Introduction
I recently left a service provider after many years. During the earlier stages of the pandemic I tolerated their drop in service. I understood that they were facing challenges. But after six months it didn’t improve. So, I left and went to their competitor. Was I unreasonable? Maybe. But this raises the question of how long should customers have to tolerate poor service?
People are simultaneously the problem and the solution.
Over the last 20 years I’ve written several pandemic crisis response plans. They are always people centric – people are simultaneously the problem and the solution. The typical sequence is – crisis – then response – then recovery. But pandemics aren’t your typical crisis. They don’t just evolve they revolve. This is already evident as Europe enters a second round of lockdowns and businesses[1] are again having to adapt. So, how do businesses continue to recover as a crisis revolves? Read on.
A business critical process is an activity that your business simply cannot survive without.
Redefine Your Business Critical Processes
A business critical process is an activity that your business simply cannot survive without. Such processes become obvious in a crisis. However, as this crisis revolves and businesses adapt, we can lose sight of what the business critical processes are. For example, a bricks and mortar business may move online with a delivery service. Now only the delivery driver is face to face with customers. Now there’s no cash, only card payments and orders are not fulfilled in real-time. There are now new business critical processes that need to be understood and protected. Look at how the crisis has changed your business and confirm or redefine your critical processes.
Set Your Recovery Objectives
A business’ recovery objectives define how a business will respond to a negative event. These objectives may begin with survival but must progress to thriving as quickly as possible. It is ok to set short term objectives (three to six months). The objectives should cover:
- What your business will look like e.g. channel structure, customer segmentation etc.
- What products and services will be available
- How customers will consume your products and services
- How your staff will operate, interact and behave
This is fundamental to crisis response and recovery. As the pandemic revolves the recovery objectives should be assessed to understand what worked and what didn’t. Use these learnings to prepare for the next revolution of the crisis. This sounds easy but it isn’t – the amount of time you have to learn, adapt, change and respond will be limited. Stay alert – be aware of how the crisis is changing your business and remain focused on tweaking those recovery objectives.
You can’t go back and change the beginning but you can start where you are and change the ending.” C.S. Lewis
Work to Continually Adapt Your Business
We all have customers. Quite often we are a customer and have customers ourselves. How you work with your suppliers will impact how you deliver for your customers. Communicate with suppliers and insist on at least normal levels of service while keeping your customers updated on what difficulties you are experiencing.
Responding to the crisis can result in increased business complexity. For example diversifying your suppliers will help to reduce supply shocks but more suppliers means more complex purchasing, supply chain and logistics. Take the time to consider simplifying your business and identify processes that are good targets for simplification. Simpler processes are more flexible and easier to operate under pressure. For example a smaller product catalogue will simplify supply chain and logistics operations as well as reducing inventory costs. But beware; simpler processes also have less controls and are more prone to error. Work to strike the right balance between flexibility and control.
Assess Your Competitors
In the fog of a crisis we often forget to do what made us successful in the first place. Don’t lose sight of your market. Watch your competitors and learn from their successes and mistakes. The crisis will disrupt the market and there maybe new opportunities. The fundamental principles of being better than your competitors and putting your customers first don’t just evaporate in a crisis. There will be some short term breathing space as everybody adjusts to the crisis but customer needs and expectations will normalise eventually.
Exceed Customer Needs and Expectations
In my experience when a crisis occurs customer’s needs and expectations can diverge. Customers adapt their consumption to work around the inconvenience caused. This may involve choosing alternative products or stockpiling (toilet roll comes to mind…). Customers also understand that service providers have challenges and therefore tolerate a degraded service. But this doesn’t last forever. They expect service problems to be fixed and challenges to be overcome. Over time their needs and expectations will return to (near) normal. The service provider who has adapted to the challenges will be at a distinct advantage compared to competitors who haven’t. Now is the time to eliminate excuses and move towards exceeding customer needs and expectations.
Conclusion
This is hard. It is a crisis after all. I have set the bar high and excuses are easier than solutions. That customers will eventually lose patience with poor service is a reality that every business needs to address. Or have it addressed for them by their competitors. The topics I have outlined here are fundamental. They’re not new. Good businesses do them as part of normal day to day operations. So what are you waiting for?
[1] Although I refer to businesses in this article the advice applies to teams within businesses too. To any group of people who collaborate in delivering products or services to customers. We all have customers. Sometimes they are internal to your organisation and sometimes they are external. I have assumed you know who they are and feel free to replace the term ‘business’ with ‘team’.
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