COVID-19| An Awakening Call For The Service Industry!

According to the World Health Organisation, Coronavirus (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered Coronavirus. It spreads primarily through droplets of saliva or discharge from the nose when an infected person coughs or sneezes, so it's important that you also practice respiratory etiquette (for example, by coughing into a flexed elbow). Approximately 1.3 million lives were affected and 70000 died from coronavirus. Nothing on earth is moving or trending except the virus. One of its kind, deadly and proving difficult to be unstoppable. 

The continuation of the COVID-19 is exerting economic and market pressures globally, and the sources of the economic pressures including currency depreciation, liquidity tightening and also volatile stock markets amongst others. Taking a look at the Zimbabwean situation the informal sector is the one that’s most people are employed in and with the lockdown, it means that all the people and clients living on hand to mouth basis pose a default risk threat to their respective banks, microfinance companies and also insurance companies, etc. It almost feels like an economic depression because all the economic activities are put to a halt, then we ask ourselves as entrepreneurs and sole proprietors, do we really need to give in to this virus and stop business at all or we need to shift the focus? That’s food for thought. As a young risk management professional, I took the time to analyze how the insurance industry and the whole service industry has been affected by this depressing halt of economic activities. 

My analysis showed that and approximation of above 80% of the firms are not quite techno-savvy. All the services they render their client need to visit their offices, there are few initiatives to use techniques to serve clients online. Moreover, there is an accustomed cubicle reality that confines all workers to report for work and be stuck behind the desk. Reactive measures have been put by all of the companies which include the migration to ideas like working from home, the use of authorized letters and private transport for some key personnel to report to work. Before the lockdown, every corner and every entrance of all the companies and businesses was littered with gloves masks and hand sanitizers which was a great response but I then probed myself as a risk Manager do we really need to do business on a reactive basis? Or we need to provide for contingencies and manipulate our technological expertise to find smart ways that will introduce us to a paradigm shift that will be flexible enough to deal with such pandemics and reduce the damage.

I did research taking it internationally to fill out the gaps in our service industry. These were findings needed to improve and try to provide for a tech-savvy generation:

The use of expert systems on websites.

The majority of companies in Zimbabwe remain passive to the idea of using self-service platforms though it's a great initiative that can bring about a wide range of flexibility and a clear cut to the competitive edge in the industries. Most websites for companies are just there to provide for the information of the company and they neglect the issue of just going the extra mile to provide for self-services links. Zeroing down to the insurance industry there was an initiative towards the microinsurance schemes which was a very big step but a few companies are managing to provide for a self-service platform whereby one can request for alterations and additions of dependents on their policies. Going forward, biometrics like face recognition and photo capture can be used as a signature to show consent. That’s just a thought that might go miles in terms of competition and reduce the number of office visits as well as costs in the long run.

The use of artificial intelligence also in terms of marketing is another initiative. This will give a foundation of the fundamental answers for the fundamental questions that would be asked of the services or products that the firm will be offering. Even instructions for registering for products can be sent through artificial intelligence. For some Betting websites, the robots will be available and they will have a constructive chat with you. These are some of the initiatives the service industry can make and evolve the way business is done to bring more convenience and social distancing.

Online payment platforms that will be linked to the System

Online payments like EcoCash ad Zipit have made a great impact, however, most firms only embraced merchant codes and then post the EcoCash transactions manually. Zimbabwean businesses are still lagging behind,  Exhibit A: Some universities use integrated systems linked to the students’ accounts, such that when a payment is made by the student using EcoCash the balance will be automatically updated. This saves time and improves convenience to clients, moreover, the level of client queries on EcoCash or online wiring is reduced for favorable customer experience. Most importantly banking halls become efficiently decongested.

Use of pop up ads on the internet to enhance digital marketing.

Marketing is all about making constructive noise for brand positioning. The evolution of technology is making people more open to social sites like Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tiktok and search engines like Google. There is a window for creating pop up ads that have links to direct traffic to your website, conversions and lead generation. This is the age of a serious evolution in digital marketing so pop up ads can bring a very shocking market share for a company.

The use of automated SMSs. 

A simple way to defines these it's those 'annoying' texts sent by service providers like Econet, Telone,  Telecel, MohCc, Dialadoc. They send a bunch of messages whether on awareness, advice on any changes in the system or introduction of a new product. Almost everyone is an owner of a mobile phone in this day and age, insurance companies and other related services companies should dive into the pool and make noise about their offers and services to clients and win them over through bulk messaging. Anyone can receive the text anywhere and advertising continues during both normal days and even during lockdowns. 

The use of Dark webs and zoom applications for conference meetings.

The dark web is part of the internet that is not visible to search engines and requires the use of an anonymizing browser to be accessed. To reduce the approach of a cubicle approach to work companies can use the dark web. Only the personnel with physically linked processes can report for work and the rest work from home connected over the internet or through the system linked to the dark web. The dark web is very discrete, safe and only needs to be backed up with some encryption codes for cybersecurity and speed. As for meetings they can be done over the zoom conference calls which is proving to be very handy and popular.

The use of Sensitive Doors and face recognition biometrics on entrances.

Companies can use entrance doors that do sense the presence of a person or the weight and opens on its own to reduce the contacts on the entrance. On restricted office space instead of using fingerprints, there can be migrations towards face recognition biometrics to avoid contact and move the agenda towards hygiene.

After it's all said and done, COVID-19 exposed how African businesses are technologically lagging behind. An awakening call I hope they will take seriously and start implementing technologies that give them a favorable position during the pandemic and after. Going towards convenient self-servicing to clients improves customer experience. In the long-run, the proposed measures are proactive rather than reactive and as a bonus, they do away with crisis management. If in the future a pandemic like COVID-19 is to come businesses will be prepared than the present. Technology and ways of doing business are constantly evolving and if one thing business should learn from this, is to constantly review business processes and do pandemic forecasts and propose possible business solutions.