Companies doing good despite a time of pandemic

We've all been recipients of dozens (if not hundreds) of brand messages on how they're currently dealing with the COVID-19 epidemic. It's a time of uncharted territory and everyone is attempting to at least get "acknowledgement messaging" out to their employees, customers and additional stakeholders.

For some brands, simply acknowledging the crisis is not enough, they are going above and beyond during these times. At the very least, the best in class communication I've seen has a few key components:

• Acknowledge how they will compensate employees and/or provide benefits (show your care and take care of your employees)
• Special benefits & resources for customers (here’s how brands will help those who drive the bottom line)
• Important health & safety info (reinforce key messaging in alignment with pandemic protocols)

Information is golden during these times and it's important to look to those who seek to educate and inform versus hoard or escalate mass hysteria.

In light of celebrating brands getting it right, here are a few best practices I've witnessed over the past several days. You can view a comprehensive list of brands "doing the right thing" that has been curated by digital expert Scott Monty.

• Lululemon. Their CEO did a few things in their recent email statement that showcased compassion and consideration of the long term: 1) Explained they were closing physical retail locations; 2) Said employees are important and SHOWED it by saying they will continue to pay for scheduled hours; 3) Said people are important and SHOWED it by referencing their Global Relief Pay plan
• OneDine. Their CEO took immediate action regardless of the bottom line. They announced FREE “tap and pay” touchless payment system for all restaurants. ALL. RESTAURANTS. When people come back from social distancing, germ-centric areas will continue to be avoided, like touchscreens. They are waiving all setup and transaction fees and providing FREE table sensors at no cost for tap and pay activity. They can have restaurants onboarded, at no cost, in as little as 72 hours. The OneDine system integrates with most POS systems and installs easily.
• Forbes8, is harnessing their network of wisdom to help fill a business education gap in lieu of almost every major conference being cancelled or postponed. On Friday, March 20, 2020 from 11 am  ET to 3 pm ET, Business Resiliency will go live and feature highly sought after business industry experts and best-selling authors, like the zen of Marketing, Shama Hyder, small business expert Barry Moltz and AI expert and SiriusXM host Amber Mac and more. 
• Turbine Labs, pulled together a free daily COVID-19 Executive Briefing that allows for only the vetted and most credible information, facts and stats to come to the forefront. They use A.I. to scan hundreds of thousands of pieces of media, social and online commentary to pull what executives most need: economics, supply chain and human impact.
• Google is offering free access to their advanced Hangouts Meet video-conferencing capabilities through July 1, 2020, to all G Suite customers globally. This is especially important for those us working from and also the medical industry who will be looking for HIPPA compliant video software for tele-medicine.

Who have you seen doing good in the midst of chance, chaos and uncertainty? Feel free to include them below and/or submit to Scott Monty for his Corporate GoodWill resource.