of the user, timestamp information,
a unique conversation ID, and the consumer's display name.
Within your webhook, you can route that message
to a digital agent as your first line of defense
for handling common customer support issues,
or pass the conversation over to a live agent
to handle more complex user journeys.
Business Messages helps you leverage the existing user
behavior to contact your business through Search
or Maps, where you can continue to take advantage
of the discovery and reach of these products,
while providing a more direct way
for you to have real and meaningful personalized
conversations with your consumers.
The Business Messages platform and API sports
which features like cards, carousels, suggestion chips,
photos, and actions that help you deep
link into your website or app.
By utilizing these rich features,
you can create an engaging user journey
to capture leads, sell products, or solve customer support
issues.
By combining the discovery and reach
of your business on Search, along with the rich features I
just mentioned, and automation through a digital agent,
you can help your consumers solve customer issues
without the cost of a phone call or live agent.
Like with an app or website, the Business Messages'
rich features help you direct the user
through a supported user journey that can be fully automated.
Digital agents can be created using tools
like Google Cloud's Dialogflow, our tool for creating
agents that understand natural language.
Companies like Walmart have these Dialogflow
to not only power their digital agent on Business Messages,
but also automate a large majority of customer support
inquiries, leaving their life agents
available to handle a more complex and unique requests.
Business Messages is an innovation
in creating true customer connections.
The rich features of the platform
help you put guardrails around your automated experiences
so you can steer your consumers through a happy path
to solve problems.
But aside of the fancy features, this
is a conversational platform.
Your customer is conversing directly with your business.
Utilizing tools like Dialogflow help
you to automatically respond quickly and naturally
to customers, regardless of the time of day,
or current mode on your live agents.
The combination of a natural entry point from Search,
the rich user interface, and the powerful automation provided
by tools like Dialogflow represent
a true technological innovation.
In fact, we see these major shifts
in how consumers interact with technology and businesses
every 10 years or so.
Back in the '70s, we had mainframes.
In the '80s, we had desktop computing.
In the mid-'90s, the internet, and then in the mid aughts,
mobile and smartphone revolution.
It's now hard to imagine a world today without a smartphone.
We're all walking around with a small computer in our pocket.
This would have been unheard of 20 years ago,
but it completely changed how your consumers interact
with their business.
You had to adapt to creating an app for your business,
redesigning your website to adapt
to smartphone screen sizes.
And now, I believe the next shift that's happening
is around AI messaging and personalized
rich conversations.
Business Messages is Google's solution
to help your business adapt to this technological evolution.
All right.
Let's take a look at a couple real world examples.
This first demo is from Walmart, who's
live with Business Messages for some
of their locations in the United States.
They deployed a digital agent for experience,
where they use Dialogflow to create a conversational agent
that can address common customer support issues,
like opening senior hours, COVID-19 protocols,
and looking up store locations.
Their Business Messages webhook is
using Node.js to call in Dialogflow APIs
to power the digital agent.
They did a lot of iteration on automation,
reviewing where the original Dialogflow
agent was unable to help, and made iterative improvements.
They're now handling the majority of customer support
requests through their automation.
Let's take a look at their experience.
Let's begin our journey to speak to my local Walmart, the Google
Search.
So, I look up Walmart San Jose, and I'm
shown a few different potential locations.
I choose the Walmart Supercenter that I know,
and I see the local listing result.
To begin my chat experience, I tap
on Message, which opens a conversational overlay
with this specific Walmart.
I see a customized welcome message,
letting me know what this chat bot can help me with.
I choose to agree to continue my conversation.
Once the chat bot receives my acknowledgment,
my conversation with the digital agent begins.
From the greeting, I can see a chip list
of the various types of user journeys the chat bot supports.
Things like hiring, pickup times, inventory, hours,
store safety, and so on.
There's really a lot that the chat bot can help me with.
I'm going to choose store hours.
When I choose this item, the request
is being sent back through the Business Messages API
to the Walmart webhook, and then the webhook
is sending this request to Dialogflow
to compute a response based on the query, and in this case,
the specific Walmart location that I asked about.
Because this is a chat interface,
I can also just type my request.
So I'm going to ask, do I have to wear a mask?
Once I hit send, the same process
to handle this message through Walmart's digital agent
will be carried out.
And we can see that since July 20th,
all shoppers have to wear a mask.
This is super helpful.
I'm going to ask one more question.
This time, I ask, is there a limit
to how many people can be in the store at once?
Once Walmart receives this request,
they respond letting me know that they are taking measures
to promote social distance.
And they include a link out to read more about these measures.
So, with the Walmart's Business Messages experience,
I was able to find out the hours and the COVID-19 protocol
requirements from my local store,
all without having to wait to speak to a live agent
or dig through the Walmart website for the information.
Because Walmart is leveraging Dialogflow in this experience,
I can also have a natural conversation
with the bot, which is really, really amazing.
This second demo is from Woolworths, Australia's largest
supermarket chain.
Like Walmart, they use Dialogflow to create
a digital agent first approach.
They put a lot of their company's personality
in the automation, following conversational design
best practices.
So just starting with the persona,
creating a unique voice, and example dialogue.
