4 July 2018
Whatever your line of business, in order to ‘flatten the curve’, lesson the chances of COVID-19 spread and protect the ones we love and the vulnerable around us, we all need to lesson traffic through our doors (without losing business). That means in the very least, upping your online presence.
5 online solutions EVERY business and brand should have
1. WEBSITE
No those are not outdated. Facebook is a fantastic tool and while we believe it is rather essential in this day and age for every company or brand, it should not replace having a website. Your website is the virtual ambassador of your company or brand. Facebook can be a little messy around the edges, it is a place to add a bit of your personality and light-heartedness while still getting yourself (your brand) out there, your website on the other hand is like your best dress for the social event of the year. Your website puts your best foot forward, it’s the ‘CV’, the pretty packaged gift that gets noticed first at the birthday party. If you don’t have a website, firstly “where have you been?” Secondly judgement aside if it is something you just have not got round to, no better time than now - give us a call! If you’d like to see some that we have done - click here.
2. FACEBOOK & SOCIAL MEDIA
This is the day and age of online presence. If you’re of the older crowd and are not a fan of all the online social hype or the ‘mission’ that comes with staying on top of things, chances are most of your potential clients (as well as your nearest competitors) ARE on Facebook and the like. We can help you set up the necessary social media accounts on your behalf and give you some pointers to get you going, and if you prefer we can even manage your online presence on your behalf as we do for a number of our clients (nope you wouldn’t know who, our best kept secret).
3.ONLINE SHOP
If you’re selling a product and you don’t have an online shop, again, “where have you been?” Seriously IT IS TIME! You are losing business not selling online. Whether you want to make use of Facebook Shop or have a professional online shop on your website with a built in payment gateway - speak to us about your options and what will be best suited for your brand and product.
4.ELBOW GREETING
Some of your businesses are well known for their customer service, now is not the time to drop the ball. If you’ve had to send staff home in order to decrease the amount of people on premises, put them to work. You are paying them after all. Set up rosters. Schedule work. Be creative. Get your staff to curtesy call your clients, heck even let them draw up spreadsheets detailing and logging their interactions with the clients… you might even find you learn something about your market that you never knew, you might just stumble upon a really fantastic business boosting idea that could set you apart from your competitors.
5.GET CREATIVE
To follow on from point number 4… rather than lose hope and focus on what your business losses are in this unexpected world epidemic, start brain storming and get creative. Get as many as your staff involved as possible (adhering to the 3metre distance of cause), you might be surprised at who comes up with some great ideas, people you likely overlooked in the past, do it via conference calling, Skype or any of the many online options available - and if you don’t know where to look ask one of the 20-something year olds who work for you to do the research for you.
People and businesses are getting creative… it is one of the things I love about South Africa! We are opportunists. That term can be a negative or a positive. For sure we are seeing some exploit the fear of the people by overcharging and bla bla bla, but there are far more people rallying… supporting one another, standing together and getting really creative.
Here are 3 of my favourite ingenious creative business continuity ideas I have stumbled upon just this week…
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Café having limited traffic through their coffee house, so they offered free shipping site wide on their website for orders over R160. They also pumped out a bunch of social posts across all their social platforms about how they’re ‘protecting you… by bringing coffee to you’ and fun quirky posts about “enjoy your coffee at home”. (Science of Coffee this shout out goes to you!)
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Churches world wide are learning on their feet and bringing church online on Sundays as well as midweek devotionals. This might not sound like a big deal… but really it is… just think on it for a minute, the entire essence of what church really is, not a building, but a gathering or assembly of like-minded believers has had to change how we do that in the midst of social distancing and self-isolation. Go check out some of my favourites to see how they’ve got grip on the situation and still managing to be the CHURCH God has called them to be and stay ‘connected’ to one another (from a distance :)
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Local ‘alternative’ health and medicine seller is making hand sanitiser to help alleviate the lack in shops, BUT he is also providing pocket size hand sanitisers FREE at traffic lights… let me tell you why this is GENIUS…
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Humanity factor, helping out mankind, providing a solution to a big problem (of cause this will come at a cost to their business) but..
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Their business name is getting out there, an item branded in hands across the city and people will more likely have an emotional connection remembering this business as an item that was free in a time it was needed most.
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Community involvement: this business also called for volunteers to help hand out these sanitisers. Another genius idiea… almost everyone WANTS to do something good and WANTS to help… most don’t have the means or know where to start, here provided is a simple means to anybody do some good. (Bobby Greenhash Foundation well done!)
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And there’s so many more creative business continuity happening. These are just my personal favourites this week… maybe I’ll pop some more next week.
by Terri Cawood
