There’s a growing public dialogue about what the future may look like once the COVID-19 pandemic bottoms out. Absent a sense of when that might be, it still may not be too soon to think about what the “new normal” could look like.

While for-profit businesses large and small are rightly focused on supporting their employees, customers, and suppliers, the world of nonprofits may need to add to that list some additional stakeholders. Outreach to donors, patrons, partners, and underwriters will need to be rethought. And marketing playbooks will need adjusting to accommodate big and unexpected changes in business models which suddenly seem out-of-date.

We also know that the for-profit businesses and nonprofits that came through past recessions relatively unharmed were those that never stopped communicating with consumers, embraced a proactive posture throughout, and rethought marketing strategies and community outreach as circumstances impacted end-user behavior.

If you’re a nonprofit in this downturn, you’re likely shut down, cash-strapped, and facing the hard choices of furloughing or dismissing staff. Have you focused at all on considering what tools and strategies you’ll need to have in place to get ready for a turnaround when it finally arrives?

The Council of Nonprofits, a national association of nonprofit organizations, has told members to focus on securing and maintaining adequate financing as priority #1. That means tapping into every possible financial stream available, via banks and community foundations, and other grant-making partners, as well as any avenues for local, state, and federal assistance. 

All businesses, nonprofits included, should also become familiar with the levels of assistance that might be available to employees and families through the Family First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). Paid family leave and emergency paid sick leave are available to large sectors of the nation’s workforce. Small businesses can apply for payroll tax deferrals during the pandemic.

For nonprofits, that list should also include focusing on tools and strategies that will be vital in a recovery. Older nonprofit business models once focused about 80 percent of all marketing on print collateral to reach members, patrons, and donors. In more recent years, the toolkit added emails, social media, and web-based videos to position the organization.

But what tools will be most useful after the COVID-19 pandemic subsides? Certainly, more nimble tools such as podcasts, webinars, blog posts, online interviews on social media platforms—and surveys—all will continue to grow in importance.

The shift to online commerce and interface with end-users is expected to continue to thrive once the pandemic ends. Creative use of digital platforms and channels will be a catalyst for those organizations that not only survive but thrive in the ‘new normal.’

[Part 1 of this article can be found here]

Second, your customers. How are you going to keep in close touch? Offer to help them? Find new ways to serve them? Keep the relationships strong, so they will be there when the coronavirus crisis passes?

Most restaurants have closed their dining rooms and switched to carry-out or delivery. That’s a great idea. It keeps operations going and lets some folks stay on the payroll, which is essential. But it doesn’t work for every business; many have had to close, lay off, or furlough their workers.

If you are an essential business, you may be just as busy as you were before the virus hit –  but if you aren’t engaged, or you’re not a vital industry, you’ll need a survival plan. Can you mimic the restaurant business and give your service to your customers rather than have them come to you? Can you create a portable company? Can you conduct most of your business online?

You’ll need to learn ASAP what your financial options are, and the best place to start is with your bank. They can help you with the myriad options available from the government (Small Business Administration and other departments) and other sources. A low-interest loan that covers your overhead for 90 days would be an excellent fit today because interest rates are very, very low.

How do you communicate with your customers? Just as with your employees, you should communicate clearly and often. Update them on any new service or delivery programs you develop. If you read a crucial financial article that can help them, remember they may need a loan and send it to them. Look for blogs, stories, reports, and analyses that might be helpful to them, and pass them along. Be careful not to bombard your stakeholders, though; everyone is getting tons of emails, so make sure yours are as succinct and relevant as possible.

The key idea here is: “How can I change my business model to fit this new and restrictive environment?”

Or: “How can I make money with my skillset if my business is closed by law?”

In any scenario, communication will be crucial, whether with employees, bankers, customers, potential customers, suppliers, advisors…every audience that affects your success. Stay in touch. Be on the lookout for information that might be helpful to them—remember, they are uncertain of the future as well.

Apply Ruthless Focus to your marketing—ask yourself what messages you can get out to prospects that will differentiate you from your competitors. What does your company do better than anybody else? What is your critical advantage? What new audiences can you present your organization to?

The internet allows for much more highly targeted audience identification than ever before. There are people out there who would be interested in doing business with you either now or in the future. You need to find and address them.

Remember, we are in a period of enormous uncertainty—the more we communicate with our various audiences, the better.

