Like most organisations, at Vsourz, we’ve taken the necessary steps to protect the health and wellbeing of our 200 team members across our 5 global offices. We are working from home and adhering to the relevant government advice in each country.
Inevitably there will be a very real human cost to this crisis. We’d like to take this opportunity to wish all of those that we’ve worked with, past and present, friends, family and anyone else reading this post good health and the very best in coping with everything this virus has disrupted and will continue to challenge. Our best wishes are similarly with those businesses struggling with declining custom, cash flow issues and having to furlough people. And of course our sympathy goes out to all of those that have lost loved ones.
We’ve all seen the monumental efforts of those working to keep us fed and well. Our thanks too goes out to the food suppliers, drivers and those staffing the essential stores that are still open to put food on the nations tables. And of course those many people looking after our health in the NHS and supporting sectors.
Amongst all of this, we feel we all must stay positive and proactively look for opportunities in the face of COVID19 and move forward. Both for our own business and for and on behalf of our clients. Therefore, we’ve also been working hard to adapt to the new COVID19 impacted business landscape we now all find ourselves operating in.
Simply put, we want to be able to do all that we can to help clients, both existing and prospective, to get through this period and come out the other side stronger. Stronger, ready and prepared for the flurry of activity that will no doubt ramp up as people get back to some measure of life and work as normal.
As such, we’ve been proactively reaching out to all of our existing clients to understand their individual situations. Where possible we’ve been helping them to arrive at shared action plans to keep their digital business operations protected from the worst. Be that helping with the transition to online working, through pivoting business models or plans and accelerating to digitally enabled services. We remain here ready and equipped to help grow digital success.
This will prove even more important as more people find themselves connected with the outside world via online channels.
We’re uniquely positioned in many ways to really help. Our “On Demand Digital Delivery” services are ideally suited for changing workforce patterns. For businesses or agencies who might have furloughed key people we can quickly and temporarily field our multi skilled developers to fill skills gaps and hit the ground running quickly. This in turn can allow you to get the work done, reduce costs and increase your ability to bring any furloughed staff back as things pick up.
On the upside, now perhaps more than ever, we have the time to better prepare for future opportunities. For those that find themselves preparing to ramp out of the corona slowdown we can undertake the full end-end gamut of planning for and accelerating website projects, ecommerce and digital marketing. We can help progress digital success, fast.
Further, our blended approach to near and far outsourcing provides digital talent near you in four global locations working in partnership to ensure the highest quality delivery. Whilst our engine room in India allows us to deliver services significantly below market cost averages. We can typically undercut internal costs by 50%, helping you protect your bottom line.
The new normal, when it arrives, will impact how we, you and your business operate. Our guidance below looks to the opportunities in the midst of all this with the intention of providing some important considerations to be thinking about, and where possible, acting on to aid our shared recoveries.
Right now, you’re likely to be confronting a whole range of customer led constraints, from consumer confidence impacting spending, through to people prioritising the here and now as opposed to shopping for holidays or new goods and services. There’s every chance these constraints will continue to be felt for many months.
We all know that it’s an evolving situation. Exploring in dialogue with your customers how you can support them not only keeps you in touch and top of mind but also will provide key insights to help you plan for the changes you’ll need to make. Crucially, with empathy as to their situations. As such there’s no better time to reconnect with your customers.
Where we can help:
People are working from home and perspex shields are going up in supermarkets. All the pubs are closed and delivery companies are leaving boxes a safe 2 meters from peoples doors to help enforce the all important social distancing. Meanwhile it’s almost impossible to reach your bank or mobile phone company on the phone.
Online grocery shopping never quite took off the way that people expected and now it is what everyone wants. Overnight, home video conferencing has become the norm for friends and family to connect. People are seeking wider online entertainment options beyond the netflix binge, taking more online courses, engaging with online fitness workouts and even participating in online bakeoffs.
The result is that nearly all human contact has been removed across the customer journey.
As such we’re witnessing an accelerated migration to online services. What was once a part of any brand’s customer experience has overnight become the mainstay for the majority.
With a somewhat mandated need for people right now to be more digitally connected with each other, we also see opportunities in ensuring that your brand and business is best placed and optimised to be a relevant part of their online time.
Where we can help
Wherever in the world you may be based or have previously been busy acquiring and serving customers there will now, rightly, be a massive amount of time and energy being re-deployed to slow the spread of the virus.
