23 October 2020 - Unprecedented global COVID-19 pandemic hit Malaysia
In response to public safety aiming to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, the Malaysian government announced a Movement Control Order (MCO) – strictest lockdown period from 18 Mar 2020 to 30 Apr 2020. Everyone and every business had instantly adopted measures to staying at home, working from home (WFH) and social distancing. This had led to most businesses that required physical contact to close immediately.
The launch of Aleevar first webinar on 22 April 2020
Aleevar too had responded to supporting business recovery for all with our first webinar touch. I spoke about COVID-19 Pandemic: Consumer & Business Shifts and Climate Change. Aleevar was fortunate to garner support from external guest speakers alike sharing and exchanging their expertise from this point onward.
Aleevar continued Webinar #2 Do it yourself (DIY) Consumer Sentiment and Assessment where we had Henry Wee from VASE.AI as a guest speaker that provided consumer insight. He shared consumers' life challenges during MCO including emotional and mental health where 50% Malaysian felt nervous / anxious in phase 1 of the MCO and offline shopping rose from 35% in phase 1 of the MCO to 60% in phase 3 of the MCO. He also revealed organisations can develop their own DIY online survey capabilities for a quick and responsive assessment.
Kushairi Lotfi of Aleevar spoke about how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed consumer sentiment and the applications of customer research methodology during this uncertain period.
In Webinar Series #3 The Shift of Augmented / Virtual / eXtended Reality (AR/VR/XR) Customer Experience, Justin Wong of TrueXR shared the real use cases of XR, the immersive customer experience in VR HR recruitment in induction programme, VR tourism and 5G demonstration in Langkawi, and VR training in automotive sector.
Kong Min Yao from Aleevar provided insight on potential of AR/VR/XR in pandemic period and the immersive customer experience shift.
Organisations to accelerate responsive DIY market assessment and responsive digital presence in immersive technology
The new normal and business as usual (BAU) are not only adhering to health safety Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) namely wearing mask, social (or now termed physical) distancing and relevant steps. Organisations should consider capacity building to stay informed on these shifts and adapt to the new normal.
Organisations can take first step to assess internal organisation or external market (and customer) research to understand their current state and future state of the pandemic to determine company strategy and next moves. A responsive, quick and cost effective assessment could be done with DIY free online survey or subscribe to panel online survey to understand customers (or suppliers) as demand side evidence to guide organisations to improve (or develop) their product or service.
Besides accelerating a must-have digital presence as a market access or listing in marketplaces, certain sectors that may require immersive customer (or staff) experience such as HR recruitment induction programme, virtual tourism and education in automotive where implementation of Augmented / Virtual / eXtended Reality (AR/VR/XR) can be a competitive advantage in this uncertain period of the COVID-19 pandemic.