More Coronavirus Resources:

Business Management During Covid-19

COVID-19 Communications Principles

4 Steps to Effective Corporate Communications

We’re all wondering what hit us. Life was good, the economy fine, business strong—and then, wham! The world is upside down.

What do we do with our business? How about our people? Our customers? Our suppliers? What do we say? How do we react? It’s a totally new environment thrust upon us with little warning.

Let’s apply the principles of Ruthless Focus from the book of the same name: What is the key strategy to get us through this period successfully?

Let’s start with our goal: To survive the coronavirus pandemic with a strong organization ready to achieve business success again.

We’ll need some mini strategies for the different audiences we need to address.

First, your people. What can you do to make sure you help employees get through the crisis as effectively as you can? There is one thing nearly all will need—money. Fifty-three percent of American households have no emergency savings, and they will need assistance quickly. The Treasury Secretary has estimated that federal money will arrive in peoples’ accounts by April 20th, but that may be wishful thinking—the federal government rarely does anything on time.

Have you considered an emergency fund from which your employees could borrow if needed? How about hiring a counselor or designating someone in your organization to become an expert in the promised funds due to individuals and the loans that are now available from the government—plus the new tenant rights rules, auto loan procedures, etc. Typically, many of your employees will not know all the details of the items that can help them get through this rough period.

Very importantly—communicate! Stay in touch on a regular basis, ask if they have questions, send information on the financial help available when you see something worthwhile. I learned as a squad leader in Army basic training that when folks are scared they need constant reassurance—so communicate often. And make sure the conversation is two-way.

Subsequent blogs will address dealing with customers, adapting your business model, and marketing during this crisis.

[For part 2 of this article, click here]

More COVID-19 Resources:

COVID-19 Communications Principles

Crisis Communications for the Coronavirus Pandemic

Crisis Communications During Coronavirus

Knowing this, intelligent business organizations have already planned by creating crisis teams, designating spokespersons, and training those who will speak for the organization. Those organizations know that too much is at stake during a real crisis to educate frontline team members and expect them to perform optimally.

Yet, experience teaches that far too many companies tempt fate by ignoring pragmatic advice. The Institute for Crisis Management reports that when 1,500 corporations, nonprofits, and government agencies were surveyed about their preparedness to deal with a crisis, 76 percent had no formal crisis management plan, and 72 percent had no designated Crisis Response Team. Nearly 60 percent had never conducted training for those on the front line dealing with a crisis.

In this atmosphere, those who are unprepared may find themselves not only dealing with the immediate pandemic but also with long-term reputation management issues later.    

The Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic has spotlighted several crisis communication best practices that bear reiterating and immediately put in place: 1) Create a Crisis Team, if it’s not already in place; 2) Prioritize communication needs of your employees; 3) Communicate regularly with Customers.  

Build Your Crisis Team

Goal: Business continuity.

This small handful should coordinate and centralize all communication while setting the right tone with employees, vendors, customers—all stakeholders. State, local, and federal government entities have designated such teams, and businesses need to do the same. Universities, school districts, and businesses large and small are all now aware of the importance of such designated voices.   

Prioritize Employee Needs

Goal: They’re your ambassadors. Keep them informed. 

Use employee communications to put people’s minds at ease. Workers need answers during adverse times that demystify their benefits, insurance, wages, etc.  Many studies have shown that steady leadership sets the right tone for all and is a potent antidote in helping reduce employee anxiety.  So, over-communicate with employees. During a crisis, if your employees are not regularly informed, they can’t function as your most effective ambassadors to the community at large.

Outreach to Customers

Goal: Stress empathy and think like a consumer. 

As the COVID-19 pandemic has unfolded, several companies have rethought how they do business to provide more excellent service to consumers. The airlines have waived cancellation and change fees. Walgreens, CVS, and others have eased or waived early refills on prescription drugs. Walmart, Target, and several other ‘big-box’ grocery retailers have added enhanced deep-cleaning protocols that signal consumers that it’s safe to do essential grocery shopping.

The COVID-19 crisis and those that will follow require a combination of steady leadership, plus factual and updated information regularly shared with employees, vendors, customers, and the public. 

Those businesses and organizations that follow such crisis communication fundamentals in their response to the current national health pandemic will almost certainly come out the other end of it more robust, reputationally intact, and with their long-term fundamentals tested but still firmly in place.   

