South Florida Web Design, Brand Management, SEO and Digital Marketing Agency

The COVID-19 virus unfolding in the US and worldwide has profoundly affected most businesses. When people are being advised – or in some cases ordered – to stay home, it is going to affect the say they buy products or services.

Companies that depend almost exclusively on foot traffic such as retail stores, entertainment venues, and bars and restaurants are going to be devastated, at least in the short run. And all businesses are going to have to deal with most employees staying home either by choice or by government order.

But there are two critical things to remember about the COVID-19 crisis:

1. It won’t last forever.
2. There is no down time for successful businesses.

People are still going to buy products and services. For many, it may be a few weeks or a month before they resume their normal buying habits. But everybody will continue to live their lives even if it’s temporarily behind closed doors.

Businesses that can adapt to the rapidly changing environment by doing things like offering online ordering, facilitating seamless delivery, and adjusting on the fly to running their operations remotely will succeed in both the short term and the long term.

Managing Your Business Remotely

Before the crisis occurred, some took steps to allow employees to work from home at least part of the time. Now it’s essential for managers to learn how to do it with no time to ramp up.

There are plenty of things you can do to shift your business operations online right now. For example, if you don’t already have a PayPal account, create one today so you can accept seamless online payments and pay vendors without cash handling.

The online tools are already there. You can use Quickbooks for billing and invoicing; Skype to hold virtual meetings with employees and clients; ZenDesk for sharing emails and documents; Avaza Project Management for collaborating with others; LytronLeads.com for checking leads 24/7; and much, much more.

Business Doesn’t Stop When Customers Stay Home – Paradigm Change

Most of America’s 200 million working people will be staying home for at least the next two weeks. That includes small business owners. But how you use this time can determine the future success or failure of your business.

Here’s what’s likely to happen: Most people will delight in the novelty of staying at home for the first couple of days. Eventually, however, the tedium of being trapped indoors without social interaction will start to wear on them. So where will they go to satisfy their need to interact with other people if they can’t go to bars, restaurants, or stores?

Why, online, of course!

People aren’t going to stop buying food, water, and personal necessities. They are still going to need most of the services they used before they were trapped in their homes by the crisis. We all still need to eat, drink, and be entertained. But if we can’t leave our homes for a while, we will just have to shift our focus to the Internet to fulfill these needs even more than we already have.

So how can your business serve your customers online? Successful small businesses will adapt to service captured audience right now and establish long-term loyalty for when the crisis eventually ends.

Business Doesn’t Stop When Customers Stay Home – Community Service

People are going to be sitting at home for the next couple of weeks. That means most won’t have much else to do except watch and judge the actions of others.

Already in the COVID-19 crisis there have been villains, including the brothers in Tennessee who bought up all the hand sanitizer in their town in order to sell it at price-gouging rates on eBay and Amazon. And the young people in Chicago who ignored government orders to follow social distancing protocols and instead crowded into bars and parties on St. Patrick’s Day weekend.

But there are heroes as well, such as the people who volunteered for the first human trials of the experimental COVID-19 vaccine in Washington State. Or the NBA players and team owners who put up their own money to pay hourly workers thrown out of work by cancelled games. And the health workers who put their own lives at risk to help those seriously sickened by the virus.

How will your company fare when all is said and done? Will you be the hero or the villain? What can you do right now to help your community? The actions you take during the crisis can profoundly affect the way people think of your company once it has passed.

The COVID-19, best known as coronavirus, has changed the business landscape everywhere – from Wall Street to Main Street. And it will take some time before both the local and national economies begin normalizing.

In many places, local businesses like bars, restaurants, and health clubs have been temporarily shut by government order in order to enforce social distancing protocols. This strategy will reduce the spread of the virus. But it is obviously damaging for small businesses, even those that remain as people stay home to wait out the crisis.

So what can small business owners do right now to protect their business and set the stage for recovery and growth once the virus has been defeated?