Elsewhere, across non essential goods, we’re already seeing disruptions to supply chains. Those supplying closed restaurants are suffering or closing themselves. No one is buying from the high street and so on. As a result, non essential providers of goods and services are under pressure.
Now is a great time to create a digital initiative to support those that might need it. In doing so, not only can your organisation help people or other companies out, it can also create meaningful engagement and brand equity to help carry you into recovery. In some cases you may even find opportunities to develop new services or revenue streams to recoup those lost elsewhere.
Where we can help:
Towards recovery, we’ll need to re-build momentum, and re-engage. Stelios, a third owner in Easyjet, said recently that the airline post Corona would, “feel more like a start-up trying to find a few profitable routes for a few aircraft”
Those that come out with a lack of empathy as to their customers current situations may quickly find a cold shoulder. For many that may have been laid off, lost income or accrued debt, the hard sell is likely not to wash.
With increased community spirit, providing a helping hand with a real and genuine customer purpose will likely be the order of the day.
Where we can help:
People are anxious about their health and their future. In the UK we’ve already heard of a number of agencies furloughing up to 80% of their staff. We do a lot of work in the travel sector, which has been particularly hard hit, with BA alone suspending more than 30,000 staff.
Those that remain are there to keep the show on the road. At the same time clients & customers are at home, and whereas many will be trying to balance their time looking after kids and adjusting to this new way of working, business in some measure continues.
Regular internal communication is critical, and as a business leader letting your people know that they are valued and appreciated at this time is more important than ever.
Remote workers are faced with different challenges. There are new distractions at home, not to mention the potential for isolation to have a detrimental effect on wellbeing.
As a result, your cloud based systems and collaboration platforms are more essential than ever. We’ve already seen various organisations that we work with coming to quickly realise some of the limitations of the systems and processes that they have built not scaling or being fit for purpose to manage an entire workforce transitioning to remote working.
Where we can help
You may find that with less people either working at their most productive or in the event that you’ve had to furlough staff that the demands on the time of those people left working productively in the business are actually higher.
In today’s world, there’s so much that can be automated. From data entry, to analysis and reporting through a huge range of marketing automations. In the midst of previous busyness you might have never found the time to stop, assess and drive forward the improvements that automation presents simply as a function of time and attention.
Where we can help
Although it’s still early days, a number of theorists are already predicting that we’ll see significant changes to the way people and businesses interconnect wrought as a product of Coronavirus. It’s likely we’ll see heightened expectations of online experience, customers seeking authenticity and a stronger sense of community.
At the same time those that have been able have been quick to pivot. In urban centres popular cocktail bars now do home delivery. Numerous grocers and bakers have quickly moved to deliver online box shopping to help keep the nation nourished and protect their businesses.
Taking stock, exploring the impact of these changes and formulating plans to evolve and benefit will prove defining for many businesses in the next 12 months.
Where we can help
There’s a tangible positive community spirit unheard of a few weeks ago. People are looking out for each other, volunteers are amassing to help the vulnerable in society. People across the country are recognising and celebrating key workers.
Whereas charities are struggling to raise funds, many of their services are in higher demand than ever before, highlighting the many needs in society that may have not been so widely understood previously.
All these changes will continue to be felt. A compelling purpose for your organisation that stands to connect with a heightened societal focus may well aid your recovery
Where we can help
Finally, working under lockdown will not be permanent. At some stage the curve will be flattened and governments will relax the current working constraints that we find ourselves under. By the time that this happens people will be well and truly ready to get back into the swing of things, and many will be ready for a meal out, a pint and they’ll once again start to book holidays and buy things.
But the world will be a different place. The air may be cleaner, but may well feel thicker. Take this time to plan scenarios, what happens given an increase in sales into recovery, a peak to remedy the trough. How will you operate differently, and be ready for the changes that are coming? How will you be best placed to maximise the opportunities?
Whereas it may be a stretch for many protecting your marketing spend and optimising your activity will lay the foundation for a stronger recovery.
Where we can help
If at any time through your own journey to manage your business through this unprecedented uncertainty if you’d value some advice or support we’re here for you. When you find yourself in a position to be able to move forward your digital presence, marketing or develop and refresh your digital roadmap we’d love to hear from you. We’re confident we can help, especially if you’re looking for a trusted and cost advantageous delivery partner. Meanwhile wishing you health and positivity.
Tarang Patel,
CEO