A crisis can happen overnight. Hurricane Sandy. 9/11. Viruses that reshape the world. How can businesses of every size respond? How do brick-and-mortar companies survive? How do you remain profitable if, say, in the short term, you can’t go to a meeting, or conference, or make an in-person sales presentation?
Step One: Automate
Most businesses are already digital to some degree. The more urgent question is: can you perform every part of your work flow—sales, marketing, client service and more—without ever stepping foot in your office? Some New York firms had their servers destroyed during Sandy. Do you, in fact, have your entire operation backed up so you don’t lose years of work? Do you have a current list of your employees’ home and mobile numbers? Your entire corporate organism must, behind the scenes, now be automated so it really can be “business as usual” when broad-scale disruption occurs.
Step Two: Rely On Digital
Many firms across industries already have printed materials available digitally. If you don’t, you should. Remember that any single piece of your sales-and-marketing materials, large or small, should now have a digital version. This can get expensive for smaller firms. But creating these formats, plus backing everything up on a central server, gives teams across the entire corporate organism immediate access, and thus creates a seamless remote experience.
Step Three: Download The Right Tools
You’re probably already using some tools that will help your team stay connected so you can best collaborate with clients. Video conferencing with screen sharing has come a long way, especially if you have a strong internet connection. (Pro tip: ditch the wireless in favor of plugging in your laptop. Even a 5G wireless connection will be the weakest link in your overall connection chain.)
File sharing, and collaborative workspaces, can’t replace the water cooler, and the warm, casual interactions they create. But they’ll keep your brainstorming sessions productive and engaging.
Likewise, make sure your clients know how your firm is responding in a crisis, especially if clients are used to face-to-face meetings, and hard copies of all work product. Make sure clients are comfortable with your remote workflow by clearly explaining the choices you’ve made, why you’ve opted for particular tools, and how changes will affect them. A little hand-holding in hard moments can’t hurt.
In the end, the beauty of advanced technologies will help your teams dialogue with each other, with clients, with strategic partners, and with vendors. A reliable, fully remote strategy and easy execution is key.
Step Four: Create Online Brochures
If your business is brick and mortar, or you have a showroom, or storefront, or even a bank branch, this will be a barrier to overcome. Technology is essential. Yet, there’s a beauty in the personal experience. And we are social creatures. How can you adapt, if selling face to face in your industry is, for the moment, impossible?
Smaller companies may not have invested in comprehensive e-commerce web sites. It’s surely an expense. But if you’re shut down by crisis, and you sell product and services through a physical location, and no one’s coming in, you’re potentially out of business.
The Goal
Above all, the goal is to get streamlined enough so if no one in your firm comes to work for a month or two, it will barely impact how you conduct business. And when the worst is behind you, with strong systems in place, the stress of having toggled and adapted to a new way of being can feel relatively normal. Best of all, you’re ready for the future.
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