Recovery to Reality

Part 1 | Secure your clients

Having navigated through the first stage of the pandemic into a recovery phase, we’ve started wondering what the new reality will be, and how will it affect our business while thinking about ways technology can minimise the impact and/or open up new opportunities.

Being forced into lock down for a long period has impacted our behaviours in ways that fundamentally alters both personal and business interactions. The Pandemic has led businesses to find creative solutions to engage and connect with clients.

Using technology to secure clients

All around the globe, consumers have become more digital than ever before. Help and support is largely remote on the phone or via other chat based, online applications. In New Zealand, the ability to trade at certain levels of the pandemic has been determined by the ability of local businesses to provide contactless ordering and payments . This has induced new behaviours in the everyday “Digital Consumers”, where clients are engaging online more often and still expect that personal customer experience.

They want to know you as a business value their custom and feel safe when engaging with you. Therefore, technology can be used as more than just a tool that enables productivity, it is essential for creating and maintaining the professional intimacy once initiated with a handshake, face to face meeting or over a casual coffee catch up.

Here are some ways you can use technology to support your customer engagement.

Create a seamless experience for your clients.
Make it easy for them to transact with you. Our behaviours have adapted to utilising technology, so offer the ability to procure a standard configuration to check an account or order more consumables without the need of a phone call.

Another good way to generate a seamless transaction is to add electronic signatures and authorisation to fulfil the transactions. Digital technology can provide a secure, efficient, and professional engagement for your clients; this will free up time to focus on potentially more productive activities.
Maintain relationships when physical contact is restricted.
Communication: Avoid being the business that becomes distant during times of uncertainty and transform the way you share information with your clients – use collaboration tools to plan for that new fabrication from idea through to design and manufacture. You can capture and reflect those all-important design changes right in front of them.

Many businesses have started using Zoom or Microsoft Teams as a key tool for communication (such as holding meetings, conferences and staying in touch with your clients). This has enabled them to maintain long-term relationships with real-time engagement.
Your online presence tells your story
The digital technologies made available to us today enable businesses to engage in powerful storytelling about their brand to a wider audience. Here are a few ways you can effectively tell your story using technology.

Inspire: Each business has a compelling story to tell, social media is an excellent tool to attract, inspire and engage with existing and prospective clients outside of the transactional environment. We are now living in a time where content creation is essential for anchoring a deeper understanding of the values associated with your brand and your organisation. Whether it is a blog, an article, video presentation, or a photo of your team, each piece of content contributes to an endless story about your business.

Build awareness: Increase your brand awareness, either organically with the existing audience on your platforms or via paid digital advertising. Google ads and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) are both great tools to promote your business. A well-crafted campaign allows you to measure the effectiveness of your marketing investment, tweaking and tuning throughout the campaign to ensure the best results.

The recipe is a simple one - Your client’s success is your success. The easier you make it for them to be successful, the more successful you will be. Technology has the potential to achieve a variety of strategies that can fundamentally lead to long-term success for your business. Join us for Part 2 of "Recovery to reality" where we will discuss strategies to help secure your business.