Build back better
01. Engagement
After coronavirus, no one can assume that, in the short term, business
Internal communication
External communication
New products and services
Customer journey
Your people will no doubt be affected by remote working, changing roles, responsibilities and lines of communication. It is essential to keep talking openly with your teams, more than you ever have before, to ensure they know what is changing, how it will affect them, and to reassure them that you are there collectively to support each other plus build on their ideas for change.
Keep your world engaged with clear communication, making sure it is current and that all your connections are aware of any changes to services and support, opening hours and orders. Where you deal with people directly, make sure you provide ‘safe’ transactions respecting any social distancing and hygiene rules.
Turning things on their head, this changing landscape allows, within reason, a chance to explore new opportunities. These could be new services or just a simple tweak to deliver things in a new way. To support this, there is a need to understand the challenges in terms of customer demand, customer service and fulfilment.
This is an opportune time to re-map your customer journey and touchpoints, ensuring that you provide not only the right products but also wraparound services and communications to continue delivering the great customer experience they have always expected.
life will be the same as we remember it. With that in mind, we have put together a simple checklist of some of the issues we think we will all have to consider in this ‘New Norm’. Fundamentally, for any organisation, the key is to minimise the impact arising out of the disruption. There will be an extremely limited window of opportunity to assess any potential impact on the business model and take positive steps to mitigate any damage in the short term, whilst continuing to plan for the longer term.
03. Innovation in adversity
Agile working Review of costs
Customer at the heart
The natural ‘crisis’ reaction can be to jump to actions and plan to deliver
Skills and training
these, but the most effective approach is often to stop, think about the
There will be different requirements to support these new ways of working. It is important to review your training needs, particularly technology, to support effective remote working. This includes implementing the right suite of tools and processes to collaborate and share documents and data. You might even already have them – you just need to look at them again. It’s also important to consider the softer skills such as remote team management and leadership, along with the skills for the ‘new’ customer services.
new reality, and orientate within this before you get to the ‘how’ part. Indeed, for many, opportunities will come out of these forced changes, so this also offers scope to move ahead stronger in your marketplace. .
Tighten up your operational footprint. Do you need this much office space in light of WFH and indeed WFA (working from anywhere)? Consider downsizing leases or look for flexible office space rather than long-term leases. Co-working spaces will probably not be the same for some time as they forgo hot desks and communal spaces to support social distancing. Also consider the opportunity to outsource to third parties who are set up to service those specific business processes.
Your customers remain the lifeblood of your business. More than ever it is key to understand their needs. Whatever your plans are, ensure they align with customer needs and expectations. We recommend ‘client listening’ to understand what has changed in their behaviour, expectations and spending decisions, and looking at how you can adapt within your business model to support them. Dedicate some time to this, stop other work and get your team to call customers and listen. Use this to inform your forward plans and actions.
Rather than planning for long extended pilots, trying to prove something is the right answer, switch to smaller experiments and ways of working where you try things and adopt the learnings quickly.
02. Operational resilience New ways of working
De-risk your supply chain
With social distancing likely to continue for an extended period of time, and people (both staff and customers) having to get more used to working remotely, how will you operate? What has to be done face to face and what can now be done remotely? This assists in defining clarity around technical support, staffing levels and rotas.
When orders start streaming in, you have to be able to fulfil these. Make a map of your supply chain and understand who your critical suppliers and partners are. Have discussions with them sooner rather than later to understand any challenges they may have and ensure your and their priorities are aligned. The new supply chains that will do well are ones with flexibility built in – how do you score against this requirement and what are the risks of not doing so?
Scenario planning
01.
02.
03.
Engaging customers and employees in the ‘New Norm’
Operational resilience: not just for your organisation but across the whole business ‘eco-system’
Innovation in adversity – what your new business model looks like
Customers are still there and will return. When and how isn’t immediately clear to all businesses. A plan to ramp service back up requires working through multiple scenarios. Build in simple decision points and triggers along the way that enable you to plan each step to the next phase and associated scenarios. Remember, it’s going to be a journey!
Agile decision-making Things are changing every day at a rapid pace. There is no doubt that the organisations which will come back stronger are the ones that can make the right decisions and make them quickly. What is required is strong, decisive, joined-up leadership with a simple forum for decision-making, using accurate and up-to-date market information and organisational reporting to inform and support these decisions. Nine Feet Tall are experts in shaping and delivering transformation. Getting this right now is more important than ever before. If you would like to discuss your key challenges and plans to transition to the ‘new norm’, visit ninefeettall.com