While the market is moving, our personal lives are still at a standstill. Somehow, quarantined and practicing social distancing, many of us find ourselves busier than ever and having time with family we haven’t had in decades, if ever. Moreover, where would we be without all this amazing technology to keep our kids in school, keep our family and friends ‘near’ and permitting us to communicate with the market instantaneously? We can hear the groans now; yes, hybrid learning is rough (I’ve got kids to prove it), the news is over the top and we are being bombarded by communications so strong that our ‘live meeting’ connections are sometimes failing us. So, as we seek balance personally, and contemplate long-term goals against short-term budgets professionally, what can we do? We are presenting you with four priorities you can implement now towards a better tomorrow, served up in a new four part blog series.
Focus on Clients
This might seem obvious, yet in practice it is rarely implemented well. Clients often ask whether they should be communicating or not during times of market stress, and if so in what form. We remain steadfast in our belief that your clients need, want and deserve communications from their vendors and partners-no matter what role you play-at this time and at any time. This group knows you; they have placed trust, confidence(and dollars) with you, and they want to understand how these markets–these broad, deep and dynamic markets- are impacting their businesses and yours. While personal communications are always ideal, it is not realistic to make this happen in all cases, with sufficient frequency, and with the same effectiveness as the written word and planned, prepared comments. Consider the following to maximize your focus on clients:
A minimum of weekly communication to your client base, which can take the form of a simple, well laid out email, to update them. The update is not about the virus or how your office handled the transition to work from home, it is about what products and services you offer- what is working, what isn’t, what are you seeing, what lies ahead, what adjustments are you looking at for your business and what will impact them? Help them to understand: knowledge is power and it also reduces anxiety, fear and resentment.
Further consider recording a video of your update or scheduling live webinars or open chat forums, online ordering and other avenues to engage with your clients remotely in a visual way. Incidentally, is anyone else finding it fascinating to see the backgrounds of everyone’s homes? Candidly, we are.
Find a variety of ways to use the same content to connect with various clients, consistently. Engagement is important! In fact, now would be a great time to embark on a podcast, instructional video or other more permanent explanation of your value-added offering(s).
