Business in an uncertain climate

We know how hard things are for businesses right now, and have been for several months. The unexpected appearance of Covid-19 has caused many challenges. These challenges have differed by organisation, and even within different departments of the same organisation.

In this blog, we’re focusing on those of you who have a non-YBS business, and how you can maintain relationships with your customers during this time and afterwards, plus some of the things to consider, as life starts to return to normal. We appreciate that this may not be as relevant to those of you who don’t have a non-YBS side to your business.

Focus on customer service

Customer service is key. Here are some things to think about, not just now but for the long term, as we start to come out of the crisis.

Make life easier for your customers

One way you can help is by taking the weight off your customers. You can do this by by finding answers to the questions they can’t, or don’t have the time, to find out for themselves. This allows you to position yourself as a caring business who wants to help, especially if you act over and above your usual remit. This is also good for your brand.  For example, if you’re a broker, get answers from lenders about mortgage payment holidays. If you’re an estate agent, let your customer know that there might be a better deal for them in the mortgage market.

Make sure they can contact you

It’s important that your customer knows that you’re there if you need them, in whatever form that might take. The crisis might have made you think about the way you communicate, both now and in the future. E.g. if your team is no longer always in the office to pick up calls, can you use online instant messenger tools instead of letting customer enquiries (and frustration) build up?

Reach out to your customers

A good communications plan is essential during, and after, a crisis. You should be looking to reassure customers that you’re there for them. If you’ve not already done so, it’s also important to check any automated communications you send or templates to make sure they don’t contain messages which work well in normal times, but don’t fit the current environment. They could come across as insensitive.

Here are some ideas for how you can stay in touch with your customers:

1. A client newsletter

A regular newsletter is great for building a long-term relationship with your clients and engaging with them, rather than just trying to sell things to them. It also helps you to keep in touch with your client base, and put your brand front of mind. A newsletter can also keep your clients up to date with any news from your business, or hints and tips you think they will appreciate as an added value service. This could also include timely information which helps your customers return to a little more normality.

2. Email marketing

Will let your customers know you’re still there – even if they aren’t ready to see you face to face.

Below are some best practice suggestions for sending emails to your customers:

• Offer them something they want – even if it’s information or a guide. Just make sure your content is likely to be relevant to your audience
• Use personalisation - think about personalised content rather than just sending blanket, reactive content with the same message to everyone. This will help you build your client relationships, and make you stand out against your competitors. It’s important to use the right target audience to achieve this
• Think about when you should send it (time of day/day of the week) to get the best possible open rate. When are customers most likely to see and open your email?
• Keep it simple – this includes keeping the content clear and easy to read
• Use a clear and engaging subject line which delivers the key benefit to your client of opening and reading the email
• Make sure your email works correctly in different devices, e.g. laptop, iPhone, iPad
• Make sure you can measure the responses you receive, so you can check how your email is performing and make changes if needed.

3. Get your website right

First, you should check whether your website needs any updates or changes due to the fallout of the last few months.

Once you’ve done this, it’s worth undertaking an audit of your website to make sure it’s strong and does what you want it to do. Take a look at our ‘Website basics for proprietors’ blog here for a reminder of the key things to include on your website, and how to make it as clear as possible to appeal to your visitors.

You should also make sure your website is likely to appeal to new customers as well as existing ones. You can do this by analysing each page on your website and answering the following questions:

• What do I want visitors to this page to do?
• What are visitors to this page looking for?
• How do people end up on this page?
• Where do visitors go when they leave this page?
• What content do I need to include to make sure visitors do what my business wants and to give them what they came to this page for?

Then you can make necessary adjustments, or produce content that answers these questions, thus making your website more attractive to prospective leads.

4. The power of social media

Social media can offer you a cheap and effective means to communicate with your customers, as well as to get the attention of potential customers. Take a look at our 2019 article ‘How to get the most out of Linkedin in just 10 minutes a day’ here which can help you make the most of its networking and relationship building capabilities. Also see ‘How Linkedin groups can be great for building your business’ here which can help you find new customers and network with other organisations by using Linkedin Groups.

Financial resilience and your customers

The crisis has shown us all how important it is to be prepared for unexpected changes which could impact our finances.  Here are some suggestions for your customer communications or interactions. These simple tips will help your customers get prepared financially for the future:

• Paying off debt/credit cards – often a good first step
• Making savings wherever possible – e.g. reducing bills/cancelling anything not needed – see our useful chart ‘Stop or swap’ from the January blog here
• Reviewing existing savings accounts to see if they are still suitable
• It can be a good idea to have a mix of different savings accounts types (e.g. easy access, bonds, Cash ISAs) to get the benefit from each
• Checking they are still on the right/best mortgage deal for them (subject to ERCs)
• Opening a new savings account/s or finding a new home for savings (like a rainy day fund)
• Opening a regular saver account as it encourages saving regularly (set up a direct debit to do this)
• Carrying out ongoing spending reviews– and spending less than needed (even if they don’t need to)
• Considering relevant insurance for the difficult times (e.g. income protection).

How Businesses can adapt – taking learnings from lockdown

The return to ‘normal’ as we knew it, may be some time away. Therefore, businesses should be flexible, both with their people and their ways of working in order to adapt to the new climate. But what does this actually mean?  Here are a few suggestions:

Support your people

This could mean being flexible with working patterns– e.g. implementing a mix of working from home and working in the office when you’ve previously only had staff in the office. It also means supporting the physical and mental wellbeing of your staff - keep communicating with them and listening to, and adapting to, their needs and fears.

Question whether there is a new (or different) way to do something

The pandemic has given us all more time to reflect and make changes. Doing something different could mean a small change, such using technology to host a virtual event rather than a face to face one, or it could mean adapting your business model or find a cheaper or quicker way to do something. It could even mean finding a different way to get your product to your customers, a different way to sell your product, or even finding new customers.

Collaboration between businesses

This could be a great positive that comes out of the crisis. Why not reach out to other businesses in your industry to find out what changes they have implemented, or tips they have going forwards? Once the agency council is up and running, this will also be a great source of information.

Above all - keep communicating with your customers

 As we come out of this, it’s important to keep talking to your customers to let them know your plans, any changes you’re making, and most importantly, what it means for them.