Hello, everyone, Derek Johnson with tatango.com here.
Today, I'm gonna be walking you through an Apple Business Chat demo from 1-800-Flowers.
It's a really great use case for how brands can use Apple Business Chat to engage with
their customers.
So what I'm going to do, is I've mirrored my phone onto the screen and I have it right
here.
And I'm first going to search for 1-800-Flowers.
Now, you can access the Business Chat functionality through the mobile web, maps.
There are some other different ways you can access it, but what I found to be the easiest
is actually in my kind of home screen here.
I just want to search "1-800-Flowers," and you're gonna see all the way down here, you
see where it says, "Business 1-800-Flowers"?
Well, before 11.3 was launched, there used to be just a phone there.
Now there's a little messaging icon.
So I'm gonna click that messaging icon, and what it does, is it actually creates a message
to 1-800-Flowers.
So it looks kind of like almost a contact in your contact book.
And I'm going to say, you know, "Hi.
I want to order flowers."
And then right away when you do that, it's pretty cool, as you can see here.
It's going to have the custom branding, which is very similar to like RCS business messaging.
You have the custom branding, you have the verified little link there, and then also
if I click "Information," I can see more info about the business, not much info.
Yeah.
Not bad.
Once I click through, you know, I can see user response within a minute, that's pretty
cool, their website, their phone number, most...that's pretty much all.
What's also interesting is, let's say, 1-800-Flowers was becoming annoying and I couldn't, you
know, take their messages anymore, and I didn't want them, or maybe I was going on vacation,
I could also hide alert, which, I'm guessing, would just kind of remove the alerts or not
allow them to message me.
So I'm gonna keep that open so they can message me.
And as you can see, it's very similar to iMessage.
This is something you don't get with shortcodes or SMS, or MMS message.
You can actually see that they're typing, which is like messaging your friends, essentially.
So, this person, and this, just to be clear, is not a bot.
This is an actual person responding.
They're using a support chat platform that integrates with iMessage.
So, I'm going to say my zip code, 98121.
That's Seattle.
And then I think what happens after this, and again, I'm not really sure, but what happens
after this is, it essentially, I think, goes into a bot-type message because I don't think
this is a real person typing this out.
But this is where it gets really, really cool.
So, I typed in 98121 and I sent that off to them.
Then it says, "Which location type will this gift be sent to?"
So then, I select this little box here, and then, wow, look at that.
So I get to select all these different options.
This feels like a mobile app almost experience rather than, you know, a basic SMS or MMS
experience.
So, let's send it to the office.
Now, when I click that business, that option there, I do have to send this.
With RCS, it's a little bit better, I think, the experience, because when you click, you
know, one of the little reply buttons, it actually sends it for you.
That'd be really, really cool if Apple could, on a next release, when you select it, it
automatically sends it off for you.
But I'm gonna just click "Send."
And then we wait.
And you can tell pretty much this is a bot because look how fast it's coming through,
no spelling errors, obviously.
So, "What occasion are you shopping for?"
And it looks like, you know, they're kind of using the image preview where, you know,
when you're looking at a URL in message, in SMS, or in MMS message, it usually previews
the image.
They're using the same kind of structure with, you know, the page title there, and then the
subtitle, "Select an Occasion."
So I'm gonna click this one.
And this actually is really cool because, remember, on the first one, it was more about...it
was just text, you know, just plain text.
This one now is including images in this...I don't really know technically what they call
it, but in this little selection process here.
So, let's go...
Wow.
Look at all these, retirement, new baby.
I'm going to go birthday.
Okay, again, I have to click send to actually send my selection.
It's cool too how it says, "To: 1-800-Flowers" down here so I know I'm always messaging 1-800-Flowers.
That's a reason to celebrate and we have just the perfect gift to make them feel extra special
on their big day.
So then I click it.
Again...
Oh, this is cool.
Now they're using image and then a title, which is in bold, and then subtext.
