COVID-19 has been a wake-up call for enterprises and businesses of all kinds; especially the brick and mortars of the world. Most businesses in retail that were following a physical-only model went through several difficulties, not to mention huge losses during this period of strict restrictions and lockdown across different countries. Apart from the nature of the virus that stood in its way of daily consumption and buying of bare necessities, businesses suffered because of a go-to plan to have sustainability in such situations.
Within a few weeks, or maybe months, businesses were operating at a minimum capacity with restrictions over timings because of safety concerns. One of the reasons some of these businesses were able to function was because they sought different ways of doing what they were doing by prioritizing safety. Restaurants switched to ‘no touch’ safety measures while delivering food, and retail and grocery shops chose Whatsapp as a means of communication and doing business. Offices that ran had to resort to video calls and so on. In short, the world adapted in some ways or another to continue their daily living in spite of such a huge crisis.
Even the web hosting industry and the reseller hosting business have been witnesses to this. They had to make amends to their daily operations and support teams had to realign themselves with work-from-home protocols being made mandatory. This was tough especially on resellers who depended on parent brands for many resources and support facilities. For those who just entered the industry, after buying reseller hosting, these events were unforeseen and sudden. However, many braved this storm and adapted successfully, but there are lessons to be learned from this major disruption.
In this article, we will talk about how you as a hosting business can sustain even in challenging times and ensure that you don’t lose customers, and adapt your business model to those challenges. We will also talk with examples of how other companies ensured they were functional by adapting to different situations through challenging times. So, to learn more about this, please read further.
1. Make video conferencing possible
Being adaptable means being open to making and accepting changes. It works both ways. When the situation was out of control outside, one of the biggest obstacles enterprises and entrepreneurs faced was daily communication. Even though there were various means of doing so, the effectiveness of the same was under doubt.
To overcome this, businesses sought new ways of communicating their daily goals and objectives such as zoom calls, and Google meet for both audio and video conferencing. In this way, it was easy to set things in perspective for them and for the rest of their team members too. If something important was to happen then such sessions would be recorded and put on the cloud (Google Drive or OneDrive) so that anyone who wants to refer to any of the important points could go back and understand. This made communication and seeing each other possible. Many schools, colleges, offices, and businesses resorted to these tactics to ensure that the daily schedule is on track.
2. Plan a post-crisis business strategy
With any challenging event in our life, we need to step back and take a bird’s eye view to gain full clarity of the situation and see what will get affected and how we can cope with the same.
In business, if you ever come across a crisis, understand the nature of the crisis and think about the critical aspects of business that can get affected in the long run. Think about minimizing your losses and maximizing profits. It can be a new opportunity for you. For instance, many retailers choose a delivery-only model because of this and ask their employees to deliver goods more from their warehouses. In fact, they also got listed on food apps to get more presence and chose Whatsapp as a means of communication to place orders.
It would also make sense to reward loyal employees who are making efforts to go the extra mile with the service. In this manner, you can retain your people and keep them motivated to do better instead of aggravating a situation of panic within your business and organization.
3. Adapt a different brand story for your business
After COVID, many brands took a different route to market themselves. For instance, hygienic soaps like Dettol and Lifebuoy took a safety-first route with their brand story whereas KFC changed their finger-licking good narrative to fit into the context. Even health food brands endorsed their ingredients which can build or boost immunity.
So, if your business is communicating a message, see how it can change within the context to your advantage. It is not necessary that it always will, but if you think it can, you should go ahead and adapt to the context of your market.
4. Don’t be afraid to confront the unknowns
COVID-19 brought a sense of fear, anxiety, and a tendency to overwork and overcompensate for things that were not existing in the first place because when there are many unknowns it becomes difficult to see things happening. Especially in business environments where a lot of importance is given to outcomes. It would be fair to first gauge these and identify the visible and the unknown set of problems.
Create a program for the business with a strong business plan, within your organization with concentrated steps to tackle each and every problem. Don’t be afraid to complete a full line of action through unknowns that you encounter on a daily basis. Since you understand the known problems, carry the same attitude while dealing with the unknowns. That will be the best counter-strategy in unprecedented scenarios.
5. Create cross-functionality within teams to deal with resource crunch
There will be times when your employees will not be available or they might have problems of their own. COVID has seen many families get affected and this includes your employees’ families as well. Because of this, it is better to be safe and upskill your employees with cross-functionality so that in the stead of some team members being unavailable others can come in and get the job done. Compensation for such activities can also be decided in advance so that there is motivation to help the team and the organization. It is not necessary that the compensation should be monetary only. It can be in the form of a holiday or even a few days off since your team puts more effort into filling the gaps.
Conclusion
One thing you must definitely remember is that even though in reality things might seem disorderly and negative, you need to balance it with optimism. These challenging times might come again in any form and can affect us again the way they have now. Only this time, we should be able to be a bit more relaxed, in control of our own actions, and maintain positivity because that is the only attitude that will help your business sustain with good business management ideas and tactics. In addition to this, you should also focus on low-hanging fruits and celebrate the quick wins to keep the momentum and positivity within
your business and organization. In such situations, these events keep the work flowing and maintain balance and harmony within teams.
That’s all for now. If you think we have missed out on anything crucial, please share it in the comments section below. We would definitely love to hear your stories of adapting to challenging times if at all you have anything to share with us so that we can also learn from you all. Till then, keep your business growing, and happy reading!
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