What a rollercoaster ride the last month has been for everyone. I can’t think of anyone who hasn’t been affected in one way or another with the COVID-19 pandemic, globally.
Every day we are getting updates from government and businesses on changes that they are making, whether this is from closing locations through to bringing in new products to help fulfil needs whilst we work through the current status quo.
But the big question is, where to from here for businesses and marketing? Looking at some of the significant changes and impacts, I strongly believe that our customers, you and I, have all learnt, grown and changed during this period. This brings with itself some challenges on how to adapt and brace for the “new normal” that is certainly looming ahead.
During this time, we have seen so many businesses adapt: from the local butcher doing deliveries, general stores organising deliveries of local goodie baskets, takeaway restaurants that were pickup only now offering delivery to people’s homes, businesses closing their physical locations and going to 100% online operations, managing with less staff. We’ve also seen changes to media consumption with TV, traditional and online, viewership up. Online shopping has seen staggering increases with some retailers seeing 300%+ increase in demand. But how do we know what consumers are going to expect as we start to move back into a perceived new normal?
There is a lot in this but one of the key things is that customers have experienced greater convenience with businesses adapting very quickly to their needs. I believe that business have demonstrated their ability to change and there are some big implications to this, which may put some businesses in jeopardy if they don’t plan to adapt.
What many customers have experienced is the ultimate result of managing within a more online and disassociated environment: online purchases and deliveries have given them back time. Time has also been affected through less travel time for work, play and essentials. Time is such a fickle thing and one that people always state that they don’t have enough of but, looking at these changes, is it something that customers are going to want to continue to have more of coming out of this? I am not talking about people completely changing their lives, no longer working and staying home all the time to find time, but adjusting to the new normal to keep some of the positive time giving experiences that they have so freely received during this period.
I feel that the implications for businesses are large and, before going back to the way things were before, you should be looking at what things need to be altered as part every day practices in order to support the new post event consumer.
Now is a great time for businesses to do this, before consumers emerge from isolation in droves and things get too busy again!
If you have continued operating during this period, a good way to look at this is to make a list of the things that you have adjusted in your business and the type of response that you received. If you have had an increase in online orders for example, then you might want to consider enhancing your online presence and continue offering this to customers. If you started offering a delivery service and received a great response, this might be a great thing to continue also.
If you haven’t been operating, have a look around at what other businesses have been doing within your area that have stayed open. There are a lot of media reports and insights available also, which show how consumers have responded. Read these and make a list of the things that you feel you can easily incorporate in to your business without jeopardising or de-valuing what you are now.
Breaking things down in to categories of what you might want to start doing, stop doing or change. The key is looking at this from a customers view, not from a business. Customers are the ones that you are adapting for so making sure that you do it right is critical. There is no reason why you can’t ask them to provide feedback on how you’ve adapted. If you have an email database, send a quick survey asking for feedback on whether the changes you’ve made would be nice to have moving forward. You can even ask things around whether people would be willing to pay for the additional service, how often they want it etc. Free tools, such as Survey Monkey, allow you to do this easily and affordably. Don’t ask a million questions keep it under 10 so that you can get responses. If it’s a simple yes no response, just do one question. It’s up to what you want to find out and the insight that you can gain from the responses. It’s important to not just look at operations but even your marketing and communication strategies. If you’ve adopted new channels or even used existing channels differently or more often, check the impacts that these have had and see what you need to do moving forward. If you’ve been offering different things, how successful have these been and should they be incorporated moving forward? Have you engaged with customers in a different way, promoted your business differently or engaged in different community partnerships to help your local community? All of these can play a role in your successes of the future so should be reviewed simultaneously with operational changes.
A key thing to remember is don’t change for the sake of change. If you are comfortable with where things are at and you haven’t felt an impact to your business, then continue doing this. It’s more about being aware of what has changed in your environment so that if you do need to modify, you have an understanding of your options are and can start to implement changes over time. It’s all going to depend on how customers adjust to life back in the real world. Some businesses may find that they can easily slip back in to the way things were but some may need to make change. It’s always good to be prepared and to consider things form a customer perspective and to understand what customers want. Staying ahead of the game is always a good place to be rather than lagging behind and losing in the long run.
There is never a bad time to review and ensure that you are continuing to be ahead of competitors and continuing to exceed customer expectations. We all know that customers are crucial and without them, we wouldn’t exist, so let’s continue to strive to appeal to them in the best way possible!
Thank you for taking the time to engage with me. If you have any questions then please send me an email at themarketingelf@bigpond.com
Good Luck!
The Marketing Elf
© April 2020
The Marketing Elf 