Touch-Free Solutions for Businesses in a Post Lockdown World

Today we are talking about ways to use Messenger bots in a post shut down the business world. As many cities are slowly lifting lockdown restrictions, a lot of rules and concerns remain.

Occupancy rates will are lower, limits on class size, and reservations are in place. There needs to be more time to clean, and businesses need to be very clear on what they are doing to keep patrons safe. And just because restrictions have lifted does not mean that people are ready to be around crowds or touch surfaces that others have handled.

All these concerns and objections can be eased with the help of messenger bots. So in this video, I am sharing ways Messenger Bots can help in a post — lockdown world. You will learn three ways that bots can help businesses RIGHT NOW, and I will be teaching two different hands-on bot builds to get you making yourself!

Touch-free Restaurant Solutions

Let’s start with restaurants. While the obvious answer here is to create a reservation bot, there are a couple of ways that a messenger bot can help restaurants. One of which is to ease concerns over touching surfaces that others have touched repeatedly. No item in a restaurant is touched more than a menu. So why not create a messenger bot that solves this issue! Digital menus are SUPER easy to implement and very affordable. They can be as simple as scanning a QR code from your phone, and the bot send’s a PDF version or web version to the customer, or more complex where the bot takes orders and integrates with the restaurant’s POS system. Here is an example that my friend and fellow marketer, Deonnah Carolus of Summit Marketing, showcased with a simple QR code. Let me jump into ManyChat and show you how easy this is to create.

QR codes are a great way to go touch-free in many businesses. From getting needed information to reserving your spot in a fitness class, it is as easy as placing your smartphone’s camera over the code and BOOM let the magic begin!

If you want more ideas for restaurants to survive during the COVID crisis, check out the video I created titled How to make money as a restaurant in a lockdown below.

You may also enjoy this video about touch-free solutions that include NFC and QR Codes:

Scheduling when there are occupancy limits

The next messenger bot rescue I want to talk about is for gyms, dance, fitness, and martial art studios who conduct group classes. Now that restrictions are in place to limit how many people can be in a building, and there is a need for distancing, PLUS leaving time to clean between classes properly, it is more important than ever to have a digital way to do digital sign up sheets. Next up, I am going to jump into ManyChat and show you how to create a digital sign up sheet using all native features on Manychat.

(see video above “Post Lockdown bot helpers)

If you want to use something like Acuity or Calendly instead, it is easy. I recently set my jiu-jitsu client up with a limited occupancy class schedule through acuity in about 30 minutes.

If you want to take it a step further and integrate these tools with ManyChat, check out my videos that show how to incorporate those tools into your ManyChat flows.

Now, you have many options for limiting the number of people who attend a class or coming into your gym.

Touch-free Business Cards

Lastly, I am highlighting a fix for a problem that will continue to grow as more people get back to networking and in-person business events, the business card dilemma. It used to me that business cards were the standard for exchanging information at networking and business events. But I believe you will find that more and more people will want to avoid touching other people’s cards. This is why a digital business card is going to be so crucial in the future.

I have used digital business cards over the past two years with great success. They are relatively easy to build, offer a ton of personalization and customization abilities, and make follow-up very easy. Add to all that the fact that no one has to touch anything but their phone and you have post-COVID networking magic. Check out the videos below if you want to learn how to build these kinds of messenger bots.

I hope that you found these ideas and videos helpful. Whether you are building messenger bots for clients or yourself, I think you can see that there are real and essential use cases for messenger bots to help a business deal with the complicated web of restrictions we are facing in the COVID world.

Now I have a question for you! What is one way you see Messenger bots helping solve problems in this highly restricted business world we are navigating? Let me know in the comments below.

And if you want to dive deeper into the beautiful world of chat marketing, I would invite you to join my free, and awesome baby got bot community over on Facebook.

If you found today’s article helpful, please share it with a friend or two. As they say, sharing is charing.