Never in the history of the 20th century has the world come to a pause due to any pandemic. Given the current situation, businesses had to pivot their business model as well as operations in order to survive. Of course, this could not be accomplished without modern technology. Here are some ways showing the significance of communication tools and apps for business in today’s crisis.
1. Communication and Collaboration
Due to the current crisis, most people are working from home due to the quarantine and lockdowns. However, it is of most importance to be able to communicate despite the distance as the show must go on. This is where communication and collaboration tools come in.
Right now, there are numerous apps available for chatting and collaboration. An example of this is Microsoft Teams, which offers a thread-like chat, file sharing, and video calling services. It can facilitate communication within your organization. In addition to that, you can also conduct meetings with your clients using the video conferencing feature of these communication tools.
Team and project collaborations are also very important. For instance, with the use of apps and tools like Google Docs, you can edit a single file simultaneously amongst your team.
2. Marketing
Digital marketing is the talk of the town nowadays. Moreover, digital marketing has been a very effective tool to market products, engage with customers, and run analytics on your business, as everyone is mobile.
As the social media apps are within reach of most people, it has become an important tool for the marketing of your business. Instead of going for traditional marketing, you can reach more people and have advertisements out more often on social media apps. On top of that, it is also less expensive to post advertisements on social media.
Numerous apps allow you to make your personalized app for your business, hence, you can engage more effectively with your customers. For instance, a popular example would be Starbucks. Starbucks has its own app that updates their consumers of the latest product offerings and promotions. It also serves as a membership card for points and payment.
In order to check the performance of your ads, you can use these apps to have more metrics for analytics. For instance, you can get the numbers on your advertisements via 800 service. You can get a better understanding on your market using analytics from apps. This way, you will know which advertisements are more expensive and which to run more often.
3. Change in Business Model
Due to the current crisis, businesses are hampered. There is uncertainty on when many businesses can open and operate normally again. This causes a major pivot in their business model causing them to go online and adapt to e-commerce.
With apps such as eBay, Amazon, and AliExpress, you can adapt to the changing environment by selling your products online if you are not able to open your stores. You can also use social media apps such as Instagram and Facebook to sell your products.
On top of that, apps can also be used to render services online. For instance, if you are a doctor, you can use an app to provide online consultations for your patients who cannot go to the hospital. Since hospitals are also full these days, you will be able to help people by providing online consultation. You can also integrate or partner up with a pharmaceutical with your services to enable purchasing of medicine online as well.
4. Banking
As a business, being able to attend to your banking needs is very important. At some point, you will need to deposit money, transfer money, or cash out a check sometime. A banking app and internet banking can help you do all these for your business.
There are already digital banks that allow you to cash out checks by taking pictures of it. Apps also allow you to transfer money from one bank to another. You do not need to worry about paying your suppliers or getting paid for things that you sell because you can do this all with your app. Thus, allowing you to still continue with your business operations.
Conclusion
The pandemic has forced businesses to go digital and streamline processes in order to return to normalcy or business as usual. Given the pandemic and technology available, there is a new normal produced to survive this pandemic. With a wide array of apps and communication tools, businesses are still able to be operational given the quarantine and lockdown.