Communicating in a Post-Pandemic World

Can I tell you a secret? The pandemic made me love video meetings. I wouldn’t mind never talking on the phone again.

Okay, okay…I have and will talk on the phone again, but nowhere near as often as I did pre-pandemic. Video chat and video meetings exploded during COVID-19, and in the process changed business communications forever.

With 41 percent of Americans fully vaccinated and more than half partially vaccinated, businesses are welcoming employees and customers back through their doors. How we work – and how we work together – in a post-COVID world will never be the same. As technology stepped up to keep society functioning in a raging pandemic, telecommuting proved to be viable for so many more employees than we ever believed it was possible. Remote interaction with customers has become easy and almost preferable for both customers and businesses. Even school kids have learned that snow days have sadly become a distant memory.

The challenge for business communicators now is adapting these new ways to connect with customers, employees, partners, vendors and the world, utilizing engagement tools that have quickly replaced obsolete ways of communicating.

What’s really changed is a realization that we can quickly and effectively operate in new ways.

To be fair, the tools have existed for a while now. What’s really changed is a realization that we can quickly and effectively operate in new ways. What the pandemic affirmed is that where there’s a will, there’s a way, and technology has become that way.

So, with employees, customers and others settling into their home offices for good, those charged with the job of communicating important information without the ability to use many traditional tools we’ve always relied on have found they must quickly adapt. Some are wondering where to start.

Conducting a communication audit will reveal how innovative we must be. Not all old tools are obsolete, but we won’t know which ones to keep unless we understand whether or not people are still using them. Likewise, we don’t know how comfortable people are in receiving information through new technologies unless we ask.

Today’s mantra of relying on science applies to communications, too. The science of quantitative and qualitative research as part of a communications audit unveils essential information, giving communicators the ability to create effective communications, selling services and products, reaching out to new audiences, and keeping their businesses functioning.

To use an adage, there is no need to reinvent the wheel, so I look for innovation wherever I can find it. Remember, the highest form of flattery is to copy! Likewise, be generous with your ideas and innovations, and send them out to the world.

The idea doesn’t necessarily need to be to create anew, but to evolve what has worked so that it can be effective for today’s needs.

With so much change happening, new best practices are shifting rapidly. Our efforts to find the right tools to use may be hit and miss right now, but we must ground them in what’s working. The idea doesn’t necessarily need to be to create anew, but to evolve what has worked so that it can be effective for today’s needs.

We can all agree that it has been a challenging year and a half. The disruption we experienced with the pandemic has left so many of us uncertain on how to proceed. But, communicating is what’s kept us going. We can be certain of one thing; how we communicate will make a difference in how we succeed in changing times.

Pandemic Changed Business and Marketing Forever

Wearing masks has become more than a necessity for businesses during the pandemic, and marketing has taken on new methods as a result.

Businesses are back to work after an uncertain year that changed how we work, buy and interact. The implications for marketing have been profound.

The pandemic has been one of those times in history where momentous change happens. Businesses aren’t immune to the seismic shift. In many cases, what we were thinking about and planning for down the road, has exponentially sped up in an effort to survive in an unprecedented market.

If your business survived the shutdown the pandemic brought about, it’s probably because you swiftly pivoted your business model. The decisions for business owners today are:

  • Go back to the way things used to be;
  • Stay with what got them through the shutdown, or;
  • Create a hybrid of both.

Truth is, despite our expectations that once COVID retreated, we would be back to the way things were, that’s not happening. Normal has changed, because COVID changed us.

Yet, the good thing about change is that it prompts innovation. Case in point: we didn’t realize we need services that will shop for and deliver goods to us until going outside of our homes meant exposure to a deadly virus. With that reality, the personal-shopper industry emerged, thrived, and is going strong, even as we emerge from our homes, now vaccinated.

Evolution Results from Pandemic

Businesses that evolved during the shutdown can’t rest on the laurels of success. Customers need information to show how these evolutions make things better for them going forward. One key component in promoting the advantages of the changes made is how businesses and customers now utilize technology.

A good example is health-care delivery. When providers were forced to shift care delivery to telemedicine in 2020, they realized their ability to analyze patients’ needs weren’t diminished. Diagnoses are just as effective and patients like the convenience, comfort, and privacy of being at home, while receiving care.

While the health-care industry was moving in the direction of using telemedicine, the shutdown from business-as-usual pushed providers to immediate adoption. Telemedicine is now an entrenched reality that has changed care-delivery systems. The window of opportunity to increase business with telemedicine exists now. Providers are seizing the opportunity to market the benefits telemedicine provides.

New Marketing Tools

Marketing to existing and potential customers requires tools not used prior to COVID. Apple’s highly stylized product reveal events, with hundreds of people packed in an auditorium, may have changed forever because of COVID, but didn’t stop the company from releasing new products just before the holiday season. Unable to bring high-profile celebrities, business executives and reporters into an auditorium, Apple pivoted to a virtual unveiling, streamed across social media channels. Some presentations were pre-recorded, ensuring flawless performances. Rather than the hands-on events of the past, Apple sent review devices to reporters and social influencers for further news coverage.

