The Keys to Getting Your Customers Back
Don't expect a return to business as
usual. You've got to give people a reason to trust your company.
General managing partner, G2T3V and Chicago High Tech Investors
I
hope I'm wrong, but I don't expect most of the newer and smaller businesses
across the country to bounce back any time soon. While the stock market may
respond in fits and spurts to the bogus improvement claims of the Cheerleader
in Chief (which is the only way he knows how to keep score) and the Chinese
continue to lie about improvement in Wuhan, where the "wet" markets
are operating again and the residents are free to travel, we need to take a
much harder look at where things will stand for the next many months.
While
our President can't really read the props and charts behind him at his daily
charades, it's clear that all he cares about are the favorable ones. What they
actually measure and what they really foretell is beyond his carefully
calculated ignorance and the bubble he's built around himself. Trump's flunkies
make sure that he doesn't "hear" or see any signs that are less than
beautiful and wonderful. When any of the decent remaining team members (the
ones with actual medical expertise) try to amend or correct his BS, he abruptly
interrupts them or contradicts them as soon as they finish speaking. You must
wonder just how much humiliation and embarrassment these professionals can
stomach as they try to rein in his amateurish excesses, exaggerations and
flat-out falsehoods.
Anyone
with half a brain knows that we won't know much of anything definitive until
the true levels of testing across the nation expand dramatically (that's one
chart certainly worth watching). Even the best-case scenarios foretell months
of continuing deaths and pain and offer little solace even as the curve
allegedly flattens. Those of us who keep score by more concrete and realistic
measures, and who are surrounded by sad stories of worsening economic distress
and insurmountable losses aren't expecting any miracles any time soon. Nor are
we anticipating that the economy, particularly on Main Street, will
miraculously "snap back." The dramas and delusions of DC don't put
chickens in the pot, food on the table, or people back on the payroll.
Businesses
won't be bouncing back because their customers won't be in any hurry to come
back, for a variety of reasons. If you're thinking we have six weeks or so to
go, you're dreaming. I'd bet on a minimum of six months after the major lock-downs are largely lifted (which I wouldn't expect before June) during which time
business revenues will average 50% or less of what they were once expected to
be. Next year might be better. Talking about bursts and bonanzas is
foolish--if you're planning realistically, you want to be thinking baby steps
at best in terms of customers coming back. No businesses will escape the blast
range or serious collateral damage.
So,
what are you supposed to do about your workforce if your business is cut in
half and pretty much all your other overhead and expenses are fixed?
That's the critical question. How close to the bone and how soon do you
make the critical cuts? Cut too little or wait too long and you've committed
the cardinal sin of business (per the late ITT Corp. boss Harold Geneen), you
run out of cash and runway and it's game over. Cut too deep and you may not
have the team and the talent that it's going to take to rebuild in the future
when the going in every respect is going to be much tougher. And, most critically
of all, who and where do you cut?
There's
obviously no simple answer and the right results will depend on the nature of
your business, but my sense is that, in making these hard calls and tough
choices, we are overlooking an essential part of the puzzle. Which of the
employees are the ones who are most essential to encouraging the customers to
come back? We're preserving layers of management (since they're making the
cuts) and tons of techies, but we're cutting the front-line troops in customer
sales, support, and service who actually have the closest connections to the
customers and the best feel by far for the playing field. Connection and
comfort are the keys to customers coming back. Remember: only satisfied
customers provide your people with job security.
What
factors are most likely to make customers hesitate and wait to return?
(1) Their
own job security. Everyone who still has a job is spending a little time
looking over their own shoulders. Whatever product or service you've been
selling is gonna be far harder to push to a population likely to be confronted
by levels of unemployment and homelessness that we've never seen before. New
subscriptions and other commitments, high-ticket items, and discretionary
"nice to have" purchases are likely, at a minimum, to be deferred.
The carnage in new car sales will be the worst ever in terms of downturns.
(2) Behavioral
changes that are likely to be irreversible. Amazon and other online
shopping and delivery solutions, which continue to intelligently organize and
automate the replenishment process for almost every staple in our homes, are
going to continue to crush the neighborhood grocery stores and other
Mom-and-Pop businesses. It's happening right before our eyes. Millions of these
little stores won't ever be back. Amazon may have decided not to take on FedEx
and UPS directly for the moment, but that's no comfort to the corner market or
convenience store.
(3) Concerns
about the vendor's own longevity and finances. Especially with regard to
costly durable goods and new technologies, consumers want to be assured that
their sellers are stable, secure and likely to be there for the long run to
stand behind and service their products. As more companies implode, consumer
confidence, which is the mother's milk of commerce, is likely to plummet as
well.
Every
customer will be increasingly risk averse, looking before they leap, asking if
they need to do anything quite yet, trying to get by with what they have, and
stuck in the mud of FUD. Fear, uncertainty and doubt.
How
do you fight FUD? Trust, honesty and empathy. And who can deliver the goods
most effectively for you? It's your front-line folks who can connect to,
identify with, and provide the kinds of comfort and familiarity that wary
consumers are looking for in these troubled times-- especially when these
modest virtues have almost entirely disappeared in the DC swamp. They can do it
today because it's exactly what they've been doing every day to date and
they're a key component of whatever success your business has had so far as
well.
So
be careful and choosy as you make those critical changes that--in saving a few
incremental dollars-- you're not tossing out the baby with the bathwater.
