Communicate & Connect: One-Stop Solution to Build Brand Perception
When the entire business community is going through a tough time, communication is the only saviour for your stakeholders. Communication will motivate all your patrons in the business to keep going and stay connected with you.
1. Communicate with Employees
- The biggest and most important stakeholder in an organization is the Employee. Communication with employees is a must, not only during hard times but on a regular basis as well.
- Welfare of the employees and how to survive through the crisis together should be your first priority.
- Set up a COVID-19 or a crisis cross-functional team that can look at employee distress.
- Look at HR plans for emergency employee support and action remote working policies if need be
- Leaders should communicate personally to their teams on goal setting
- Send Voice notes on key decisions and actions taken
- Invite teammates to meetings that demonstrate the impact of their work
- Create an Internal Communications team- Put a process in place for reaching employees through e-mails, Social media posts, leader connect or internal chat groups
- Demystify the fear and outline the steps the organization is taking on behalf of its employees to protect them
2. Communicate with Customers
- Customers need to be communicated in a different way that employees. They need to be provided with relief rather than constant business information
- Send out a note from the Founder/CEO of the company to all the customers assuring them that all measures are being taken to continue to serve them
- Communicate with them through e-mailers, get their feedback and try and apply as much of it. Also let them know that their feedback has been implemented
- Engage with the customer on social media through relevant content. Today a brand is a community, devise content that requires their involvement, could be in the form of a quiz or a Q&A session
- You can also create a small one minute video for them, talking about the measures taken by your business to comfort them during tough times
- Blogging and micro blogging is a new-age tool that can help in brand recall for the customer. Put content on your blogs that can go viral and is evergreen, hence it will help in making a chain of communication with not only your present customer but with potential ones as well
- Make sure similar communication is given to all customers, treat everyone as equal
3. Communicate with Banks
- Though during tough economic situations, banks themselves take a lot of measures such as extending loan & interest payment durations & reducing interest rates to help businesses out
- As a business your communication to the bank should be transparent and timely
- If there is a crisis, sit and understand with the bank officials what is the best bail out option that they can offer
4. Communicate with Partners
- Partners are the lifeline of the business. You need them at every stage of growth
- During hard times communicate with partners on a regular basis
- Conduct a video conferencing with the Founder/CEO or a meeting in person, so that they are convinced that you are on their side
- Build relationships outside work meetings; this will help in creating a rapport between the partners and you
- Prepare Smart Presentations which means don’t make your presentations a sales pitch, use story-telling to connect with partners and consumers
5. Communicate with other Stakeholders
- Apart from the ones mentioned above in the article, the other stakeholders can be your legal advisors, brand partners and investors in the business
- Educate your stakeholders on a regular basis- Let them know about the developments at the workplace and how their role is important
- Create transparency- Don’t assume all communication channels are perfect across the organization. Make all product updates and roadmaps available to them to avoid any friction
- Learn to write a press release and communicate with the media. They can be an important stakeholder in building your brand
Communication is vital to build your business and regular communication can help it build manifold. Bada Business through its SPICE Problem Solving Course is trying to solve this burning problem of ‘How to communicate with all members and partners involved in the business;’ not only during crisis but also on a daily basis. Your communication creates the perception of your brand and that perception should be about- Trust, Transparency, Quality and Care.
Through the course you will also learn important skills such as:
How to make sales proposals?
How to make sales pitches?
How to use LinkedIn.com?
For more details and content related queries you can subscribe to our SPICE course available on the Bada Business website and the App.