Supporting Customers During the Coronavirus Crisis

The current crisis has forced companies to take urgent action. While some firms will ‘close their doors’ and furlough staff, others are continuing to operate at a reduced capacity to support their customers.

For those that want to ‘keep the wheels turning’ during this difficult time, we want to remind you that Insight Data’s Salestracker system provides full remote-working for your sales, marketing and customer service teams.

Below are some ‘best practice’ action points that businesses should consider as part of their remote-working plans.

Stay in contact with your customers

During this difficult time, we really are ‘all in it together’ and your customers will want to know they can rely on you. Just a statement about your Covid-19 Policy isn’t enough. Consider what your customers concerns are likely to be and stay in regular contact, offering practical support where possible. This could be anything from help with getting an order ‘over the line’ to specific requirements around stock, deliveries, storage or invoicing.

Stay visible to prospects

Staying visible to potential customers during this situation could result in you securing them as paying customers as business returns to normal. Avoid overt sales messages; instead, communicate how you are supporting your customers to help them through this difficult time. Offer practical advice and support, and tailor offers or promotions in a sensitive way – designed to help your customers during the crisis. IMPORTANT: Your prospects will be pre-occupied so may not respond immediately, however with less marketing activity your message is more likely to be remembered.

Protect your business

While supporting your customers is crucial during this period, it is equally important that you minimise bad debt risks. Managing credit control (and credit limits) is now more important than ever and keeping an eye out for ‘adverse credit’, such as CCJ’s is crucial. Salestracker provides a Credit Profile so that you can see current credit status. You can also add customers or prospects to an ‘Alert’ system and get notified of any credit changes.

Managing your team

Migrating from an office to a remote-working team can bring challenges but with clear objectives, planning and measurables it is achievable and indeed, may prove more productive than you thought possible. Salestracker has a number of tools that allows managers to track activity and enable individuals and teams to work effectively.

Be prepared to adapt

This may not be suitable for all companies, but if possible be prepared to adapt your product and service offering. There is more than one route to market, and now might be the right time to widen your customer base into new markets or diversify your current product range. Insight Data can help you review potential new routes to market.

Plan for the Recovery

The current situation is temporary. Normal business will resume in due course and companies should use this opportunity to plan ahead. The landscape is likely to change, but customers will still want your products/service. The Insight Database provides a wealth of deep knowledge and anyone with some Spreadsheet knowledge can produce some useful insights that can help shape your strategy going forward. IMPORTANT: This is also an ideal opportunity to review your routes to market and explore potentially new opportunities.

How can Insight Data help?

If you aren’t familiar with Insight Data then you may want to know we have developed Salestracker, a remote-working platform for sales, marketing, customer service and telesales people exclusively within the building products and home improvement sector.

Salestracker is a world-first – combining a user-friendly CRM system with a database of over 60,000 potential customers including window companies, local builders, house-builders, main contractors, merchants and architects. The database is updated live in real-time by an experienced team of researchers.

For more information contact Insight Data on 01934 808293 or via email at hello@insightdata.co.uk.