Going remote doesn't have to mean you stop delivering value or delivering on your brand promise. Covid-19 has forced a lot of companies to quickly find innovative, creative ways to survive in a new economic reality, but thousands of successful organizations have already been doing it for years. And, many businesses are finding some benefit in the remote operations they are building now - benefits which may well outlast this quarantine. Let’s look at some of the most common fears or hurdles when going completely remote, and the way that successfully remote companies have been able to deal with them:
1. How will I be able to build personal connections if I don’t go out and meet people?
This is the concern I hear most often from business owners, leaders, and entrepreneurs. Almost anyone who has spent years building new relationships with in-person meetings, will feel this when going remote. The good news is that it is completely possible to form meaningful connections over video, group chats, or even phone calls, and lots of business owners (including myself!) have found this to be true. Over the last couple of months, nearly every type of service provider has transitioned over to video calls - from therapists and fitness trainers and even photographers offering video session packages, to animal rescue organizations offering virtual meet & greets with new puppies who are up for adoption.
While the jury is still out on who has been most successful, for many the solution seems to be working. One possible exception: early childhood classes such as music, art, or language might falter over video calls because children below the age of 7 don’t always have the communication skills or attention span necessary to get the most of these calls. But with more and more teachers having to move lessons online - this may change with time.
What you can do
Research and use all available technology - even if you won’t be super skilled at it right away. Since everyone’s experimenting right now, and nobody expects any kind of perfection (SGN anyone?) it’s not a stigma to be a beginner or to start scrappy. Check out the likes of Houseparty, live Facebook or Instagram videos, along with more common standbys like Zoom or Google Hangouts, and find the platform that’s right for you.
2. How will customers be able to experience what we offer?
Content that lets your customers browse remotely - letting them experience your selection or stock - is different from content you may have been sharing through marketing material up until now. Likely you’ve been displaying some inventory online already, but now might be the time to get much more creative, and rethink how you show your work - as even the most traditional industries, like fashion - are doing right now as they rethink what a fashion show can look like, and investigate completely virtual options.
What you can do
You may need to invest in some more infrastructure than what you were previously used to. That can mean more meticulous maintenance of inventory display on your e-commerce site (so that at least it’s all there and navigable), or more time spent on your support chat or phone line answering customer questions. Or find other, out of the box ways to do it. The answer here will likely be extremely individual to your company. In the early days of Warby Parker, the company brought its glasses trucks to college campuses - where their target customers hung out. (Food trucks and library trucks operate on the same principle.)
The idea is always to build your setup so that everyone can browse most conveniently and immediately find the information they need - so you never need to hunt for something repeatedly on request. The upshot? Your business will benefit in the long run, whether or not you go fully remote. I recommend getting this conversation started ASAP by beginning to brainstorm creative solutions with your team.
3. How can we re-organize our deliveries or distribution?
This one can be the most brutal. When remote work or an economic crisis upends the whole logistics chain it can be extremely difficult to work out a profitable way to adapt. But once again, businesses have been adapting in particularly non traditional ways to make this work, at the very least temporarily, to keep customers engaged until they can return to a physical location. Some good examples: The 3-Michelin star restaurant Alinea, one of the most well known in the US for avant garde dishes and a long waiting list, began offering meals featuring “comfort food” for pickup and delivery during lockdown. While some paint party services and art schools have scrambled to move classes online, delivering supply kits to students beforehand, Painting Parties has been fully remote to begin with. Participants simply order materials beforehand and join the event over video.
What you can do
You may need to restructure your pricing plans, and you will likely need to be very transparent about what is included in your offering - being considerate of the fact that many customers may be getting used to the new model and aren’t sure what to expect. You may also need to streamline some things to cut down to the basics, or begin trying to find audiences that are receptive to the new logistics. The plus side? These new audiences can be quite large and scalable or simply provide new opportunities.
4. Will our branding need to change?
Now that so many things have changed, does your brand still reflect your value? This one can also be tough. And once again, transparency rules. Some celebrities are setting examples we shouldn’t learn from, by half heartedly trying to cash in on lockdown periods (looking at you Kim Kardashian and your measly 20% discount offer). It seemed that Reese Witherspoon's company Draper James attempted to express its values by offering free dresses to teachers in lockdown, but the company simply ended up making their target customers feel used when the dresses ran out, because of a lack of transparency about what was going on, and then because they aggressively marketed other products to those teachers that didn’t win. Moral of the story: be upfront or regret it later.
Other, less tone-deaf, campaigns such as those for FIFA, and Tesco seem to be getting it right by creating authentic messaging around new offerings and changing times - aligning with what those brands already stand for, and without excessive profiteering.
What you can do
Ditch perfection. Heck, production quality expectations have never been lower. Instead, focus on authentic messaging that explains what is going on with your business, and where your heart is right now.
5. Will our team be as productive?
Now that everyone is working from home, or at least some are - how does this affect productivity and team dynamics? A lot has been written about this topic already, so I won’t belabor it here. It's no secret that remote teamwork is potentially very beneficial for productivity overall, and it allows companies to source high quality talent from all over the world - but it does require a lot more trust between teammates. Invision, a software company run remotely from the beginning and an advocate for the benefits of remote work (now employing over 700 people in 30 countries) has used this challenging time to share some high-quality resources that help other software design companies go completely remote.
What you can do
You will need to put in place routines or systems to facilitate trust and collaboration between team members. Fortunately, it can be pretty straightforward to set up teams remotely. The most important thing to do is make sure that each team member has access to the tools they need. Whether that’s industry-specific software, collaboration software (slack, miro, mural…), hardware, or other industry-specific supplies, this is half the battle. Once that’s done, set up short, routine check ins, in addition to regular meetings. Software (like Monday or Trello) that helps in planning or tracking projects will keep everyone on the same page as long as everyone is given some time to get used to tracking their progress each day.
How has your transition been to working remotely? I’m willing to bet that once this quarantine is over, we’ll have even more inspiring business stories to tell. As everything continues to unfold, you can bet that resourceful companies and entrepreneurs the world over are learning some pivotal lessons that will forever change the way we do business - hopefully for the better.