Coronavirus Covid-19
If you were hoping to see NCompass’s guidelines on how to wash your hands or avoid catching this remarkable global phenomenon – then please you’ve come to the wrong place, go back to the BBC or some other website far more useful than this one.
What do I want to say on this sore subject?
It’s extremely interesting and I want to expose a major part of a companies or entities history, we are all formed by the society that surrounds us, whether you are running your own small website or are part of a bigger organisation, all these things exist for a reason.
An obvious example is your About Us page, most websites have these and they frequently dive into the history of why and when the company was set up. But that’s only where the journey begins, over time everything changes and everything is affected by the goings-on in the real world.
Launch a new product, hire new people, close and office somewhere, expand to somewhere else these are all facets of your company’s travel through time. Embrace them don’t hide them.
Recently in the UK we’ve seen some major narratives in the News from popularism, Trumpism, Brexit and now Coronavirus believe it or not in a funny old way this will have an effect on your company, hopefully not with too many sickies pulled, but whether co-workers are passing around jokes on WhatsApp right through to your official response to cancelling clients and customer runs on their products.
Recommendations
Embrace do not hide, this is part of your Company history and the event may define your organisation more than you realise.
- Be communicative and clear
Make the announcement and put it on your website – if Coronavirus does affect your company tell people so that customers and clients are aware. We ordered a computer from www.dell.co.uk the other day, all went fine and then we had an email… delayed due to Coronavirus, frankly, that sort of service is unacceptable in terms of customer service - Be flexible with Terms & Conditions
If your lead times are affected tell people, but also be prepared to accept cancellations, People will book that holiday if they know they can cancel later for reasons related to Coronavirus that are outside their control. - Don’t be opportunistic
There’s nothing worse than getting a reputation as the ones that made a fortune out of Coronavirus because they could. Don’t put your prices up or be selective about who you supply. remember your Social Media reputation might well be your most valuable marketing asset and you do not want people being negative about you. Be fair with people. - Show you have Knowledge
Your clients and customers will be talking about Coronavirus with family, medical friends, their contacts, they will all have opinions. Much better if they talk to you about their anxieties. If they know you have a good handling of the situation, they will rely on your advice over their arrangements with you. - Remember this period for posterity
Make a note of how your company handled this situation, what was good and what went wrong. Here at NCompass, I am literally using this blog as the place to gather my thoughts on Coronavirus and it will be here in 10 years time and it will form part of the fabric of our company history.
At this time Samuel Pepys springs to mind, he wrote his diary oblivious to the fact that someone else might read it, but it now forms the bases of a forty-year period in our history. He noticed what was going on around him and recorded it. We should do the same within our own small worlds.