By Vince Bevacqua

Although whether or not it’s over is open to debate, the COVID-19 pandemic was traumatic and disruptive for companies as well as people.

Businesses all across America and the world were forced to buckle up, hold on tight and weather a bombardment of serious challenges, including customer loss, supply chain breakdowns, staff layoffs and more.

Many businesses didn’t survive. Others are now sticking their heads above ground and surveying an altered landscape. If they look closely enough, they will realize that with enormous challenge comes even greater opportunity.

Strategic communications can—and should—be leveraged to make the most of these once-in-a-generation business opportunities now before us. Here are four strategies for making that happen.  

Capitalize on changes with competitors

As business operations return to normal, customers will get back to buying products and services. But  assumptions that guided their decisions about where to buy before the pandemic may no longer apply now.  

Perhaps your competitor no longer offers a particular product or service. Or, maybe, their offering has diminished in quality or value due to pandemic pressures, making yours, now, more valuable.

There are dozens of scenarios that could emerge in these new times and they are all opportunities—unless you do nothing in response. Now is the time to capitalize on any negative changes your competitors were forced to make or accept.

Your company is best served by communicating your new competitive advantage to the marketplace and making sure that information becomes part of the customer’s decision process.

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Budget and strategy will shape what form that communication takes; perhaps it’s a new multi-media marketing campaign or, maybe, it’s social media posts coupled with an email blitz.

Whatever the case, your customers and prospects won’t know your product or service is now better than your rivals’ if you don’t tell them.

Review messaging for the post-COVID world

What if it’s your business that has changed because of the pandemic? Well, that’s an opportunity, too. Have you taken an inventory of your company? Have you looked at what you do well and what aspects of your business are not profitable? You may discover an unintended, yet exciting, new direction in which to head.

If you have been successful in refining, re-tooling or reimagining your offerings in response to the pandemic, you need to communicate that. Tell your customers the news. Yours is now a “new” company with products and services tailored to the changing needs of your customers.

Sharing that information makes you a hero with both customers and prospects because, while you have adapted what you do for pure survival, your customers are realizing they have new problems to solve and will reward you for innovating in ways that provide solutions. Therefore, you are missing out on new business if you stick with your same, old messaging.

Take stock in what your company is today—not what it was in December 2019—and adjust your messaging accordingly.

Make sure internal comms engage remote or part-time workers

The pandemic changed the American workplace. Millions took their work home to their new “offices.”

While many workers are returning to the traditional office setting, lots of companies will continue with remote workers. This crisis response has become a permanent part of the business world.

There do seem to be real benefits to these arrangements — namely, happier workers, overhead cost reduction and the like. Still, having everyone spread out physically does present your company with communications challenges.

Thriving companies require clear, direct and copious communication with their employees. That communication keeps everyone on mission and maintains optimal productivity and profitability. Breaks in communication cause confusion, which results in poorer productivity and profitability.

Your management team must now find better methods for communicating with your teams. Also, if you no longer have in-person meetings with all the trappings (PowerPoint presentations, handouts, etc.) to rely on, you’ll need to scale and tailor your messaging to employees in ways best suited for remote workers (no one enjoys reading a 5-page email).

And, if that’s not compelling enough, here’s another reason to give serious thought to your post-pandemic internal communications — satisfaction. Dozens of studies confirm the obvious: employees who receive frequent and clear communication from their leaders are happier than those who do not.

In this age of struggling to keep proper staffing levels and recruit new workers, your company is well served by keeping your current workforce content. Sometimes all it takes is a little open dialogue.

Develop a crisis communications plan

Let’s be honest: no one was prepared for the pandemic. It was a problem thrust on us with very little notice and no appreciation for the eventual economic consequences.

We survived, thankfully, but we cannot pretend we’ll never face crisis again. Now that the world is less chaotic and returning to “normal,” we should be thinking ahead to the next challenge.

What did we learn about communicating with employees and customers during the last year? Can we formalize some action plans now—while we have time to think calmly—that we can put into effect during the next crisis?

It may not be possible to anticipate every issue your company will need to address during the next rough patch (and there will be other crises on the horizon, guaranteed), but an organization prepared with a crisis communications plan is set up for success.

Having predetermined processes and responsibilities in place will enable everyone on the team can to focus on doing their jobs rather than fearing the unknown.

Take the time to create a crisis communications plan and share it with your team. Get feedback on where you can make improvements and revise the plan. Hopefully you’ll never have to use it, but you’ll be glad you have it when times get tough.

As bad as the last year and a half were, it’s simply human nature for some business leaders to automatically return to previous habits — business as usual, if you will. You have the chance – right now—to be the one who sees the post-pandemic market landscape for what it really is and navigate your company through the change and onto new levels of success.

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Vince Bevacqua is senior consultant with Pecchia Communications and a former television news anchor and reporter. He helps organizations use strategic communication as a powerful asset for growth and success. Email him here.