I am genuinely sorry for continuing the Apple themed news! But it seems to be coming in from everywhere today.
What do people think of Apple Business Chat?
It was one of the features rolled out months ago in iOS 11.3 - But as always, it was a little slow to fully roll out, and has only just launched in the UK.
I haven’t used the new Monzo customer service - But it looks a little bit similar from the screen shots I’ve seen (enter all the people who’ve actually used it to confirm or deny that statement!)
Anything that is native to the OS, on Android or iOS is a winner in my book - This actually look pretty neat.
Another of those things that will be largely ignored by a lot of big companies in the UK, and the only ones that will look to implement it, will be those who already have great ways to get in touch any way.
That’s probably also why we’d never implement anything like that (aside from the fact that we’re building our own tooling in-house).
How do you provide a seamless experience when the support system is native to one operating system? Unless you also have a back-end that pulls in messages from multiple platforms - in which case that system might as well have a front-end as well for consistency.
Oh, of course - This wouldn’t work as a “sole” solution for a company.
I read an article from a car manufacturer (can’t remember which one, but it was unusual - Began with an “L”).
It said (and I’m paraphrasing) - “Most of our customers prefer iOS” - - I hope they had research to back that up!
I wonder what the costs involved are? Would it just be a development time thing?
A lot of businesses don’t have a decent “chat” system - Or if they do, it cost’s them a ton of money to run. Not everyone is as fortunate to have the wealth of development talent available to them that Monzo does; and I agree that creating your own in house system would be the way to go if you can.
But for the businesses that can’t - Could Apple Business Chat plug a small gap? I’d imagine it would get a little messy running 2 systems (one for Apple, one for Android) - I wonder what the businesses using it at the moment do?
Personally - I prefer the chat based customer service.
It means I don’t have to take minutes/hours out of my day to sort something out, and it’s quick and easy.
If there is an emergency, I’ll always phone - But for 90% of the issues I encounter, a chat system is my preferred choice.
That being said, when I had to enter a Lloyds branch last week to re-open my dormant account… I overheard someone (who was probably mid 50’s), saying: “Oh no, I don’t do internet banking, please send everything to me by mail”…
So I guess your mileage on chat systems will vary dramatically
I’ve noticed a few businesses using Facebook Messenger. I suspect that’s a more likely scenario than any Apple or Google solution for many, especially since Facebook is inherently identity-based.
I’ve had to use it a few times and something feels a bit “ick” about it but it works well enough.
I can’t put my finger on it (I think “ick” might be an accurate description of my feelings) - But I avoid the Facebook messenger help chats.
It’ll be interesting to see how many businesses do make the effort to roll this out - It’s not exactly been a prominent feature for Apple (I’ve barely heard anything about it since it launched).
Even in the US - It doesn’t look like many have rolled it out.
It’s not a consumer product though, why would you have heard much about it unless there was some epic data breach and people got other peoples chat histories appear in their inbox?
I try and follow the tech blogs as much as possible - Usually anything Apple related hits the news - Especially with companies adopting something like this (although it doesn’t look like many companies have).
Keen to see how it goes in the UK - I wonder if businesses don’t want to be seen to be favouring iOS over Android.
- I hope they had research to back that up!
