The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on every aspect of life, including business. The measures to combat the epidemic have made companies rethink their operational strategies to stay productive. Despite the regulatory modifications, your business needs to stay afloat in a post-pandemic world.
As you formulate your post-pandemic operational strategies, you should keep in mind the future of the people the business supports - your employees. So, how can you survive this turbulent time?
There may be no fool-proof answer to this question. Still, the five strategies below can help you maintain your operations under the new conditions brought about by the pandemic as you work your way up the business ladder.
Switch to Remote Work
Remote working has been there even before the pandemic, but now you have to adapt it for your business to remain productive. You should evolve your work from home policies to optimize efficiency. As a business, you'll need your teams to learn to perform their tasks remotely from home.
Develop and implement a policy that elaborates on the deliverables each remote employee should complete, when expected online, and how they'll interact. The remote working policy should highlight the procedures, guidelines, and rules to govern your teams when carrying out their daily tasks.
Utilize remote technology to enhance task performance, communication, interaction, and collaboration. Proper planning will motivate your staff to complete projects efficiently from home.
Optimize Your Online Presence
Due to the circumstances, you might want to consider taking your business online. You can start an online store or offer services online. The pandemic served as a wakeup call for many businesses to reconsider their business model because consumer behavior and priority have drastically changed.
They have shifted to virtual shopping and want goods and services delivered with as little physical contact possible, and you should do the same. Your business should accommodate new changes in customer trends and purchasing behavior.
Digitize your brand, products, and services to be accessible online and implement a technology that will help you connect with your customers. Shift your sales strategy online to prevent heavy losses. To keep your employees afloat, train them on how to market and sell on social media, and reach new leads. Besides, continue nurturing your leads through email marketing.
Moving your business online is a lifeline, and practically, easy to operate. And with prolonged home confinement and customers shifting to remote services, you've got a greater chance of growing your business for the long-term.
Cut All Redundancies
Every business is struggling to keep its finances in check. Without much sales and incoming revenue, and your expenses not budging, it can be challenging to stay afloat.
The underlying post-pandemic circumstances may force you to cut all redundancies, including minimizing office space, bundling tasks or projects, and cutting out unprofitable projects.
Make a new financial plan that will help your business survive. Cut or spread costs and expenses that are unnecessary. Identify areas where you can optimize your burn rate to run your business as lean as possible without compromising productivity.
By downsizing your office and switching to remote operations, you'll have helped the company spend less on recurring expenses.
Automate Tasks to Reduce Staffing or Retrain Employees
It is practical, given the situation, to invest in technology that drives business continuity. Technology can help you automate some business tasks or augment your employees. Since your employees need to be tech-savvy to be proficient, they'll need retraining.
Many companies are utilizing artificial intelligence to improve their levels of customer service and support. Look at the stock exchange; it continues to operate even when physical trading is closed.
Depending on your business, you can automate your services and serve your customers remotely.
Once you switch to remote working, you'll need technology to augment your workforce and ensure customer satisfaction and business productivity. Your teams will need to learn how to use G Suite tools and other collaborative tools that foster teamwork and communication.
Although it seems expensive upfront, investing in automation tools will pay off in the long run. You can also experiment with different solutions until you find the most suitable one for your business.
Many SaaS companies that provide automation tools also offer free trials so you can check whether they fulfill your needs before you purchase.
Look into New Projects or Niches to Expand Your Business
The pandemic is changing customer attitudes toward business and buying habits. By keeping a pulse on your new or existing audience groups, you can get some guidelines on adjusting your business to the changing demands.
Always keep your customer profiles detailed and up to date. Doing this will help you understand their needs and offer personalized communication and experience by providing more value while capitalizing on their data.
Although the current market trends may be challenging to interpret, you should think about adapting to them more comprehensively. Once you understand the ongoing market landscape, re-optimize your positioning, which will help you get a new revenue stream or business pathway to leverage on.
Embracing changes in customer activity allows you to reassess your business model and explore other ways to tap into a bigger market. You've got the opportunity to capitalize on the behavioral shifts to introduce greater virtualization into all aspects of your business, such as learning, as you plan for higher levels of remote operations.
You can also change directions to offer new products to your customers. By tapping into new projects, you are setting yourself on the right trajectory for business growth.
Take Away
The pandemic has sparked major economic, social, and technological transformations. Your company will hardly revert to its traditional way of doing business, so you have to start reframing your approach to tomorrow now. With these strategies, you'll be more prepared for other challenges that might come along.
Listen to what your customers need, and adapt to meet their demands. This will not only help you survive the current crisis but set you up for success afterwards too.
Guest Author
Lisa Michaels is a freelance writer, editor and a thriving content marketing consultant from Portland. Being self-employed, she does her best to stay on top of the current trends in business and tech. Feel free to connect with her on Twitter @LisaBMichaels.