Thankfully, most NE OH small businesses have survived dealing with Covid-19 … so far. One interesting strategy some COSE members have successfully used is the ‘Covid Check In’. It’s simple and easy and can reap excellent benefits.
Let’s briefly consider ‘Checking In’ with three important groups for your business – your staff, your colleges and your customers.
Checking In With Your Staff
- If some or most of your team is working from home, regularly check in with each person where possible. Ask them ‘How’s it goin?’, listen, take notes and offer help where you can. Ask for simple tips that are helping them deal with the working remotely situation.
- When someone shares a useful best practice, add it to a list you started. Once completed, share it with everyone.
- If some or most of your team is back in the shop or office, ask each what they did to handle the quarantine and what we can do next time to minimize the hassles.
- Create a ‘Quarantine Play Book’ to use next time and share those best practices and suggestions with the whole group or by departments to generate even more good ideas.
- Invest in the hardware and software necessary to maximize success the next time people have to work from home. Because there will probably be a next time.
Checking In With Your Colleagues and Allies
- In a similar manner, reach out to a selected group of your colleagues, both locally and around the country, to ask them ‘How’s it goin?’ Customize each note or text so they are personalized.
- Also ask for their good ideas and best practices for surviving the pandemic so you can share with others.
- If people identify specific challenges, share your insight where you can.
- Add your items to the growing list, organize it by category and share it with everyone with your thanks.
Checking In With Your Customers
- If you haven’t been doing this all along, reach out to each customer or prospect and ask them ‘How’s it goin?’
- If there’s a lot of them, consider a mass mailing that you can individualize.
- Indicate how your business has pivoted to still provide specific products or services if you can and let them know when you expect to be back to normal.
- Attach those items on your generic list of survival best practices that might apply to them, especially information and resources that they might not be aware of.
So, start Checking In with your staff, colleague and customers a little each day. You’ll soon see that this process is the essence of classical networking – the exchange of information, ideas and resource. But, Covid-19 has made everything old new again.