Integrating WhatsApp with weather alerts
Feature

Integrating WhatsApp with weather alerts

Saudi Arabia’s National Centre for Meteorology has partnered with ValueFirst to develop an early warning chatbot on WhatsApp that provides alerts for extreme weather incidents allowing citizens sufficient time to react.

Challenges encountered during the implementation phase included ensuring seamless integration with WhatsApp, designing an intuitive user interface, and developing a system that could manage a large volume of user interactions effectively.

The National Centre for Meteorology, NCM is a respected government body in Saudi Arabia, responsible for monitoring climate change and providing essential services to protect lives and property in South Arabia. NCM faced a significant challenge in directly communicating with their users.

Arvind Kalla, Chief Regional Officer, ValueFirst

Previously, there was no direct point of contact where NCM could update weather conditions or issue weather warnings. It was crucial for users to receive timely updates without any delay so that preventive actions could be taken promptly.

To address this issue, NCM partnered with ValueFirst to develop an NCM chatbot on WhatsApp. This innovative solution provided an effective means of communication between NCM and its users, enabling direct updates and timely weather warnings. By leveraging the power of WhatsApp and the capabilities of ValueFirst’s chatbot technology, NCM found a reliable and efficient way to bridge the gap and enhance their services.

All user engagements are end-to–end encrypted and NCM will be able to access the real-time reports within the Surbo Panel itself to take proper actions against any customer inquiry if necessary.

“Recognising the vital importance of providing citizens with direct access to up-to-date weather information, National Centre for Meteorology embarked on a visionary journey to enhance services and overcome the challenges of user communication. Through a strategic partnership with ValueFirst, we harnessed the power of WhatsApp and leveraged the advanced capabilities of their chatbot technology to create an innovative solution that bridges the gap,” says Hussain Mohammed Al Qahtani, Media Manager, National Centre for Meteorology.

Implementation process

The implementation process of the NCM chatbot on WhatsApp involved collaboration between NCM and ValueFirst. Leveraging the expertise of both organisations, they worked together to design and develop a robust and user-friendly chatbot solution.

Challenges encountered during the implementation phase included ensuring seamless integration with WhatsApp, designing an intuitive user interface, and developing a system that could manage a large volume of user interactions effectively. ValueFirst’s expertise in chatbot development and API integrations played a crucial role in overcoming these challenges and delivering a high-quality solution.

Through the Surbo ValueFirst Chatbot builder platform and API integrations, the NCM chatbot on WhatsApp was successfully created. This comprehensive platform allowed for the efficient development, deployment, and management of the chatbot, while the API integrations enabled real-time data updates and seamless interaction with NCM’s weather monitoring systems.

The collaboration between NCM and ValueFirst resulted in a solution that not only addressed the pain points of NCM but also significantly improved the user experience. The implementation of the chatbot on WhatsApp has empowered NCM to provide accurate and timely weather updates directly to users, fostering a stronger connection between the organisation and its audience.

Technical description

The ValueFirst solution uses the Surbo ValueFirst Chatbot builder platform and API integrations to deliver real-time weather updates to citizens of Saudi Arabia via WhatsApp. By leveraging the power of this platform, NCM can ensure that users have easy access to accurate and up-to-date climate and weather information.

The Chatbot acts as a reliable and convenient channel for NCM to engage with users. Through intuitive interactions and user-friendly features, such as requesting weather updates or receiving push notifications for severe weather alerts.

For deploying the service initially, ValueFirst created a WhatsApp Account for NCM by using the Facebook Manager ID. ValueFirst Product team mapped the concerned Number with the Surbo Account in-order to create the Chatbot.

NCM WhatsApp Chatbot will only work for Saudi mobile number. The Bot has been designed in such a manner that, whoever has been a subscribed user of NCM will be able to get relevant updates and alerts on the Weather updates in Saudi Arabia. For this purpose ValueFirst was subject to have API integration with NCM CRM.

The Chatbot is intended to provide sufficient information, creating awareness among users regarding weather conditions and alert services on climate changes. It is also possible that users can subscribe to get such alerts and notifications over the Chatbot itself.

ValueFirst implemented API integration with the NCM CRM to push such kind of information over WhatsApp whenever an alert has been configured in the NCM CRM. Surbo ValueFirst offers secure API integrations across channels with reliable fall back mechanism to schedule notifications.

Customer experience

Apart from this, users will be able to understand the background of NCM, its major initiatives and locating the nearest centres available. And most importantly users can directly connect with any of the support team to resolve their queries with the help of Live Chat agent functionality enabled in WhatsApp by ValueFirst.

Or they can directly reach out to the concerned centre via normal call or social media channel links incorporated in the bot.

Any enquiry NCM has missed to respond to the users will be available in the panel which ValueFirst has provided. The entire bot script has been created by ValueFirst in both Arabic and English language which in turn drives more engagement. User can choose his preferred language option.

All the user engagements are end-to–end encrypted and NCM will be able to access the real-time reports within the Surbo Panel itself to take proper actions against any customer inquiry if necessary

The implementation of the ValueFirst solution has brought numerous benefits to the end users. Citizens of Saudi Arabia now have a direct channel to receive daily or weekly climate change and weather updates. They no longer have to rely on indirect sources or wait for general announcements.

The NCM chatbot on WhatsApp ensures that users stay informed about the latest weather conditions, allowing them to plan their activities, make informed decisions, and take preventive measures accordingly.

“The ValueFirst solution adopts an initiative-taking approach in disseminating critical weather information. In the event of severe weather alerts like floods or thunderstorms, the chatbot promptly sends push notifications to users, ensuring they receive immediate alerts and can take necessary precautions to safeguard themselves and protect their property. This feature proves particularly crucial during emergencies, where every minute counts, and swift action can make a significant difference in preserving lives,” adds Al Qahtani.

 

November 10, 2023

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