The coronavirus and Covid-19 pandemic of this year has caused countless companies to collapse. Hardly anyone could have seen this coming and even fewer of us would have imagined that governments around the world would take such strict measures to slow the spread of the virus.

The good news is that by encouraging people to socially isolate and socially distance, the transmission and spread rate of the virus has reduced in many cases. However, it does make operating a business significantly more difficult.

Many of us have had to start operating on a remote basis to keep our staff safe, which means learning an entirely new way of managing operations. Those of us who still have staff working in person have had to change working protocol to implement social distancing wherever possible.

It’s not all too surprising that your business is likely to have different priorities than usual. If you’re struggling to decide where to lay your focus, don’t worry. We’re here to help! Here are just a few things that need to scale up the ladder and receive more care and attention right now!

Cleaning

Let’s start out with cleaning. Before the pandemic, cleaning was a standard and routine task that entailed bringing in a cleaner every so often to take care of your commercial space - vacuuming floors, wiping down surfaces and carrying out other routine tasks.

Now, cleaning is a more significant aspect of business operations. You should try to bring cleaners in after each day when your business shuts down for the night.

This will give them a chance to properly clean each room of your business and keep things hygienic. If any of your staff are tested positive with coronavirus, you will need to make sure a deep clean of the areas they’ve been working in or spending time in is carried out.

This may feel excessive, but until it has been carried out, other staff members can’t spend time in the spaces, which will impact productivity and profits.

Marketing

Marketing is always of great importance to any company. But right now, it’s more valuable than ever. Why? Well, customers are less willing to part with their cash than during usual times.

We’re entering a recession and people are reluctant to spend on non essentials. Some may simply not have the money available to spend on extras and luxuries. But some do and are instead choosing to save.

Marketing can help to encourage people to buy the goods and services that you are offering. If you’re not sure where to start out, or if you aren’t sure how to market to people during the pandemic, you might want to reach out to a marketing consultant who can survey your business, recognise your needs and provide suggestions and recommendations that could result in successful and profitable campaigns and projects.

Market Research

Chances are that your marketing consultant will recommend carrying out new market research on your target demographic.

Sure, you may have done this before. But times have changed and people’s wants, needs, attitudes, preferences and disposable incomes have all changed as a result of the pandemic, job losses, redundancies and other issues that many people are facing on a more regular basis.

Carrying out new market research will give you a chance to gain insight into what people want now. You can find out how much they’re willing to spend. You can find out whether they’re willing to spend at all and what could encourage them to buy products and services that may not be entirely essential.

Now, there are a number of ways to carry out market research. If you don’t yet have a market research or customer insight specialist within your team, now probably isn’t the best time to start recruiting. Instead, outsource to a market research specialist or agency. They’ll be able to take the workload off your shoulders and find some answers to all of your questions.

Staff Training

If your staff are working in different ways now, it’s best to give them training that will help them to cope with their new working protocol. If your staff are remote, you need to make sure that they understand how to use any software or programmes that you require them to use.

You also need to ensure that they receive cyber security training to prevent hacking and data breaches within your company.

If your staff are still on site, you’ll want to make sure that they fully understand new systems, such as one way systems, and that they understand how to properly socially distance and protect themselves and others.

These areas really do need to take priority right now. So, give them the attention and focus that they deserve!