It is hard to come across something like coronavirus that has impacted worldwide businesses. This impact is not just being felt by the business owners concerning their profitability alone but consumers too who are struggling to cope with the limited supply chain of products and services. The logistics industry has suffered immensely owing to a lack of labor for transporting goods from producers to the consumers and that too in a safe and virus-free manner. The more severe a nation got affected by the virus, the more it witnessed a reduced production/supply and high costs.
Chinese companies are considered to be the biggest manufacturing source, but due to a lack of labor, the manufacturing process in China and Asian countries have dropped down by almost 40-70%. With further closing of ports and oceangoing vessels, the logistic operations have been hit hard. So, what’s the solution? Let us dig deeper into the same!
Top 10 Tips to Ensure Smooth Business Operations
Evaluate how Coronavirus affects Customers
The customers of every industry have certain corona pain points that you need to understand. Get into their shoes and evaluate what is it that is concerning them, where are they facing problems in supply chain, and prepare a sales strategy accordingly and get in touch with them with an effective sales pitch that should focus on their concerns regarding:
- The supply chain
- Employee management owing to work from home situation
- Travel restrictions
- Demand slowdown and uncertainty in the general market
- Cash flow management
- Stock shortage due to panic buying
Reshape Business Strategies
Due to COVID-19, most of the businesses are unable to continue their operations as usual and even customer demands are becoming a bit more unrealistic due to lockdown entering the picture.
Your job should be to prepare new plans and implement effective strategies concerning repositioning of your services and products to address such different issues for them at the earliest. The new business strategy should cover:
- Short-term liquidity evaluation
- Operational and financial risks assessment and ways to respond quickly
- Alternative supply chain considerations
Connect Digitally
Almost every business in the world is making use of the technology to support its processes, and this goes pretty well with the logistic operations too. Owners need to understand that it is their responsibility to take care of their employees, be it related to in-house or the logistic process. They need to stay in touch with them through the digital medium like Skype, Zoom, Google Duo, Slack, etc., to listen to the grievances they might be having related to any of the work processes. This will ensure them of their safety amidst the corona crisis and motivate them to continue working in such challenging conditions.
Maintain Healthy Relations with Stakeholders
It is vital to maintain healthy relations with all your stakeholders through effective and regular communication. Your conversational message needs to be transparent, clear, and timely and should focus on thanking your existing employees, customers, suppliers, investors, creditors, and regulatory authorities for their constant support and also requesting them to continue supporting you during the crisis. This will help you in maintaining good relations with them, ensuring uninterrupted support from them.
Also, make the best use of social media platforms for the same, especially when addressing your customers. It is the best way to reach them, communicate with them, and ensure that you care about them.
Ensure Contactless Deliveries
One of the biggest concerns associated with coronavirus is its ability to transfer itself through human and surface contact. With social distancing becoming mandatory throughout the world, this applies to the logistic process too as this is the only way you can not only deliver products safely but also earn the trust of your customers regarding their safety. So, make sure you pass on the same message to your delivery boys and other people involved in the logistic process. Also, make it a must for them to use sanitizers and masks throughout the process to not just ensure the safety of customers but their safety as well.
Leverage Government Support Policies
The UK, US, and a lot of other developed countries have made minor and major amendments to their finance and tax policies. Businesses need to monitor these changes carefully and look for opportunities within them that help them in better dealing with the logistic challenges in the corona situation. Yes, there will be some amendments that might not be directly related to your logistic process, and you might need to identify the best support policies amongst many but make sure that once identified, you leverage the same at the earliest.
Be Prepared for Resilience
After businesses know how their customers are getting affected by the supply chain disruption in the corona crisis, they should implement effective strategies to take care of the same. However, they need to understand that a situation like this is likely to evolve with the passing of each day with respect to the number of coronavirus cases reported daily. So, they must have a Plan B as well that is designed to offer flexibility in their services concerning the arrival of related situation complexities in the near future.
Take Away
Irrespective of the business type, companies should leave no stone unturned when it comes to taking care of their internal and external processes to ensure smooth business operations during the corona crisis. We all know that the COVID-19 outbreak will be controlled for sure in the future and every business will look forward to reviewing and renewing their business continuity plans (BCP).
This will be focused heavily on the positives and negatives associated with the existing BCPs with respect to a lack of infrastructure, shortage of labor, timeliness of action, or external environment concerns. As of now, the above strategies will surely help business owners on streamlining their logistics process and provide customers with uninterrupted goods and services.
Also, they need to take care of their internal processes as well with the same efficiency. For example, if you are in the eCommerce trade, you need to take care of records like accounting for eCommerce businesses since it is equally important to maintain internal records at the same time. In case, there is a shortage of staff, time, skill, or technology; you always have the option of seeking support from logistics outsourcing services.
Author Bio: Adriene Raynott is a Sr. Business Analyst at Cogneesol, holding 6 Years of experience. She is passionate about writing on finance and CPA accounting concepts, small business growth, entrepreneurship, retail/eCommerce, branding, tax preparation, etc. She is contributing her skills, knowledge, and experience to assist people pertaining to finance & accounting matters.