How to Prepare Your Business for the Pandemic Recovery
We get it. Things look pretty bleak right now. Your business has been forced to close its doors. Your customers are shut in their homes. Sales have plummeted. You may have even been forced to lay off some staff. It’s a terrible situation, but it will pass. It’s important that your business is prepared when the pandemic recovery occurs.
Train Now
How knowledgeable is your team? How up to date are they with your industry, important best practices, or your company’s key differentiators? How well trained is your team when it comes to customer service? Now is the time to invest in training to build a stronger, more capable team that will set you apart when things finally begin to get back to normal. Of course, in-person training is out, but that shouldn’t stop you. Online learning tools provide you with the means to train your entire team right from their homes ensuring that you’re ready to hit the ground running when the time comes.
Stay in Touch with Your Audience
At this point, we’re possibly looking at as much as six more months of lockdown. Even your most loyal customers may forget about you during that time. You cannot afford for that to happen, so it’s critical that you are able to stay in touch with your audience, even during the lockdown. Email, social media posts, Google and Bing ads, content marketing – these are more than mere marketing tools. They’re communication mediums that help you stay connected with those who matter most to your company’s future.
Be Vocal About Being Local
When the pandemic runs its course, local businesses will be in the best stead. Consumers are already clamouring to support the small businesses in their local area, and this will not change when lockdown ends. Be proud to be local. Let folks know where you are and that you’re part of the local economy.
Be Ready for a New New Normal
One thing that many business owners fail to understand is that when the pandemic finally subsides, it will not signal a return to “business as normal”. Understand that we are in the midst of an artificial global recession. The effects of that recession will not just evaporate when the last case of Covid-19 is cured. Instead, think back to how things played out at the end of the Great Recession.
Consumers were timid. They were cautious. They used their limited funds to buy what they deemed necessary and avoided anything that fell into the category of unnecessary. The situation today will be very similar to that, so your business needs to prepare. If lockdown is the new normal, then limited spending will be the new normal in a couple of months. Have a plan in place as to how you will deal with that situation.
Not sure how to go about preparing your business for pandemic recovery? Contact us today to talk to us about online learning, brand building, and local visibility.
