Coping with COVID-19: 3 Ways Your Business Can Proactively Respond

Like your business, your customers’ needs have changed due to the pandemic. Not only is demand fluctuating, supply chains are being disrupted around the world. Your business needs to not only cope with new customer needs, but do so with a supply chain that might be interrupted or altered.

Although some organizations are adopting a wait-and-see approach, being proactive is going to be key in helping you emerge from this crisis ahead of the game. You need to know how to adapt in the short-term, and what tools you can put into place to adapt to long-term market effects.

This article outlines a few ways your B2B organization can address these new challenges, find solutions, and pursue opportunities. You can also watch an on-demand webinar from Sana Commerce with more tips and tools to help you succeed during COVID-19.

Support your existing customers

Things are difficult for everyone during this pandemic, and businesses of all kinds are stepping up to help customers. Help your existing customers out by offering special discounts or benefits, additional payment options, streamlined returns, and proactive communication about special measures your business might need to enact.

Actively help your customers move online

First, encourage your customers to shop online by reminding them about your web store, and make it easy for them to call in with questions. Actively help them set up accounts and navigate the store to be sure they can find and order what they need.

Your e-commerce platform must also meet their needs once they get there. Your web store needs to be easy to use and reliable – it should show real-time information about inventory levels and delivery status, as well as make it simple for customers to place an order, pay, view their orders, and manage returns. For B2B orders, this often means your platform needs to be designed properly to place complicated orders and deal with complex pricing.
 

Minimize supply chain disruptions and meet changing demands

Your organization needs tools to gather useful business data and act on it. You should have real-time inventory tracking, a consistent flow of information across all parts of your organization, and an efficient order-to-cash process. Additionally, more and more businesses are benefiting from ERP solutions like Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central that include intelligent guidance for processes like ordering and forecasting.

Additionally, this is a time when it’s especially critical to optimize your e-commerce site for the sake of reliability. Make sure your store can deal with spikes in traffic. It’s also crucial for your site to display real-time inventory levels, up-to-date pricing, and provide delivery tracking so your customers can stay in the loop.

Need help adapting your business to a new future?

If you want to emerge from this crisis even stronger than before, you need to prepare your organization to be efficient and adaptable. Western Computer has over thirty years of experience empowering businesses to compete and thrive through challenges. Contact us today to speak with a solutions expert about your business’s goals during this time.