In recent times, we have seen the devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the long-lasting impact it has had on businesses.
In your team, you need a clear, step-by-step plan to guide you through the many critical decisions, actions, and tasks that are required to make it a success. Planning is key to reducing the risk of a crisis occurring, and to helping you and your team make the right decisions if a crisis does occur.
In this article, we cover the different factors you should keep in mind to improve your pandemic preparedness.
Build & Maintain Strong Relationships with Key Partners
You cannot avoid all the crises that come with owning your own business, but you can prepare for them. When you do, you will be able to manage a situation with your stakeholders in a way that builds and maintains your relationships with them, even during hard times.
How you communicate with subordinates within your business in addition to your partners is a good indication of the strength of your relationship with them.
Although it is widely accepted that communications should be light and friendly, you should also take care to demonstrate your expertise and commitment to the project. This will be appreciated by both your clients and key stakeholders and can dramatically help strengthen the working relationships before and during a time of turmoil.
Keep Your Clients in the Loop on Your Progress
After a major crisis, your clients will want to know what you are doing in response. In the immediate aftermath, it is important to keep your clients informed about the scope of the crisis. There is no doubt that business owners will find it challenging to stay on top of informing their key stakeholders about the business during a pandemic.
The first to remember is that not all stakeholders are likely to be equally affected by a pandemic. For example, key partners, employees, and customers may all have different needs during a pandemic, so you need to understand what those needs are and how to remedy any miseries of each party.
During a pandemic, the information you provide to key partners can be the difference between a panicked employee base, an influx of customers wanting to make purchases, or an onslaught of negative news stories. The goal of communicating with key partners is to help them understand what actions to take to stay safe, and what the business, i.e. “You”, are doing to address the crisis.
Your Customers Are Your Best Asset
Customers can be your secret weapon against your competitors. You can learn more about which products your competitors offer and their prices, get customer feedback, and even get a word-of-mouth marketing boost.
A recent study showed that existing customers are behind 65% of a company’s business. In the face of an impending global pandemic, it may seem as though your customers represent a potential liability, but if you think about it, they can be an asset. As a business, you will have a much better chance of retaining your good customers if you can show them that you are doing everything possible to protect them and sustain their business during the pandemic. Your customers will be reassured by your efforts and will feel that their loyalty is being rewarded.
In summary, there is no cookie-cutter way to completely insulate yourself against a pandemic. However, a concurrent theme within this article is strengthening relationships and nurturing the ones that have already been established. Beyond the obvious facts of creating a safe and clean environment for staff, we believe enacting the points above is paramount to weathering the storm.
Did you find this article useful? If you would like one of our experienced business experts to advise you in the areas of pandemic preparedness or crisis management get in touch today and set up a chat. Get in touch via our contact form, email us directly or call us on 0203 815 8005.