Besides handling simple questions and answers,
the agent also helps customers look up inventory
within their local Woolworths.
Let's take a look at their demo.
As with Walmart, I begin my Woolworths chat experience
with a Google Search for a local location, this time in Sydney.
Directly within the Search results,
I see the location I'm looking for,
and I can tap on the Message button.
I see that I am talking to Olive,
Woolworths' virtual assistant.
And there are some conversational starters
I can use to begin my conversation.
I'm going to start by trying to find a product.
Olive prompts me for the product.
And I'm going to try to find hand sanitizer, something
that we all likely need right now.
Olive is looking at the query and does
a great job of setting expectations
about the stock levels.
My results for the specific store come back in a carousel,
and I can see that although the first brand is out of stock,
there is another brand available.
And in fact, it's even available in aisle 14.
I know my local store has hand sanitizer.
I'm going to search for another product by simply typing in,
I'm also looking for Tim Tams, one
of my favorite Australian treats.
The same process is carried out, where
Olive is going to understand the question
and look up the stock levels for this specific store
and product.
Once my results are returned.
I see that there is stock available
in a few different flavors, and they're
available in aisle nine.
Now that I know when I need it available,
I'm going to look up the location's store hours
so I know when I can pick up the hand sanitizer and Tim Tams.
Looks like most stores are back on regular hours.
Oliver returns both the store hours
for location I was interested in, as well as others close by,
so that I have a few different options.
I can also see that there is more information
available through the store locator, which
is an action that deep links in the Woolworths website,
where I can get more information about the store location.
This Woolworths Business Messages chat bot
is live across locations in Australia.
The real-time inventory lookup is a powerful experience
for customers, saving us potentially unnecessary trips
in the store.
Those are just two examples of existing experiences
on Business Messages today.
There are many other customer journeys
that you can potentially create on the platform
for your business.
To talk about the future of messaging,
I'm going to pass this back to Katie.
Thank you very much.
KATIE OSBERG: Thank you, Sean.
It's inevitable that users will not only
expect this technology, but eventually
demand it from their favorite brands and businesses.
And as this happens, you'll start
to see a natural evolution in the sophistication
of these conversations.
Today, these conversations may be
limited to simplified FAQs and the pursuit
of fast, easily accessible information
in a streamlined format.
But they too should be sophisticated enough
to serve as appropriate contextual information.
Let's take a look at example.
Meet Dash, Bridgeport Runners' virtual assistant.
In this example, you'll see that I've
asked Dash when my store opens in the morning,
and he promptly returned 7:30 AM.
He also addresses my curbside pickup and query,
and finishes by asking if there's
anything else I need help with.
Now again, the back and forth here is mainly
FAQ-driven, but even within the language
Dash uses-- for example, "it sure is,"
you feel his eagerness, which is in line with our persona best
practices Sean touched on earlier.
The next evolution we can expect to see with these experiences
is consultative discussions.
This can lead to conversational commerce,
or even assist the decision-making.
For example, determining which department you'll need
to be connected with before handing off the experience
to a skilled live agent.
In the upcoming example, you'll see that Dash has the ability
to take customer context, make calculated recommendations,
and finally, facilitate conversational commerce, all
within the confines of frictionless chat.
Let's take a look.
In response to, "Anything else I can help with?"
I let Dash know that I'm running a 5K
and ask him for shoe recommendations.
With his enthusiastic attitude, Dash quickly
returns a handful of shoes that suit my needs.
Once Dash confirms that the product I'm looking for
is in fact available, I promptly am deep linked to the website
to transact.
Here, you'll notice that my store and curbside have already
been preselected, making my checkout process infinitely
easier.
Then, within the messaging experience,
I'm passed the appropriate tracking information
and notified when my order is ready to be picked up.
Pretty cool, right?
Finally, when we look to the future of this technology,
we fully expect that come 2021, or maybe even late 2020,
marketing teams will be building conversational strategies
into their media plans.
This is because these conversational experiences
enable brands to build loyalty and maintain
one-to-one relationships with their users,
ultimately increasing the overall lifetime
value of their existing customer base.
Personalization will reach new heights
as contextual information is used to reach out to customers
in new and assistive ways.
Let's take a look.
In this final example, you'll see
that Dash has reached back out to me, not only to see
how my training's been going, but also
to ensure I like my new shoes.
He then surfaces many helpful options
including running content, other products I may need,
as well as 5K tips.
When I click through on the running content chip,
you'll see that I'm passed a running techniques video that
could be incredibly useful as I prepare for the upcoming race.
What's unique about this experience
is that Dash didn't ask for the sale.
He didn't even push me any promotions.
He focused on the user and was able to connect with me
in a way that few brands can.
As we look to the future that is conversational marketing, ask
yourself, are you ready for today, tomorrow,
and the future of messaging?
If your answer is yes, we'd love to get you onboarded.
If your answer is no, that's OK, too.
It's not too late to build an effective strategy.
And should you have any questions, we're here to help.
If you'd like to learn more about Google Business Messages,
please take a look at our website
and be sure to follow the interest form.
From all of us on the business communications team,
thank you for your time, and we look forward to hearing
from you.