Coronavirus Crisis: The reason why every business is deploying chatbots during COVID-19 outbreak

Corona Virus Chatbot By ODYNS

Every inch of the world is stumbling in a hope to tackle COVID-19 and the nationwide lockdown announced by the government to restrain the spread of the corona virus is impacting a heavy toll on the economy.

While most of the organizations are rendering Business continuity plan and apprised every silo of the business to work from home to ensure the safety and well-being of their employees. Majority of them are still struggling to enable work from home and sustain businesses.

Industries are caught between mobility barriers and client protocol that disallows work-from-home. With such measures in place companies are experiencing challenges of Business continuity, Business development, and maintaining the customer experience.

The Impact Analysis For Various Industry Sectors

In the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic, China's moment of crisis is causing a ripple effect across the global economy.

Some of the major players have already announced the impact it is going to have on companies. An ET report stated that close to 50 percent of work have been stopped in some organizations.

"Of the 150,000 staff in restricted movement locations, approximately 70,000 are unable to work currently," Chris Caldwell, president of Concentrix, told analysts last week. -Source ET
Corona virus impact on industry ODYNS

The stalled economy has presented challenges: a largely idled manufacturing sector and reduced demand from consumers.

The below list outlines how the spread of the virus is impacting sectors across the countries:-

Impact


  • The cascading effect of the coronavirus (Covid 19) pandemic will cost the Indian hospitality industry losses to the tune of ₹620 crore.
  • The oil supply chain has slowed, because less oil and oil-based products are being used and produced. The oil-producing countries of OPEC have called for a deep production cut of 1.5 million barrels per day.
  • The travel industry has been badly damaged, with airlines cutting flights and tourists cancelling business trips and holidays.
  • Avasant Partner Carlos Hernandez said the disruption is creating severe consequences for the global economy and extreme financial and operational pressures for the airlines, which employ some 2.7 million people and are facing more than $113 billion of lost revenue globally as they continue to cut capacity and take emergency measures to reduce costs.
  • With the average car comprising about 30,000 parts, the intricacy of automotive manufacturing necessitates vast supply chains spanning multiple economies. Supply chain disruptions in the automotive manufacturing subsector are also expected to be most significantly affected by the Coronavirus.
  • The automobile, fast-moving consumer goods, and pharma sectors have been hit badly because of supply issues in China.
  • Grocery retail chains have seen an increase in revenues as customers are stocking up on groceries and personal care products.
  • There will be a positive for health insurance with more people buying policies in the current scenario.
  • As the government urged the citizens to stay home. That's expected to aid the telecom sector as more data will be consumed.

How chatbots are fighting coronavirus

"The coronavirus outbreak occurred in our modern, highly connected, information-dense world. Yet, dissemination of accurate, up-to-date information about the spread of the disease remains a challenge." Source weforum

Just as no industry operates in isolation, no economy operates in isolation. Younger audiences prefer social media over traditional channels but many social media channels have been challenged by fake news and privacy breaches, and aren't always fully reliable.

Chatbots have been a natural choice for disseminating information during the coronavirus crisis.

  • The COVID-19 pandemic has open up global usage for chatbot technology.
  • Chatbots offer strong potential for curated information and services across industries.
  • Response to specific questions can be provided in an interactive manner, more rapidly than traditional online search methods.
  • The information is also adaptable to local guidelines and regulations, based on the location of the user.Many companies and organizations are leading the charge in deploying chatbots to provide COVID-19 information.
  • The two most authoritative voices of the coronavirus pandemic, WHO and CDC, have also included chatbots in their websites to provide up-to-date information to billions on the spread of the disease and its symptoms. Many governments are also launching chatbots to provide validated information to their citizens.

  • WHO Chatbot Coronavirus ODYNS
  • Many Airline and hotel industry are adapting chatbots to provide COVID-19 information and address other ethical concerns.
  • Apart from COVID-19 information. Business can now set up a new way of delivering experience to the consumers through chatbot.
  • Companies should arm chatbots to share verified information with citizens.
  • Give location-specific information about the pandemic Offer personalized, hyper-local assistance
  • Let people know how they can help out.

  • Example 1:- See how WHO Chatbots provide millions with COVID-19 information every day.

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    WHO has launched a dedicated messaging services in Arabic, English, French, Hindi, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese to keep people safe from coronavirus. This easy-to-use messaging service has the potential to reach 2 billion people and enables WHO to get information directly into the hands of the people that need it. You can check here.

    Example 2:- How Taiwan-based partner agency built a Messenger chatbot as a resource for local residents during the pandemic.

    The GoSky bot is also great example of how organizations of any type can keep users in the loop, even in light of COVID -19. "When the situation is beyond control and requires spreading correct information to calm the public, we don't mind paying for more so that the users will get the most up-to-date and correct information," says Dora Tseng of the GoSky team. "Therefore, we will still be sending messages to the users if they have hit the subscribe button within the chatbot."

    It shares data and stats from the WHO and other reputable sources. It can connect users to the local CDC in one tap, if needed. It also has personalized feature that's uniquely useful to Taiwanese citizens: a pharmacy-search function.

    The bot lets users search their specific area for pharmacies that have masks in stock, and then instructs them on proper mask usage.

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    Why bots are highly effective tools during this time

    Now that you've seen some industry already deploying chatbot in action, you can start to see why they make such excellent tools for situations like this.

  • The information is all in one place and easy to update. Things change rapidly in a crisis situation like this one. But if you're sharing information via bot, making edits and updates is easy. You don't have to contact your website developer each time, or archive and re-post details on social media. It takes mere seconds to make a change in a Chatbot, and that content will be saved and instantly available to subscribers.
  • Bots can help reduce staff overwhelm. Organizations around the world are currently bombarded with calls, emails, and walk-ins from concerned citizens. A bot can act as their first line of defense. Bots can save time by answering basic FAQs and sharing information without the need for intervention or assistance from human staff.
  • Bots are easy to use. Facebook has billions of regular users around the globe, so your bot has a large potential audience of people who are already familiar with the Messenger interface. That means a Messenger bot is a relatively frictionless, unintimidating channel, even for new users. Plus, bots converse in a back-and-forth style, which is typically a more manageable, less stressful way to receive crisis information.
  • Bots are easy to build. We designed chatbot for our clients. In light of the pandemic, we've also put together some additional resources to help organizations get one up and running - fast.

  • #Stayhome and #StaySafe 💙

    As we move beyond the pandemic, the adoption of chatbots in broader applications will continue to grow.

     

    Discover the possibility of re-inventing your hotel with ODYNS chatbot solution.As you can see, chatbots present many opportunities for hoteliers, from increasing customer loyalty to enhancing the guest experience. To keep your guests coming back for more, definitely consider joining the chatbot revolution — but only if your hotel is equipped and prepared for this big step.

    Let’s partner up.

    Whether you’re looking for help with a single project or a bigger, long-term partnership, ODYNS have the resources and expertise you need to help you achieve more with our Hotel chatbot solutions.

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