Great experience here, look at this.
This makes ordering flowers extremely easy.
You know, I'm gonna go with the Party Pooch.
Looks kind of funny.
Okay.
I'm going to send that.
You can also know this is 1-800-Flowers because, you know, the verified link at the top, the
fact that it says 1-800-Flowers.
It actually doesn't even say 1-800-Flowers at the top.
It's actually their logo.
That's pretty cool.
So Party Pooch is an excellent choice.
We have a couple of options, so now they give you another selection.
Okay, you know, I'm going to do with the balloon.
I like a balloon.
"What is the recipient's first and last name?"
So now instead of going to kind of the selection, they're going back to more like a chat bot,
essentially.
So, you know, I'm gonna send this to myself even though it's not my birthday.
"Thank you.
When would you like this gift to be delivered?"
Okay, this is something cool.
I saw it earlier in one of the demos.
So, remember, we were selecting based off kind of just, like, options that were kind
of stacked, I guess.
Now, they're actually going with the Day and Time selector.
So look at this.
Almost the completely same kind of experience but different layout where they have, you
know, the time here, and actually, they even have like sub-stuff.
There are 139 events scheduled, and the first one starts at 11:30.
View in calendar.
Yeah, so it actually...it looks like it's pulling in some of my calendar events as well
into their...
So if let's say I was scheduling an appointment like, you know, a haircut, I don't have to
toggle between the apps.
That's really a cool feature.
So let's say I want this for April 5th at 11 a.m., and then I send it.
That's pretty cool.
So it looks like they have different, like, selectors, one for, you know, just text, one
for images and texts and subtexts, which we saw the price there.
And then we have kind of this date selector.
So, this one, 200 character limit.
Emojis are not accepted.
It looks like they know their audience, if they're ordering via message or business messaging.
So I'm going to say, you know, "Hey there, happy birthday."
So it's cool, they're mixing kind of these selecting kind of modules, I guess, with kind
of more chat box stuff where it's just plain text.
"So, what's the recipient's phone number?"
I'll use my phone number.
But as you can see, it's pretty snappy.
There was a few times it was a little bit slow, but man, this is really fast here, you
know.
And then, this is, I think, the most amazing part.
So you're all set.
Tap below to enter the recipient shipping address and place your order with Apple Pay.
So that's really cool.
So, I'm gonna click this, and see what happens here.
Oh my gosh, look at this.
This is amazing.
So, this is really cool.
Within the message, and I'm gonna just kind of exit out, within the message, I've clicked
Pay.
It has all of my info.
It even pulls in my shipping address, this is our business address here.
It pulls in my credit card information, which is stored with Apple.
It gives me the shipping, discounts, taxes, and then essentially all I need to do is double
click the button on my phone, and this order is placed and shipped.
That's a pretty cool experience.
Like, I don't think you could get better mobile messaging experience than what I just experienced
here.
That made it very, very simple.
And I'll just scroll through just so we can kind of review what happened.
I texted in, I said, "Hey.
I wanna order flowers."
They asked for my zip code.
Then they wanted the location, so the location they'll be shipped to.
They wanted to know what kind of occasion it was, then what type of bouquet, I guess,
I wanted, then what size or if I wanted a balloon attached.
I selected the date.
This is pretty cool.
I even wrote the letter that'll be attached to the gift via text message and I sent it
to them.
That's the, "Hey there, happy birthday."
Recipient's phone number, which is my phone number, and then all I had to do was click
this little thing at the bottom, double click on my phone, and the thing is ordered.
I really don't see how you could get much more simple.
I think 1-800-Flowers has done an amazing job integrating their experience, which is,
you know, the purchase experience for flowers, integrating it, making it really native within
the messaging app on the iPhone.
So, that's a demo of Apple Business Chat, which is available on iOS 11.3, which is the
new version of iOS, and this is 1-800-Flowers and how they're using Apple Business Chat.