First mover advantage during the pandemic
By Niharika Ayyagari / In COVID-19, chatbot / September 11, 2020 / 5 min read
By Niharika Ayyagari / In COVID-19, chatbot / September 11, 2020 / 5 min read
Here we discuss how you can gain the first-mover advantage during the pandemic by building a chatbot before your competitors.
The term “the new normal” has seen a lot of searches on google and has instilled the idea to revamp several companies’ selling approach.
While taking precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the virus, we have been forced to drift away from our usual routine.
Going to catch a new movie before everyone else, picking your next holiday destination, or going door-door in search of your new home. All of this was pre-COVID. Since then, a lot has changed.
The inability to perform the usual activities regularly has left millions of people disheartened.
And this is where a few companies saw the opportunity to make something out of it. They embarked on the journey of innovation, which was three-fold:
To get their business to adjust to the “new normal”, increase the retention rate of its customers, and to attract an ocean of customers to try their product.
Eg: NoBroker launched video walkthroughs in April and soon noticed a spike in interest from owners, tenants. Thus, gaining the first-mover advantage during the pandemic.
Wondering how you can gain a competitive-edge too?
You can easily achieve the first-mover advantage, by building a bot before everyone else does.
By deploying a bot, you can tick all the boxes for innovation during the pandemic, as mentioned above. And reap the benefits of the same for the future too.
Let’s discuss this in detail.
More than 50% of consumers have ordered products online that they would normally purchase at the store.
The fear of catching the virus and maintaining the social distancing guidelines has made people hesitant to step out of their homes.
Hence, a lot of people are inching toward online platforms. Where they can perform various activities, with one tap, while sitting at home.
A theory on Mckinsey suggests how people would still opt for online channels even after the pandemic. As this is also a climb towards digitization, which is massive.
The COVID-19 world would require every business to spread its wings and fly towards adopting a digital approach as well.
But, the product/service must be an impactful and effective alternative for the customers.
It is important to note that the first-mover advantage refers to the first significant company to move into a market, not merely the first company.
Here are a few of the advantages of the same:
So, a company pivoting to an online platform or introducing an idea to combat the challenges due to COVID-19 must make a tangible difference.
Like how an Indian company Practo started conducting COVID-19 tests at home, or how a virtual events platform called 6Connex has excelled at conducting virtual conferences and events.
By making a concrete difference and being the early adopters they are the exact examples of gaining the first-mover advantage during the pandemic.
But guess what? You can make a substantial difference too and gain the first-mover advantage within your own niche.
Like we discussed earlier, to get a competitive advantage, you must introduce something tangible.
An innovation that opens up an umbrella of features, something that is very easy to set-up and you can scale mountains with.
I’m talking about building a bot, before everyone else. Using a chatbot increases loyalty, and attracts the attention of technology-loving customers.
Instead of focussing on launching only one innovation that’ll help you during the pandemic, it makes more sense to invest in a project that’ll be a one-stop platform to house a variety of features/innovations and will not lose its purpose post-pandemic.
And since chatbots are known for their multi-purpose specialty, you can use it to achieve a lot of your goals or tasks in one go.
Moreover, you can tap into the segment that none of your competitors have explored so far.
One of the biggest plus points of incorporating a chatbot is the rise of ‘Self-service touchless technologies’ (SSTT).
They have become more relevant, given the pandemic. As these interfaces allow customers to complete a task on their own, without taking assistance from the company representatives which usually takes up a lot of time.
This increases speed, accuracy, and makes it super convenient for the customers and the company.
Chatbots are one such example. They help minimize the number of unnecessary touchpoints and give the customers the satisfaction of resolving a query/complete an action in minutes.
Thus, through a chatbot, you can continue your business, maintain the social distancing norms, and gain a first-mover advantage during the pandemic.
While the idea of chatbots has been constant for the longest time, the set of tasks that you can perform with it has always been on the rise.
And even now, there are plenty of use cases that you can leverage the bot for. You’ll need help from a third-party provider like us to dig deeper and understand the need.
And we’ll help you out with the innovations that you can take up within the bot, how you can scale and get a competitive advantage.
Also, did you know that you can easily deploy a chatbot in a matter of just 5 days or less?
Content and Marketing, Verloop.io
Prefers texts over calls, unless the call is about AI, food, dogs, or travel.