[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

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.