Messages for Small Businesses
Making Automated Support Accessible
Making Automated Support Accessible
Context
Messages for Small Businesses (MSB) was an idea I pitched to explore new opportunities for ConversationKit by simplifying its modality, providing small businesses using Apple devices and services like Apple Maps to extend their customer support experience by simply filling out answers for frequently asked questions and taking over only if needed.
It went on to become Apple’s Business Connect conversational support feature, where businesses could add a chat function on Apple Maps to reach businesses.
Discovery Approach
1. Identify
Apple’s small business offering centered around the devices, warranties, and connectivity. It did not provide exclusive benefits that would attract businesses apart from its ecosystem advantages.
2. Evaluate
Research revealed that businesses spend significant amount of time providing support over text and phone on FAQs from customers coming in from Yelp and Apple Maps.
3. Ideate
Providing an automated support service capable of answering FAQs, is easy to configure and manage will provide businesses with a better experience and a new market penetration opportunity for Apple.
The Big Question
Aditya Sankhe
“What do business owners need to easily incorporate automated support to their businesses?”
It Must Be
1. Easy to Onboard
Onto the product
2. Intuitive to Configure
Responses
3. Convenient to Monitor
Customer interactions
Setting Foundations
Research Insights
1. Redirecting Staff
Businesses spent 30% of their time answering FAQs, only 10% of which required human assistance, causing staff to spend valuable time doing more necessary jobs.
2. Cumbersome Support
Most businesses found other automated support solutions to be too much effort for the payoff. The end-to-end experience involved too many steps, monitoring, and became an unnecessary expense.
3. iPad and Macs
Businesses used iPads and Macs for their POS systems, which informed which type of solution was most viable.
Apple Has
1. CKit Features
Powerful question/intent identifiers and solution routing capabilities, scalable infrastructure, ML models and more.
2. Access to Maps and Yelp
Access to business account profiles, categories and data regarding across business types, and established entry points that customers use frequently to know more about a business.
3. iMessages
Apple’s flagship messaging platform with business oriented features like Apple pay, Calendar, and third party apps.
Design Approach
Philosophy
Clarity
In User journey and JTBD
Question & Answer
Format for Configuring Responses
Narrative
To streamline Q&A experience
Configuration Page - Version 1
Features
1. Turn On/Off
Users can choose topics they want the bot to answer. The idea was to make the it easy to understand and configure.
2. Simple and Advanced
Reply with simple text or provide a more advanced experience with text, rich links and images depending on the topic.
3. iPhone Preview
A representation of what the response will look like in real time allows users to modify messaging to appropriately answer questions.
Feedback
Topics do not turn on/off,
who replies is what changes
Presenting a toggle on a topic, sends the incorrect message that the bot will not answer that topic.
Language did not directly address actions
The indirect narrative was too complex, which overwhelmed first time, and non-technical users.
Lack of the “Save Button”
The idea manually saving work was important to users, and allowed for experimentation before committing to a particular response
Configuration Page - Version 2
1. “Who Should Answer?”
Using direct language throughout the configuration process makes it easier to understand, removes misconceptions, and allows for more clear ways to communicate ideas to users.
2. Me/Assistant
Changes the paradigm from on/off to should the message go to the user or should the assistant answer. This creates clear onus of the response, and allows the user to change each response individually.
3. Save!
Having the ability to change responses without saving and have it be populated in real time on the preview gives users more confidence.
Onboarding
Features
1. Business Account
Apple’s information system allows for a seamless onboarding experience, expediting a tedious onboarding process.
2. Yelp Integration
Pre-filled information sets up account information so that responses can be pre calibrated to make configuration simpler.
3. Custom Questions
Questionnaire can be customized based on pre-existing information. The onboarding process verifies instead of requesting.
Messaging
Features
1. Bot Messages
Default message handling is done by the bot (dark grey) and it replies according to the configured responses. Bot messages are located in closed messages.
2. Active Messages
When a customer requests to talk to a manager, users can take over and service them. Once done, the conversation can be closed.
3. Block Customers
Users have the ability to block customers to avoid abuse.
Present & Future
Success Story
Business Connect
At ThunderDome (Apple’s Shark Tank), MSB was picked as a feature to be added to the Business Connect feature suite!
Post 2023
LLMs, Gen AI and
Tone of Voice
With the help of LLMs, the configuration experience could involve understanding more about the tone of voice of the business. Our current information gathering experience is similar to a knowledge base which can be enhanced to provide more human-like responses instead of static ones, and be capable of answering more questions in real-time.