Why Do You Need A Communication Strategy During a Crisis?

During a crisis, communication to your employees and your customers is very critical to effectively carrying out your plan. Make sure to outline #policies for how you #communicate, when you communicate, and what methods of communication you will use.

This includes how you communicate to your #employees, how you communicate to your #customers, and how you communicate to other #stakeholders you work with. You want to make sure that your staff understands what is going on, how it is impacting business, and then you will need to provide very specific instructions around work expectations. For example, if the crisis calls for #WorkingFromHome, be sure to provide information around work hours, how to connect to your network, how to communicate with each other, and how your leadership team will communicate with them. Daily correspondence via email or on an app, or updates directly from your leadership teams is highly recommended.

Immediately after a crisis kicks in you need to communicate updates to customers.  Depending on the nature of your business and the level of impact, you may need to only craft a few short email messages informing customers of any disruptions. Post the messages on ALL your social media platforms including your website.  If your technology or #production is impacted you will need to provide more detailed information with timelines. Be sure if nothing else, your customers are able to reach your customer service teams directly either via email, phone, video conferencing, chat bots, or within the app.  In any situation I highly recommend that you send communications via multiple channels–direct phone calls, text messages, email, app notifications, etc. This IS one of the most important elements to ensure the success of your business.  

What communication strategy have you had to implement since #COVID-19 has impacted us?

Why You Need An Emergency Contact List During A Crisis

Who had a business emergency contact list before this recent pandemic?  I know I didn’t. As a business owner, we should always be prepared for any type of disaster, such as a global epidemic, or a cyber security attack, that could create an emergency situation at any time.  When an emergency happens, you should be prepared to handle it quickly and effectively. Knowing who to call and when can help minimize the stress on everybody. This is why it is so crucial to have an emergency contact list for your business to handle any unexpectant occurrences.

What and who should be on this list?  These 5 areas can help you start building your emergency contact list.

1. Staff/Management/Owner:  When an emergency occurs, you need to protect your staff and know how to reach them.  Especially if you have more than 10 employees and/or contractors, there may be a communication tree or specific order to follow during a crisis.  Emergency contacts for each of your employees and/or contractors, such as spouses or legal guardians, is helpful too especially if the emergency directly involves one of them.  You will want to reach their emergency contact ASAP. Medical information is useful in case you have to take care of them on the spot.

2. Emergency Services.  911 provides access to Fire, Police, EMS, and Hospital, but don’t forget about specialized emergencies services such as pest and poison control and Red Cross.

3. Utility Companies.  In case of a gas leak, power outage, or an alarm goes off you want to minimize any damages and be able to act fast by having these contacts on hand.

4. Suppliers, vendors, and contractors. They could end up being your lifeline so keep these handy.

5. Business information.  In case anything happens to the business owner, or management you want to have the business information available.  Name, address, phone, insurance, etc. This information should be readily available if someone other than the owner has to contact any emergency services.

6. Additional services to consider: locksmiths; taxi/ride share services; roadside assistance; and the list can go on and on.

Having this information on hand in a place that all can access it can effectively help you deal with an emergency that could occur in your business at any time.  If you don’t have an emergency contact list, TODAY is the time to begin.

Why You Need Policies & Procedures During A Crisis

I am super excited to talk to you today about why you need #PoliciesandProcedures and I want to make sure you are successful with this, so pay very close attention!

So let me start with what is a policy and what is a procedure and how do they differ?  Many definitions are out there, so I want to keep it as simple as possible.  

A #policy defines a set of rules, for example like a shipping policy.  A shipping policy can include information such as shipping costs and methods, delivery times, and more.  

A #procedure defines the steps (a detailed process) you should take and can include statements of how, when and/or who performs the process(es), and sometimes what...for example a procedure for how you ship your products.  This could include defined steps such as who ships the products, the frequency of when the products will ship, what is used to ship the product, etc. The key difference between the 2 are the results. 

Why do you need policies and procedures?  Together, policies and procedures:  

• Provide a roadmap for your day-to-day #operations. 

• They ensure compliance with laws and regulations. 

• Provide guidance for decision-making. 

• #Streamline internal processes. 

• Most importantly, they provide a consistent experience for your #customers.  

However, policies and procedures won't do your business any good if you or your employees don't follow them.  Whether your business is manufacturing candles or hair care products or a transportation service, the product or service is only as good as the process by which it is delivered to the customer.  

Take the activities from the previous blog (workload download) and create policies and procedures based on the essential operations.  For example, during a pandemic like COVID-19 you may need to create a Work From Home Policy or a Company Cyber Security Policy because you may have to shift operations to allow employees to work from home, or you may have to shift from your office to working from home because the kids are out of school.  You can create these through text, audio, video, in any format as long as they are documented. Then ask yourself, if someone else aside from you read your policies and procedures would they be able to duplicate the exact result you do, without knowing what you do?  Your policies and procedures set the tone for your internal and external #CustomerExperience, so make them count.

If you need help with this, we offer a service where we can create and document your policies and procedures completely #DoneForYou.  We will audit and assess your current policies and procedures and create these assets for your company following our format. Schedule your #Strategy Call now and let’s chat so #Love4Systems can propel your business to the next level.

How To Declutter Your Mind During A Crisis

In a sudden time of #WorkingFromHome and self-isolation, we’re adapting to new work norms that have most of us searching for productivity in our #workflow.

Even with having all my #processes and #systems in place, I’m feeling on edge with the amount of uncertainty, and chaos going on around me and I am sure you feel it too.

The good news is peak #productivity is possible so we can produce our work and focus on our lives during this time of crisis.

So let’s start with #decluttering our mind during this crisis to ensure we are positioned to withstand the next time we are faced with another disaster.

If you are a #solopreneur or you have employees this is a good time to have everyone do a brain dump and document their #workload.  Download and write out the following information:

• Daily workload

• Weekly workload

• Monthly workload

Only document the work that is necessary for the business to run, keep the business open, and deliver to your #customers.  Things such as sending invoices, shipping and receiving inventory, customer service, etc. Most businesses have a lot of busy work that can be put on hold or handled later during a crisis.  

You want to assess specific threats to your facility, #operations, and your business during this crisis.  Remove those “busy” tasks and prioritize productivity and efficiency during this time.

This will list what your essential operations are to keep your #business running during a crisis.

Don’t be concerned if your list is short or long, it doesn’t matter.  What matters is you’ve created a list that clearly identifies for you and/or your team to see what tasks need to happen during a crisis and it also allows others to easily take on any responsibilities if you or anyone had to step away and couldn’t perform the job.

Running a successful business requires that your business remains operational during a variety of different types of crisis that could disrupt the flow of normal business.  Don’t overthink it, just do it. This can be a tedious process, but I promise it’s worth the time and investment. It’s time to take action and to continue to build the business you’ve always wanted to keep.