The necessity of providing online shopping, take out, curbside delivery and home delivery brought about innovation and massive growth for companies like DoorDash, Instacart, Carvana, Uber Eats, Vroom, Grub Hub and others. The good news? Customers appreciate these innovations, are opening their wallets, and responding with enthusiasm.

When the pandemic took hold, people learned new ways to fulfill their needs. Nowadays, we’re marketing services we never imagined. But the innovations created in a new world of business require modernizations in how we market them.

One marketing tool hasn’t changed, though. Understanding what customers think today is the first step in knowing and evolving how we speak to them.

Communicating Through Mergers & Acquisitions

Nothing strikes anxiety in the hearts of employees faster than the words “merger” and “acquisition”. With all the disruption businesses have experienced through the pandemic – several hanging on by their fingernails – for some, mergers and acquisitions have been their most viable road to survival.

When a company embarks upon a merger or is being purchased, communication becomes essential throughout the process and afterwards. Create a communication plan before the merger or acquisition is announced, so that you can keep communicating through the merger or acquisition. Here are a few dos and don’ts to keep things on track:

  • More than ever before, employees need information. They need to know what’s happening, and you need valued and essential staff not to jump ship. Communicate constantly using every tool in your toolbox.
  • Saying something once is never enough. Create key messages and talking points, and deliver them again and again, and then some more. You will feel that the messages have gone out and you’ll be tired of repeating them, but your employees won’t.
  • Never say that nothing will change because things will After all, that’s the reason for the merger or acquisition. The point is change means survival!
  • Be compassionate and be honest. When things change, they will require employees to change, with some even losing their jobs. Your honesty and compassion will make it much easier for them.
  • It’s never a merger of equals, so don’t say that it is just to make senior leaders and board members feel better about it. Be honest about what each organization brings to the table. Just because it’s not equal doesn’t make it not valuable.
  • Don’t guess if you don’t know. It’s okay to say you don’t have the answers, but you must remember that those answers are important to employees, so quickly follow up with information for them.
  • Go in with plans. On day one, your employees expect and deserve to know where the ship is headed, so have a chart for the journey. Nothing says that everything is set in stone, but plans give employees faith in the future.
  • Jump on early successes and communicate them with exuberance.
  • Finally, good and constant communication is reassuring. It gives comfort. Remember, you can never communicate enough!

The One-Off

“Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.” ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau

You’ve written a press release, you’ve run an ad in the newspaper, you’ve put a post on your company’s Facebook page, and you’ve sent out a flyer to your customers. All good efforts, but nothing happened!

Marketing takes patience and time.

One-off marketing is a waste of effort and money. Marketing takes patience and time.

That’s a pretty typical response to what I call one-off marketing. Yes, you did all of those things and you were doing great, until you stopped.

Successful marketing demands a commitment of time, money and patience. When I hear a business owner ask why their marketing isn’t working, my first question is whether or not they’ve made that commitment.

For many businesses, it is difficult to have the time to run the day-to-day of the business, while committing more time to put together a meaningful marketing strategy. And, allocating money for marketing is always a challenge.

But, in my experience, the most overlooked part of marketing is patience. Marketing takes time.

Successes don’t happen overnight

Rarely are there overnight successes, and even when you feel like you’ve seen your promotion far too many times, your customers probably haven’t seen it yet. Remember, you’re looking for your promotions; they aren’t.

Think about it in terms of your own behaviors.

  • How often do you read all of the ads in a newspaper?
  • Do you put off reading your mail for a day or two?
  • Are you constantly on Facebook?
  • As you’re driving down the road, do you pay attention to what’s on the radio all of the time?

Timing plays a very important role in marketing. Believe it or not, experts estimate that it takes 10 media impressions before someone recognizes that they have heard or seen a company’s message. And, you haven’t even gotten them to act on the message yet!

Demographics are key

That’s why it’s important to research the demographics of your targeted audience and to know when they’re paying attention. Don’t waste your money on newspaper ads when you’re trying to get the attention of Millennials. Demographics show that Millennials don’t read newspapers. They get news on their phones, and I can assure you they don’t even know what the Yellow Pages are!

If you invest time to know how to reach your audience, allocate the appropriate budget to do what you need to do, and resist the impulse to change things up after a couple of weeks, you’ll not only be doing the right things, but you’ll get the right results.

What Do They Think?

“The art and science of asking questions is the source of all knowledge.” ~ Thomas Berger

Ask and Learn

As human beings, we tend to see things, well, as we see things. But, what your potential customers, existing customers and employees think of your company will open your eyes.

That eye-opening knowledge can make you proud, or can make you cringe. No matter the feelings this insight evokes, it’s what you do with the information that makes all the difference between moving forward, marching in place, or even losing ground.

