A restaurant in Washington DC finds alternative ways to do business Photographer: Andrew ... [+]
For Fortune 500 companies, this pandemic has meant Zoom calls with crisis teams, business continuity planning and supply chain management, earnings adjustments, and moving employees over to remote work (at least those lucky enough to remain employed). Many small businesses, meanwhile, have been forced to shutter—but there are others that are pivoting, and in ways larger organizations can only dream about.
“Our strength is our smile and our optimism, and we will continue with our heads held high and even more dedication, motivation, and energy,” said Nicolas Édouard, founder and manager of Kids-Trip in Vaud, Switzerland, which organizes camps, workshops, and nature outings for children.
While seasonal holiday camps and birthday parties have been cancelled, Kids-Trip has transitioned online to stay connected with families during this crisis. Édouard has moved to YouTube to share weekly craft activities and has implemented daily Facebook Live quizzes to ease the impact of social distancing measures on his young customers.
Beauty salons are not built to withstand social distancing. While many of us at home are finding creative ways to trim family members’ hair and hide our grays, hairdressers are reaching out to their clients and others via social media, sharing advice in hopes of averting disaster. Too late, for some. (It’s been noted that we’re now in the personal care phase of panic buying, with hair dye and clippers replacing toilet paper and flour on our must-have lists.) Major marketers also are starting to take notice. Just this week, L’Oréal spokesperson Eva Longoria chimed in with root-cover advice via her Instagram.
Maintaining and even strengthening connections with one’s customer base is the name of the game here. Small businesses count on their customers’ support to make it through the crisis and are coming up with creative ways to engage with them, such as these coffee-making tutorials offered on Instagram by a neighborhood coffee shop in Lausanne, Switzerland, or the virtual city tours by Travel Curious, a London-based tour company—a brilliant way to engage with prospective clients while travel is at a standstill.
In the U.K., analysts estimate that almost a fifth of small businesses are at risk of shuttering. While governments around the world are stepping in to provide financial support, some bigger businesses also are lending a hand. eBay announced a new accelerator program, designed to help SMEs launch e-commerce platforms, and UberEats has waived delivery fees for independently owned restaurants to help see them through the shutdown.
Many restaurants are relying on patrons purchasing gift cards and opting for takeout. Others are shifting their business models. Quick-service restaurants such as Subway and Panera Bread, in addition to selling ready-made meals, are offering pantry staples such as bread, lettuce, tomatoes, gallons of milk, and cheese. Many bakeries are selling bulk flour, yeast, and butter. Harlem, New York-based rice bowl shop FieldTrip is feeding hospital staff, thanks to donations from Twitter followers and beyond. Then there are groups such as Frontline Foods, a grassroots nonprofit founded during this pandemic to provide meals to workers on the front lines of the crisis. Already in 48 cities across the U.S., the group aims to “save local restaurants who have been impacted by shelter-in-place orders, while supporting those doing battle on the front lines.”
New business partnerships also are emerging as a way for businesses—big and small—to adapt their business models to what is becoming the new normal. Take, for example, those supermarket chains in Greece that are entering into agreements with local delivery/courier companies (and in some cases taxi companies, too) to respond to the surge in customer demand for home deliveries.
There’s no doubt that many of the changes we’re experiencing today are anything but temporary. Even as the economy begins to reopen, the way we’ll shop, dine, travel, and engage in other activities is unlikely to be the same as it was in the pre-COVID-19 era. Businesses of all sizes need to prepare today for what that new reality will be.
In Germany, shop owners already have taken the term “window shopping” to heart, creating beautiful window displays to showcase wares during the lockdown and encouraging customers to purchase items via phone or email. In New Britain, Connecticut, Amato’s Toy & Hobby has turned its windows into a huge display of jigsaw puzzles, creating a sort of vending machine for curbside delivery.
Even as shops are allowed to open, creative marketing and business approaches will need to remain in effect. Restaurants, for instance, will need to rethink their operations to maintain some level of safe distancing. What will 50 percent capacity of on-site diners look like? Will customers be asked to submit to temperature checks at the door? Will service staff use PPE?
We all can take a page from the creative thinking we’re seeing all around us (well, on our screens at least) as we work to evolve brand value—and not just in how we market and sell but in how we create a deeper connection with our customers and the communities in which we operate.
