When you run a small business, as a side hustle or a full-time business, the lockdown has affected your activities and income. However, now is the best time to consider moving your primary business process safely indoors.
More to the point, offering your unique skills and services online could be a game-changer in the current self-isolating situation. Consultants, advisors, and personal trainers can rely on video conferencing tools such as Zoom or FaceTime to reach out to their clients. Working from home, ultimately, doesn’t have to mean the end of your business. On the contrary, if you understand how to relocate successfully at home during the lockdown, you can keep your business afloat during the crisis.
Get a virtual office address
If you used an office number before you were forced to work from home, you’ve now shared your mobile number with your clients. But, you can give your business presence a professional feel with a virtual office number. Indeed, you can find a 1300 number if you’re reaching out onto the Australian market, or an 800 number for the US, that directs all calls to your mobile or your home landline. Your setting doesn’t have to change a lot. But you can maintain a professional appearance.
You can also use a virtual address with a PO box so that clients who send mail don’t need to know your home address. You can maintain the business look and feel even at home.
Consider an extended warranty
Every business should have a service warranty policy that describes what is and isn’t covered. While typically, your guarantee is limited to products, make sure to include service payments and compensations during the lockdown. Why does it matter? Delivering high-quality services from your home can be tricky if you’ve never done this before. As such, you want to give your customers a chance to discuss problems with you. Additionally, membership services, such as fitness classes or on-going counseling, can be affected when the pandemic situation has calmed down. People who sign up for your services now before they have plenty of time might be too busy to carry on once things have gone back to normal. Your warranty should include such a situation and offer a get-out clause. It will give your customers the confidence they need to buy from you.
Always go the extra mile
Going above and beyond to serve your customers is what differentiates excellent businesses from more standard ones. However, going the extra mile when everyone is stuck at home can feel like an impossible challenge. How can you manage it? Communicate as clearly as possible with your customers. Everybody knows that it’s an unusual situation. Delays in providing answers are understandable. But try to keep your customers in the loop by ensuring your team understands the challenge. Define what the extra mile looks like during self-isolation so that everyone is on the same page. Patience and kindness are crucial in those hard times. Your customers are trying to cope with a difficult crisis, so make sure your team knows how to handle those conversations.
Keep everyone connected
You’re at home. Your marketing director sits in their home office, some 40 miles south. Your trusted IT advisor is in another town. How do you make it work when you can’t physically be in the same room? You need to sign up for a collaborative platform such as Slack. Indeed, you can keep all your on-going projects in one place, run daily chats and video conferences, and even manage social media messages from your audience. People need to regularly exchange ideas, queries, and progress, which is what a collaborative platform does. More importantly, it keeps your work organized even though you can’t get to see your co-workers.
Additionally, switching to SD-WAN technology can be a life-saver in a remote working environment. What is SD-WAN? Essentially, it is the backbone of your digitized business operations, prioritizing traffic and security on your business network. As the technology uses software to control and manage connectivity between all points of your business network, remote workers remain safely connected to data centers or cloud solutions.
Make room for personal connections
In an office, co-workers can have a casual chat in the kitchen and build close relationships. Unfortunately, when you’re working from your spare bedroom, the delights of casual banter between friends disappear. Contrary to what you might think, these friendly interactions are not a waste of time. They help people feel part of a community. Replacing this natural mood-booster from home can be tricky. But why not suggest social posts on your collaborative platforms? You could share photos of your home office or ask how everyone is doing. Or make it a #hashtag event, such as #lockdownselfie.
Moving your office-based business to your home office can be challenging. You need to remember that, during the pandemic lockdown, standard rules of communication and transactions don’t apply. Therefore, going the extra mile to meet your customers’ needs or extending your warranty could be a good idea. Additionally, put people’s needs first, such as communication, reassurance, and staying connected.
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