Sending & Responding to Messages for Business Messages

Before your QA test with Apple, you'll need to decide which interactive Apple Messages for Business messages you'll be using with customers. The interactive message types include Apple Pay, pickers (list and time), and rich links. We strongly recommend that you practice sending each of the interactive message types so you can better determine which types will be helpful to answer your common customer questions.

Apple Pay

Apple Pay interactive messages give customers the ability to complete purchases over Messages for Business. This message type is powered by Podium Payments, which means all of your payment requests can be monitored in the Payment Activity report. Note that customers won’t be able to pay using their bank account. Before you can send an Apple Pay request, you'll need to set it up in your Messages for Business account. 

To send an Apple Pay request:

1. In Podium, find an Apple Messages for Messages for Business.
2. Write a message and type :payment: at the end.
3. Click Send & Close.
4. Create a title for the Apple Pay request.
5. Include an invoice number, if needed.
6. Add a description of the item or service and the amount that is due. If necessary, you can add additional items to the payment request by clicking the add (+) icon.

List Picker

Using the list picker, you can send customers a predefined list of text options to choose from to speed up interactions. For example, you can ask the customer to select a color or size for their purchase.

To send a list picker: 

1. In Podium, find an Apple Messages for Business Chat.
2. Write a message and type :list_picker: at the end.
3. Click Send & Close.
4. Create a title for the list picker message.
5. Add a list item. You can add additional items by clicking the add (+) icon.
6. Click Save & Send.

Time Picker

Like the list picker, the time picker shows dates and times that a customer can choose from to schedule appointments, pickups, or deliveries.

To send a time picker: 

1. In Podium, find an Apple Messages for Business Chat.
2. Write a message and type :time_picker: at the end.
3. Click Send & Close.
4. Create a title for the time picker message.
5. Select a time zone.Add a time slot, by selecting a date and writing a time. To add additional time slots click the add (+) icon. 
6. Click Save & Send.

Rich Links

Improve a customer’s experience by sending rich links in messages that include either a video or image that opens to a page on your website. In some cases, when you send a rich link there won't be an image or title associated with that page. For links without this information, your customers will see a generic image that will prompt them to open the link for more details.

Instead of having a generic image you can have a custom title and image for each page on your website. So for example, if you sell cars, when sending a link to a specific car you will want the image to be a thumbnail of the car and the title to be the make, model, and year of the car. To do this you'll need to contact your website administrator to update your website to include metadata tags (title, description, and image) for each page of your website.

To send a rich link: 

1. In Podium, find an Apple Messages for Business Chat.
2. Write a message and paste the appropriate website URL.
3. Click Send & Close.

Next Step: Create a list of common customer questions and email registry@apple.com to schedule your QA test. Be sure to attach your list of common customer questions in your email.