Reopening the economy: How businesses should approach the post-lockdown resumption.

When we bid goodbye to 2019, we had no idea what we were walking into. Apart from various major political and economic events, there was an outbreak of a deadly virus which brought the whole world to a halt and had us confine ourselves in our homes. Everyone has been affected by this outbreak in some or the other form. Businesses particularly had to change themselves drastically and while many were successful in establishing a proper channel so that the business doesn’t suffer, many also had to shut down. Now, with almost every economy focusing on reopening and businesses starting to open up, there are various strategies which could be followed.

The Impact on Businesses

The COVID-19 outbreak pushed the entire world into shutting down. Not every business was equipped to deal with such a situation but everyone made an attempt to adapt in which some were successful while others were not. Everything came to a standstill.

Now, before we get into discussing our strategies, all business whether big or small must go through the guidelines which have been released by the government and healthcare authorities of their nations or state or areas.

One thing that remains common for all businesses no matter how big or small is the challenge of adapting to this new normal. With small retailers opening up, the question remains of how soon would they be able to raise their sales to what they were before. Adding to their plight is customers being wary of stepping out to go shop for non-essentials. 

To survive this change, it is necessary for all businesses to adapt to their customers’ dynamic needs. Here lies an opportunity for all businesses, if you can figure out the when, how and where for the adaptation, you might be able to ride the storm and who knows, maybe come out with a treasure. This new-normal that everyone is talking about is here to stay for longer than we would like so strategising accordingly becomes a necessity.

A few things that one must consider before planning to reopen,

SAFETY

Irrespective of your business, devising a safety plan is necessary keeping in mind the health of your employees as well as customers. Extra precautions must be taken to prevent the spread of corona. 

INVEST IN PPE

This is for your own safety as well as anyone associated with you be it your customers or employees. Just because the rules of lockdown have eased and business have started to reopen, doesn’t mean the threat of the virus is gone. If anything, the threat is bigger than ever and if we want to flourish in this scenario, it is imperative that we take care of all these requirements. 

GENERAL HYGIENE

Washing your hands frequently, not spitting in public, using the recommended sanitisers and disinfectants...these are just a few things to be followed without fail. Make sure to communicate this with your employees. If necessary, put fine on people who aren’t able to follow simple guidelines and are putting others at risk too due to their carelessness. On the other hand, although people should try to avail these basic necessities themselves but all employers have to make sure to provide them with these basic requirements of sanitisers, hand wash, disinfected workspace, etc

SOCIAL DISTANCING

This is more about physical distancing. Make sure to implement this at your workplace. Before reopening, access this situation thoroughly and device the norms that you would like to be followed. Operating at a 100% capacity is not yet in the cards even if the government has given it a green light. Plan out the shifts. Access the requirements and try to start out with people who are absolutely necessary at the moment. 

MONITORING

This is a mandatory measure to be taken by every organisation who wants to open up and one must be vigilant about it. Monitor all your employees’ health at regular intervals and have a protocol in place for if someone doesn’t seem completely well.

Now that we have covered the basics, let us talk about the marketing strategies. In the past few months, companies have changed dynamically and hence, one needs to access and strategise to their best in order to win in the game.

DO A THOROUGH COMPETITOR ANALYSIS

Study the ongoing trends, study the trends irrespective of the impact that they’ve had (positive/negative) because this will help you understand the situation at depth. Having a wider outlook is appreciated but studying both local and global competitors is necessary to strategise because conditions and the business environment is pretty dynamic and you must be prepared to have a more localised approach to the situations.

DON’T SHY AWAY FROM ASKING FOR HELP

Handling everything could be pretty overwhelming and if you find yourself in a crux, don’t hesitate to reach out to other fellow entrepreneurs or friends for help. We are in this together and a positive outcome of this pandemic has been for people to have become more empathetic than before. If this seems too much, you can always engage in casual discussions with people on LinkedIn and learn.

ADAPT & UPDATE

The requirements of your customers might have changed drastically and businesses have no other way than to adapt to the new scenario and update their strategies, approach and implementations accordingly. A big lesson can be learnt from the restaurant industry in this regard where many dine-in places adapted to the cloud-kitchen concept rather than shutting themselves down completely.

COMMUNICATION IS THE KEY

Try to create a positive impact on your customers’ lives through your service through connecting with them. Create a trusting relationship with them. In the ongoing situation, providing an overall good customer experience is the key yo success and all business must strategise accordingly. If required, go out of the way to make an impact. You might be a management consulting firm but if you can help make your customer’s life easier in adapting to the change in lifestyle through something as small as providing a free subscription to a newspaper, this will lead to gaining a loyal customer.

BE ONLINE

It might sound silly when we make this suggestion but trust me many of us aren’t availing the full benefit of having an affluent channel online. Many company pages on LinkedIn are blank or inactive. Now is the time to get those creative juices flowing and pen down your thoughts. It is for getting your name out there so your posts and blogs don’t have to be necessarily related to your business. You can have discussions about your passions, you can host a webinar and motivate people, you can share your views and thoughts about the ongoing circumstances… the sky is the limit.

CREATE MEANINGFUL CONTENT

To be honest, one doesn’t need to do an extensive market research to figure out that due to staying at home, people are spending more time online. Focus your energy on creating content that would hit the right spot with your audience. Send an email blast to all your customers to let them know that you are thinking about them, write posts on LinkedIn regarding your outlook on various topics or post engaging stories in Facebook and Instagram where a call-to-action is inserted through some poll or asking questions, etc.

IT’S TIME TO REVIEW YOUR WEBSITE

Many businesses tend to ignore this especially if the business is booming. It is time to pay attention to this underdog. Update your website according to your requirements and make sure that you keep your customers engaged by sharing anything major that is happening with the business. This will keep everyone motivated.

REASSURANCE

Be outspoken about anything and everything that you’ve put in place to keep your employees and customers safe. Make it easier for them and understand the boundary between selling and pushing. You have to make their lives easier and a pushy attitude at a time like this will not bring good results. Rather, sell yourselves through your unique selling points.

At the end of it all, make sure to stay safe and minimize the risk for everyone. Assure everyone who is dependent on you and make sure to play fair by them. Have an efficient channel for communication and share what is going on and what is being put in place for keeping everyone safe and sound. This is the time when you can create an everlasting band image for yourself and build a brand from scratch or grow 10-fold in customers and market share.