How the Emotional bank balance of business can impact you as we move out of lockdown
There have been a wide variety of experiences for business, both locally and nationally, over the past twelve months. We have been through three lockdowns, one of which was dealt with locally and the other two by nation.
Some sectors have not really opened over the past twelve months, apart from some phased opening, some have had to pivot their route to market dramatically to be able to open, some have carried on much as before and some have flourished as the demand for their products or services increased over the past twelve months.
Whatever your businesses journey has been to get to here, twelve months after the first lockdown, we all face the same national picture now albeit from different starting points.
The plan that has been published by the Government is now in phase 1 of the relaxation and the target dates for future relaxations have been set, at least for domestic markets.
This is a critical time for all businesses to assess how best to ensure their current and lapsed customers are retained and either remain active or become active again. Anyone servicing a sector that has encountered disruption on any scale should be really focused on this.
Many suppliers retain clients because it is too much like hard work to change when things are ticking along. Over the years around 65% of business is lost because the customer did not think the supplier cared enough about them – this could be due to poor communication, transactional communication only or troublesome supply results in terms of delivery times, order fulfilment etc,
These businesses will be getting ready to re-open and so all should use this time well. As the inertia and “normal” behaviour has already been broken it will be much more likely that customers consider going elsewhere, or at least have a look around at who else is a viable supplier as they re-commence or ramp up their business as we move through the relaxation phases.
This is where the emotional bank balance is particularly important. When you start to supply a customer, you start with a small positive balance in their emotional bank account – they chose you!
How you fulfil the first order and how you communicate with them from there on will lead to either further deposits being made in the account, through good relationships and communication and good results in terms of delivery of the product or service involved. However, every time there is a problem, a withdrawal is made on the emotional bank account.
I would suggest you look at each significant customer and consider where you stand in terms of this bank balance and take appropriate action if you think you are on low credit – or God forbid you may be overdrawn! When you are overdrawn, this is where they think you do not care enough and they will start to consider replacing you.
The good news in this is that your competition have the same situation with their emotional bank balances of their customers and if 65% of customers move due to a low credit score then who could you be speaking to now as they re-consider their supply lines?
This is a time where, as the economy picks up pace, I believe the supply lines will be most open to change – think about how you use your understanding of the emotional bank account in business to ensure you are a winner and not a loser. Those who are out of the blocks fastest and with the best momentum could make massive gains over the coming months and years as the economic cycle recovers from this health induced depression.
If you would lie to discuss how to implement this in your business please contact me on rogerpemberton@actioncoach.com or call on 07511 969690.