Here are five ideas:

1. CORONAVIRUS AFTERMATH: STAY FOCUSED ON THE “BIG PICTURE.”

The market has experienced pandemics, recessions, and upsets before, and many businesses have thrived in the aftermath. This current concern will be no different. Use this time as one of growth; maintain your business presence and prepare yourself to flourish when the market regains its footing.

While short-term plans are necessary due to rapidly changing circumstances, they cannot be made at the expense of long-term strategy. The coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, like its predecessors, will not last forever. Position yourself to address the world post-crisis. Your actions during this time will inevitably affect the fate of your business when normal operations resume.

2. Reassure Your Customers

The first and most immediate thing you should do is to reassure your customers that your business is still functional – even if it is not currently open – and that you are taking steps to protect them from getting sick.

This week, inboxes everywhere filled with notices from companies seeking to simultaneously calm nerves and explain steps being taken to clean surfaces, enact sanitation protocols, and ensure the smooth operation of the enterprise throughout the crisis.

You need to do the same. Use e-mail, social media, and all other electronic channels to communicate with your customers.

3. Take Care of Employees

If your external customers are feeling anxious about what the future holds, doubly so are your internal customers: Your employees.

Nobody knows how long this crisis will last or how severe it will be. It could require some, if not most, businesses to shut down or limit services for weeks. So obviously, your workers are going to be extremely concerned about their short-term future.

Now is a good time to talk to employees. Be transparent with what you are doing. Reassure them that everything eventually will return to normal and explain how you have their interests in mind. At the very least, these kind words will help calm nerves and allow them to remain hopeful through this crisis.

If you can allow them to work remotely, here are some tips:

– Use Skype to communicate with employees. You can create groups and separate them by departments for meetings and for sharing important information.

– If you need to have control, you can use logmein to remote control employees screen. This is not something we really recommend, but we want to mention, it is available.

– Use Google Drive to share docs and collaborate online.

– Use a Project Management software to help your employees understand the process flow and their responsibilities. We like Avaza.

– Use ZohoDesk or any Help Desk system to create email templates to help your team communicate faster and more efficiently with your clients.

– Automate your email system. Use a system to create automatic responses based on customers clicks.

– Use a LiveChat, with Artificial Intelligence, to answer to Frequently Asked Question

– Create a Booking / Ecommerce system to accept payments online

– Accept credit card online, we recommend Authorize.net, Quickbooks and Paypal

.

.

4. Switch to Digital Marketing (US Chamber of Commerce Recommendation)

Where are you getting your information about the virus crisis? If you are like most people, it’s your smartphone.

Right now, businesses need to get their messages in front of where people are looking: Their digital media such as emails, text messaging, social media platforms, and other digital marketing.

Now is not the time to come up with a new marketing campaign to boost your sales. This can be the best time to work on your website. This might be a good time to take care of the things you have not had time for in the last few years. If your website is 4-10 years old, it is time to consider an update. Switching to digital marketing now lets your business connect with customers directly and immediately while building trust relationships that you can rely on after the crisis passes.

FOCUS ON THE FUTURE. A small amount of business and brands will handle this situation the right way. Be that business. People will remember how you handled your marketing at this time. So instead of pushing your message today, focus on the future.

5. Consider Rebranding

In his ancient text “The Art of War”, Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu said, “In chaos lies opportunity.”

This crisis eventually will pass. The economy will return to normal although the cultural landscape will likely be permanently changed. In the meantime, consider using this disruptive time to rebrand your business to fit the future.

An excellent example is China. Two months ago, China was cast as the villain as the coronavirus spread outward from that country to the rest of the world.

Now that the number of new cases in China has started to drop and the country is moving out of crisis mode, China is improving its international reputation by reaching out to countries like Spain and Italy and offering their help in dealing with their national emergencies – rebranding from villain to hero.

Keep People Safe

These are scary times. Even if the coronavirus hasn’t yet reached your area, eventually it will, but no need to panic.

The most important thing you can do right now is to keep people safe. Taking these five steps will help protect yourself, your employees, your business, and your community while setting the table for what happens next.