Best Bot for Non-Profit: the new Argentine Red Cross volunteer

Even before the pandemic, the Argentine Red Cross knew that technology was the right way to improve its communication processes.

Implementing AgentBot in the height of quarantine, they managed to automate tons of inquiries without neglecting empathy and human connection. Now, they can respond to every user who communicates with the organization, according to their individual needs.

With this in mind, they were featured in Aivo Awards as Best Bot for Non-Profit. Martín Frascaroli, CEO of Aivo, asked María Martín, Director of Communications for the Argentine Red Cross, about the process for implementing the bot and the results during and after quarantine. Here are her responses.

A new way to connect

What was the role of the service channels during the pandemic?

For a while now we've been in the process of modernizing and adjusting technologically, to better listen to the people we're in touch with.

During the pandemic, there was an incredible demand for communication, both in terms of actual needs and for people who wanted to contribute. I remember in March I had two phones, answering people from all over, like how it was years ago. Plus, we had inquiries coming over on the wrong channels.

And that's where Aivo came in. It allowed us to direct a ton of demands much more efficiently. Besides giving us a lighter workload, we could respond to all these demands and improve the listening process.

What are the main issues the bot responds to now?

Today, the bot directs inquiries for different audiences. Typically, these inquiries go through most of their cycle with the bot, and then are transferred to a designated agent.

Through the chatbot, people find out about our educational careers, ways to help and accountability, among other topics. We've mapped the community's most concerning issues in order to provide a systematic response.

Now we are also including audiovisual components and other materials that make the experience have more of a personal touch, which is something we can't afford to lose. This scared me a little in terms of the bot, but now I'm super satisfied. The bot doesn't just drop you into a black hole; if there's something it can't answer, you get transferred to a person. It's just like another coworker; it continues adapting to the Argentine Red Cross team.

Related article: Argentine Red Cross uses AgentBot to continue improving people’s lives

What do you think is crucial to this agile transformation process? What advice would you give?

What helped us the most was understanding our need. In the communications department, we were very much aware that we needed to respond efficiently to a high volume of demands. We can't afford not to respond to people who want to help or that need help.

Before, we answered questions manually, but with the pandemic it was imperative to answer everyone in order to capitalize on a situation where everything was there to advance in humanitarian work. So first off, it's really important to be clear about our audience's needs, because that's what guides you to clear objectives and achievable development.

On the other hand, you need dedication and commitment to implement these technologies. The work is not complex; it's intuitive and we get a lot of support from Aivo. But it does require the team's commitment when implementing it, with people who value it and know what adding this technology means, taking care of it and maintaining it long term. If you don't implement this intentionally and with clear objectives, the results won't be good.

Finally, it's important to keep creativity alive when asking for things from the tool and understanding its potential. To consider what problem I can solve and what extra something I can contribute. Using the bot we were able to easily improve the site, which before would have taken such a long time. For example, by setting up a start button on the bot.

Do you think it's here to stay?

No doubt about it. We needed it before the pandemic, and we want to continue making use of this technology in the future to go even further.

Ultimately, it got us organized. It organized our information, our relationship with our audience, and it even organized the idea we already had about our audience. For our next steps, we plan to implement other processes, understanding each audience, their specific needs and how to solve them inside or outside the tool. I can't imagine life without this.

Have you seen our 2020 featured clients?

If you haven't already, you can check out the full list of featured clients in Aivo Awards and discover the story behind their conversational bots. Or, if you'd like to implement our technology in your customer service strategy, please don't hesitate to schedule a call with one of our representatives.