COVID-19: Preparing Your Business for Life After Isolation
By Alex Berryman
As social distancing and isolation becomes the 'new normal', I have found myself missing life before COVID-19. Seeing friends and family, moving freely, not eating things out of a box or can; but mostly I miss the feeling of control.
With supply chains compromised, businesses closing for weeks, and the global economic downturn, it seems that our work-related things are also swiftly falling out for our control.
But I want to challenge this notion.
Yes, these are strange times, but I challenge you to take stock. What is still in your control? Instead of falling into the Netflix binge trap or the endless scroll through bleaker news articles, take stock of your business and plan for your future.
By continuing to work on your business, you are choosing to look past our current situation, to life after COVID-19. As you look to the future, put strategies in place now to invest in the health of your business. Here are a few things that will help you prepare, bringing control back into your life and company.
Invest in Your Core Customer:
The next few months may be a bit turbulent, but having an in-depth knowledge of your customers can help you respond to their needs after COVID-19, building trust in the long term. Vogue Business explains “customer communication should focus on community-building efforts and addressing consumers’ changing needs and concerns."
This is a great time to be creating content and services that connect with your audience as more people are staying home and spending time online.
Community Building
In this time of isolation, we all need a little more community. By being the facilitator of that community, your customer base can find reassurance, can feel heard and be drawn out of their current situation. By tailoring social media content or specific services, customers will interact with your brand, creating a positive touch-point that builds trust.
Addressing Consumers Needs
Ask yourself how you can begin to prepare for changing tastes, consumer patterns, and habits. As you interact with your consumers, begin to poll what things are they missing and what specific needs will they have after these hard days of COVID-19 social distancing.
What products or services that you already offer (or could offer) could help them transition back to normalcy? Can you be tailoring your product offerings to help people re-engage with their work, school or family?
Reach out to like-minded businesses - what are other businesses seeing in a similar customer base and are there key partnerships that can be forged to answer these growing needs?
Resources To Create Liquidity
What good are new products or services if you do not have adequate liquidity to meet these needs? Many governments are creating resources to curb the effects of COVID-19. Depending on your county, state, region and country, there are multiple resources that create liquidity to weather the storm.