How should small businesses prepare for COVID-19?

It goes without saying, this is a challenging time for everyone. The WHO (World Health Organization) has declared the coronavirus or COVID-19 as a Global epidemic. Besides the growing mortality rate, this situation is taking a heavy toll on various economies, especially businesses.

It’s an uncertain time with lots of unknowns and people are looking for answers. while we might not be able to have all the answers. We’ll try our best to guide other small businesses that may be experiencing shifts as best as we can.

We at QL Tech remain absolutely committed to doing everything we can to put the health and safety of our employees first. Some of the safety measures we have established include, arranging for the staff to work from home and for those for whom it is crucial to come over to the workplace, we have ensured enhanced sanitary practices & environment.

Here a few things that you can do to get your business through this COVID-19 pandemic.

Although some of the tactics can vary from business to business, most of them can be implemented by almost every business in general.

Check out your accounts

Due to the changing markets your paid search and paid social accounts might be affected, therefore it’s important to keep an eye in your overall account click and impression volumes to change costs.

The people have gone to self-preservation mode along with their search trends that have shifted from Invisalign treatment or bouquet of flowers to more health-related criteria. Look out for drops in traffic, clicks, and impressions via in Google Analytics and Google Ads and adjust accordingly. 

You should also need to keep a close eye on your post’s comments as a lot of misinformation is being spread and some of these fear-based comments can detract potential customers.

Transparent Communication

Everyone is facing this crisis together, so you should be transparent about what your business is going through. That way the Customers can empathize with brands facing a crisis but you should manage your communication with them properly.

When customers don’t get a clear picture of the work that’s being done behind the scenes to serve them, they don’t care about those services. So make sure your brand clearly communicates all the safety measures being implemented and everything your business is doing to help the community. 

Cut back on meetings and travel

Try to mitigate the risk of exposure to the virus to a minimum. Postpone any team meetings or hold them online. Forego any conferences or other planned business travel plans. 

If your employees get sick because of travel or meetings, you could have serious liability issues on your hands, or you will have to manage low workplace morale and overflowing sick leave requests.

Give your employees flexibility

With the closing of school, offices, stores and commercial centers all around, Many countries are gradually moving toward total lockdown. You will need to be flexible with your employee’s timings. 

There will be instances where some of your work staff might have to leave unexpectedly due to a personal emergency while others may have traveled somewhere and aren’t able to return. Try to be as understanding as possible and have a contingency plan in place to counter the sudden changes.

Adjust your strategy

A lot of lifestyle changes are being made as a direct or indirect result of COVID-19. People are frequently washing their hands to prevent the spread of germs, there has been a shortage of hand sanitizer, bleach and cleaning wipes, and other similar products. 

In light of these changing requirements, you need to modify your business strategy as per your product or services. For example, if you are a brick-and-mortar business then the best course of action would be limiting your in-store budgets as people are not into going out nowadays, rather invest in reaching the customers online.

Many of the SMBs have tight annual budgets, therefore reallocation of ad spend toward more effective marketing periods could be highly beneficial for them.

Keep updated

COVID-19 has unfortunately affected the lives of communities worldwide and ensuring that the communities are safe should be our no.1 priority. Most of the businesses are already feeling the effects of the virus, and the best thing you can do is to stay on top of the situation.

At QL Tech, we always put people first and we are taking every possible measure to ensure the health safety of our employees as well as making sure that our partner’s business does not get affected the least bit. We are keeping a close eye on the situation and would keep you updated in case of major changes.

Till then,

Stay Safe