Beyond 'acute care'

How do I get my products in customers’ hands when I can’t get in front of them? What do I need to get my team working remotely? What does a contactless transaction look like?

Many Kiwi businesses suddenly had to find the answers to these questions – and more – in a short space of time when the COVID-19 pandemic first hit earlier this year.

A swift response was a lifesaving necessity for many businesses. And many of the responses were digital – from developing e-commerce capability; to teleworking via video conferencing; to adopting contactless payments.

A recent Deloitte Insights article characterised the response this way: “The current wave of digital transformation resembles how physicians respond to acute medical conditions – rapid and dramatic interventions designed to stabilise the patient and lessen the immediate severity of the condition.”

But more than seven months down the track from those early days of the pandemic, what aspects of these responses still apply as we move into the much talked-about ‘new normal’?

Focus on delivering

Clearly the accelerated migration to remote and digital will continue.

With this bigger picture in mind, businesses need a plan that maps out how they will remain relevant and accessible to customers. Physical distancing, for example, is likely to continue in some form, and this influences everything from how you get your products and services in front of customers to new workplace health and safety protocols.

For some businesses, their plan could entail a complete change of direction. We saw many examples of this early in the pandemic – with brewers switching to produce hand sanitiser, for example – and such opportunities to deliver new goods and services will only continue to present themselves as we come to grips with a post-COVID-19 world.

Remote working has also driven many SMEs to start running their businesses using SaaS (Software as a Service) applications.

There’s a cloud-based app for virtually every business task – from accounting and cash flow, to stock/inventory flow, to customer relationship management (CRM). These tools generally offer capability and efficiencies far beyond traditional systems, which ultimately help drive a better customer experience.

Fix and optimse your ecommerce channel

Many businesses that hadn’t previously developed an e-commerce presence had to rapidly flick the switch on this capability in the early days of the pandemic to survive. And even for some of those businesses that already had e-commerce capability, increased online traffic has exposed flaws in systems previously considered perfectly adequate.

With one recent report noting the pandemic has accelerated the shift away from physical stores to digital shopping by roughly five years, business owners need to be asking themselves:

●     Is my current e-commerce technology resilient and capable enough to enable the changes I need to make to deliver to my customers?

●     Does my e-commerce experience avoid typical buyer frustrations, such as difficulty finding products and technical glitches? 

●     Are my customers browsing and buying on mobile – and am I optimised for this?

Create new means of digital enablement

As I noted earlier, greater adoption of SaaS-based tools to run various business functions has been a major trend post-COVID-19.

While these digital solutions are helping businesses run their operations more smoothly and efficiently, ultimately delivering a better customer experience, they’re also offering business owners access to rich new data streams.

Knowledge is power, and businesses that have the greatest visibility over what’s actually going on in their operations will be best positioned to succeed. As the business landscape continues to change quickly, and in new ways, nimbleness and flexibility are important, but decisions still need to be made on solid information.

That’s where the integration and connectivity of apps in an ecosystem, such as BNZ’s My Business Live, becomes important. This will help you and your team see how different areas of your business are performing all in one place – and respond accordingly.

Retain the human touch where needed

A final point: while we’ve seen a massive uptake in digital technologies in response to the challenges of the pandemic, the human touch is still important.

Again, data can help inform the response, highlighting areas where businesses can automate to gain efficiencies but also where they should retain the personal touch to deliver value. At BNZ we call it ‘digitising the things that don’t matter, and personalising the things that do’.