• Do you have a crisis communications plan?  If yes, does it include an action plan for a widespread health emergency?
• Who are your most important stakeholders?  Arguably, employees are your most important audience, followed by customers (however they are defined), vendors, investors/funding sources, and other business partners.
• Employees are most concerned about their own health and that of their loved ones. Are you providing the information they need on how they can protect themselves and their families?
• Do you need to update/create/implement policies regarding working remotely, business travel, conferences and meetings, supply chain continuity, and other concerns?
• Do you have an intranet, mass communication platform, or other highly effective means of communicating quickly with your entire employee base? Are your contacts updated?
• What do your communications strategies need to address?  Ideally, communications are addressing the actions you are taking to create awareness, protect people, instill confidence, build trust and enhance credibility. 
• Who is responsible for communicating with each audience? What is the best vehicle to reach each audience quickly and effectively? How are you keeping leadership updated?
• Key messages, talking points, and Q&A should be prepared, approved, and placed in the hands of all those who are responsible for communicating with various stakeholders. 

If you consider these questions thoughtfully, you will be in a better position to respond agilely to the volatile challenges of the coronavirus pandemic.

For more information about crisis communications, contact Darren Richards at drichards@evoqueag.online.

Your goals should include both readiness for COVID’s potential impact on your organization, building resilience of your team, and effective business continuity. Ongoing discussions should consider: 

• The potential impacts on your business and the key indicators you will use to measure them;
• Having an effective alert system in place to stay atop local, regional and worldwide developments and take them into consideration in your daily decision making and communications;
• Whether your business continuity program is sufficient to address this kind of crisis, and if not, what you need to do now to shore it up;
• Whether your vendors and business partners have COVID-19 response plans, and what they are;
• Staying in regular communication with your business partners;
• Preparing to keep the business on track if there is an outbreak among your employees;
• What percent of your employees can work from home, and if they have the right equipment and network access to telework;
• The protections you need to provide for your employees to continue working if you have an essential business;
• The costs and benefits of postponing or canceling large meetings.

With these things in mind, move forward with calm resolve. While the pandemic will undoubtedly affect your business, taking the above into consideration will help soften the blow and recover more quickly.

For more information on coronavirus strategic communications, contact Darren Richards at drichards@evoqueag.online.

As organizations adjust to these new uncertainties, communications professionals need to keep a clear head, stay ruthlessly focused on the future, and use the current “downtime” productively. As the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned, the greatest enemy may not be the virus itself but rather the fear, rumors, and stigma associated with it. “Our greatest assets are facts, reason, and solidarity,” according to WHO.

In this atmosphere, we’ve advised our clients to only use trusted, verifiable sources of information, such as the WHO, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and national and local health authorities.   

It’s a good idea to designate someone in your organization who will check for updates daily and ensure the flow of current, accurate information that will help you debunk rumors and make better decisions.

Make sure your communications are people-oriented and sensitive in all messaging to the concerns of your stakeholders—staff, customers, suppliers, contractors, your community, the media, and others specific to your business.

Here are some specific activities we recommend:  

Communicate proactively with your key stakeholders: employees, customers, business partners, vendors, and any government regulators or oversight agencies. They want to know what specific steps you are taking. The absence of information creates doubt.

• In all communications, strike a forthright tone that avoids clichés and platitudes. Tell what you are doing and how you are preparing for the rapidly changing environment. In times of crisis, maintaining your credibility as an honest presenter of accurate information is key.

• Since many outcomes are possible, it is best to consider a variety of scenarios and not speculate in your communications. Respond only to facts based on reputable sources, noted earlier.

• Beware of rumors and scammers. Every crisis of this nature brings out opportunists who will try to capitalize on fear, but also well-intentioned people who unwittingly share inaccurate information. Be mindful of this and use credible sources.

The coronavirus is a story with an unclear ending. What is clear is that the human impact is already tragic and that companies have an immediate imperative to protect their employees, address business challenges and risks, and help mitigate the outbreak in whatever ways they can.

For more information on crisis planning and communications for coronavirus, please contact Darren Richards at drichards@evoqueag.online.

This information is based on best practice recommendations from Tucker/Hall, the Institute for Crisis Management, the International Association of Business Communicators, and McKinsey & Co.