How to limit the coronavirus spread during your customer journey

Due to the current situation of COVID-19, many businesses started taking counteractive measures and practices to reduce the risk of infection. However, it is a big challenge for them to protect their staff and customers, especially when some of the services must remain available through their physical premises to meet the customers’ needs.

Long queues or even sitting in a waiting room is highly risky, as some people can still potentially spread the virus even if they don’t show symptoms of infection at all.

In such situations, it is important for banks, telecom, hospitals, government offices, and other businesses to adapt to change in order to ensure the continuity of their services, while maintaining the safety and health of customers and staff.
 

Minimize close interactions and customers’ waiting time to avoid infection

To decrease the customers' waiting time, the first step is to identify the main touchpoints along the customer journey. Whenever possible, replace physical interactions and touchpoints with digital solutions. If it’s a must for customers to show at your service zone, moving to mobile solutions can significantly reduce the risk of infection in your waiting area to protect your staff, customers, and the communities where you operate.

Empower your customers to book appointments online to join virtual queues 

Providing online appointment booking allows for issuing paperless tickets by SMS or mobile ticket, hence, reducing the number of people in your waiting room.

Moreover, staff members can be informed about the customers' needs beforehand, which speeds up the service time and minimizes interaction period.

By joining a virtual queue, there's no need for customers to sit in the waiting room at all. The system sends notifications to inform them about their turn while they are waiting elsewhere, for example: outdoors, in their car or even at home.

Share clear guidelines through Omni-Channels to limit virus spread

To maintain a safer experience in customer journey with physical touchpoints, it’s important that customers receive information before, during, and after their visit. Here are some tips to utilize your current touchpoints:

 

Mobile App

Update your customers with notifications through CEM mobile app to share confirmations, reminders, expected wait times, or any other updates. Moreover, you can share health guidelines on the mobile app, for example, each visitor will be subjected to temperature scan at the entrance, your staff wears masks and it’s recommended for visitors to wear masks for protection as well, or keeping 2 meters distance is a must between each visitor and the other. 

 

Online appointments

The workload can be better planned and customers will have a shorter waiting time on site though online appointments system. You can also guide and update visitors about where to go, where to wait, and inform them about the expected wait time to avoid having large groups of customers.

 

Kiosk Screen

Social distancing and hand hygiene have become important rules to live by, you can share related information at the kiosk screen, for example: "A sanitizer is placed beside every interaction point so that visitors can use it after each interaction."

 

Digital Signage

Providing information to your customer can reduce stress. You can display safety instructions on the digital signage.

If you want to learn more about how low-touch queuing and mobile e-tickets can create safer customer journeys, please contact SEDCO team.