Make Research a Component of Your Marketing Plan

Every company can benefit from market research. Quantitative and qualitative research should be a regular part of your marketing plan, and making sure your budget has money for research is essential.

Why is market research important? Simply put, you’re not a mind reader. You can’t tell what people think until you ask. Remember one thing; ask no matter how painful you fear the answers will be.

Until you inquire, you don’t know how you can respond to your employees’ and customers’ needs, how to improve their experience with your company and how to develop your products and services going forward. As important, until you ask, you won’t know what you’re doing right so that you can keep doing it!

There are many ways companies conduct market research. Most often, it is a combination of surveys and face-to-face feedback that allows for a complete view of what people are thinking.

Surveys and Focus Groups

Surveys conducted in person, over the phone and online are all options to gather quantitative data. The information you hope to extrapolate from a survey will dictate which tool is best. Investing in a professional to create your questions will ensure objective results.

There are a number of free online survey tools available (Survey Monkey, Google Forms, Zoho Survey, Typeform, Survey Planet) and they are easy to use. The key to getting good results from surveys, however, is making sure they are designed to give you valuable data and feedback.

Qualitative research – focus groups – gives you the opportunity to dig deeper than responses to a survey. You have the opportunity to ask more than the question and to understand why respondents answer the way they do and what they mean by their answers. This research offers the most insight into the thoughts of your customers. This research is more costly than surveying, but some argue it gives the best data. Again, a professional leading this research is essential to getting the best information.

Bottom line, guessing at what people are thinking is not a good business strategy. If you want your business to succeed, be open to the feedback your customers, your employees and your potential customers have to offer and then act on that feedback.

Where We Fall Short

As business owners and managers, we want to ensure that our customer service is excellent. We have systems and procedures, computer programs and even talking points to make sure our employees are making our customers happy.

customers need personal service

Rule #1: Don’t frustrate your customers

We have all sorts of access points – face-to-face, email, telephone, social media, online chat – to let our customers get in touch with us. We can pat ourselves on the back because we are providing “excellent” customer service.

Whoa! Slow down a second. Before we get all self-congratulatory, ask yourself one thing. Despite all of the best practices you’ve put in place, did you solve your customers’ problems?

The answer might well be no.

When it is no, your customer walks away frustrated and unhappy. Trust me, they don’t keep that frustration to themselves, either. The words of an existing customer can make or break any business. It is, by far, the most trusted form of promotion a company will have.

So, how do you fix the unsolved problem issue? Ask your customers about their experiences with your company. If they say their issues are unsolved, find a way to fix the issues and don’t put the responsibility for fixing the issue in your customer’s lap.

I recently had an issue with a company that did not fulfill my online order. When I tried to get the pending charge for the item removed from my card, I was told by both the company and the bank that neither one could remove it. I literally felt like a ping-pong ball, bouncing between two customer-service reps. Now, I’m dissatisfied with two companies!

Where we often fall short is in living our customer’s experience and implementing changes that prevent failures in our systems. With today’s technology, either company could have solved my problem with a simple three-way call between both reps and myself.

The best advice any business owner and manager can accept is to walk in your customer’s shoes.

The first step is to realize that you are already customers with other companies, so identify the things that you don’t like and make sure they don’t happen to your customers. Then, go a step further and find ways to see your business through their eyes.

Your customers don’t know the inner workings of your company and they shouldn’t need to, so don’t make excuses or offer apologies for your systems. All they need from you is an experience that fulfills their needs and is pleasant.

A satisfied and appreciated customer equals many new customers!

So What if it’s Pretty?

A client told me yesterday that she just didn’t like how a group of designed icons looked. When I probed further, she couldn’t substantively explain why, nor could she tell me what she does like in design. Okay, I get it. Design, like most creative efforts, is subjective. Personal taste counts. But, taste does not trump strategy.

Good design starts with a strategy and a goal. Great designers begin a design around those two factors and then add their creativity.

Graphic designers use strategy

Taste does not trump strategy

A designer friend told me about something that she had created and her client felt it looked “simplistic”. Okay, who is the audience? Are the message receivers not sophisticated? Or, will the audience be in a position to see something briefly, like on a billboard near a busy highway, and not have time to look deeply at a complicated design?

The next thing to consider is that while your personal taste counts, yours is not the only one that matters. The best looking logos have gone down in flames, because a focus group did not relate to what the logo needed to say. And, yes, that kind of qualitative research is essential in creating a logo. For other designs that don’t carry the magnitude of weight that a logo does, pulling together an informal group to review the designs and offer constructive comments will help you determine what resonates best.

Finally, when you don’t “like” a design, explain what you do like. Describe it. Better yet, find examples and show them to your designer.

If you want great design, you must understand your audience and the goals you have in conveying messages. Design does not start with good looks; it starts with good strategy.