Short breath, headaches, insomnia and blood pressure levels that would make your Physician frown. No, you are not sick…you are just a top business professional trying to keep your company afloat. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the face of business globally and we at Blue Consulting are adapting and learning just like everybody else. We realized that for our clients who are mostly African businesses, discounts and price cuts aren’t enough. Knowledge is key and information is power. With no particular end in sight and assumptions ruling the day, we asked ourselves what five things can CEOs, Senior Executives or Business Owners employ both short term and long term?
Update Your Crisis Management Plan Accordingly
Every good business has measures put in place to deal with foreseen & unforeseen problems. You must assess the impact COVID-19 has and will have on your business and update your plan accordingly. Take your time and address all aspects of your business. Give every aspect of your business the attention it needs and avoid the lure to over-focus on investors and stakeholders without paying proper attention to employee and consumer needs. Take a look at what our CEO, Limo Sadalla had to say on this in his article for the Business Daily entitled “Ensuring Seamless Business Operations During Pandemic.”
Always remember that your business can not exist with your workforce and your customers and that any challenges they face become direct challenges to your business. Ensure your crisis plan addresses economic hardship, travel restrictions, and safety precautions. Not all companies will be able to survive this period without experiencing losses or losing personnel. In the occurrence of lay-offs its important for your crisis management plan to allow for the dignified and sensitive release of staff.
Train Your Team & Customers On Safety Guidelines Accordingly
It is vital that every single soul in your organization is aware and properly briefed on the company’s position and direction in terms of crisis. Failure to do so creates unneeded uncertainty and stress amongst your workforce and consumers and can also lead to exposure and risk. Ensure that all staff who can work remotely are doing so and create guidelines on the same and ensure that essential staff if any are properly equipped with safety gear and trained and tested on the same. A good place to start is the WHO COVID-19 guidelines on infection, prevention, and control. This applies to delivery personnel, supermarket attendants, etc. Create safety reporting mechanisms and features for staff on the ground and policies for if they get infected with COVID-19 while undertaking their duties. This will also include having candid and open discussions with your insurance providers and identify where you, your business, your employees and your customers stand.
Ease of Communication Is The Key
Work closely with your marketing & communications personnel to develop messaging that is sensitive, authentic and essential. Determine how you will update customers on changes to your operating hours, business practices, payment policies, and safety measures. If you haven’t already this is the time to set up proper digital communication channels, create a digital communication strategy and find a proper way to oversee all online consumer communications. A CRM tool such as Marketing Cloud by Salesforce is a lifesaver and enables businesses to do all this and more. Currently Salesforce, through it’s Free Rapid Response Solution; Salesforce Care is offering a special limited 90-day solution for businesses to help with employee and consumer communications amongst other things.
Easily observe and oversee communications as they are implemented internally and externally and make changes as you go; and having a unified, easy-to-use system may be just what you need to make your life a little easy.
Break Down Job Descriptions In Terms of KPIs to Determine Who Needs What
To ensure your workforce remains functional and efficient it is essential to use their KPIs to guide you on how to support them during this period. For office staff who essential work at desks using CPUs and office intercoms…investments may be needed to support them remotely. KPIs can be used to determine whose functions can be done with what tools and to help in the proper allocation of pre-existing resources. For example, a person working at the customer care desk can use a smartphone or tablet to handle incoming calls and emails in the absence of a laptop or if laptops are limited in supply.
Use The Tools Available To You & Adapt Where Necessary
Technology is an important friend and one who all people in business must embrace. There are a lot of tech-based solutions for people in management and all of these solutions should be employed from a point of knowledge. Understanding your business’s current needs and processes then looking for existing solutions is a priority. The digital customer journey continues to evolve before COVID-19 it had evolved from a funnel to the cycle of sorts and with the impact of this crisis this cycle has changed and new steps in the journey are now firmly in place. Brands that are positioning themselves as safety-first and developing tailored solutions to address their customers’ new needs as a result of the crisis are attracting larger market shares and its almost all because of technology.
If your business was not as tech-forward as it should have been before COVID-19 and you find yourself under immense pressure to adapt and invest in new resources, take a deep breath and take your time. Because a decision made in haste often will result in waste. Consult widely and make use of avenues such as Blue Consulting’s Free Consultation channels to find out exactly how your business can benefit before using your resources.