In this June 26 2020 episode of the Content Amplification Podcast, host Shaun Whynacht explains how the COVID‑19 pandemic has forced consumers to shop online and why this shift creates a lasting opportunity for businesses. He argues that companies must examine every element of their operation through a “microscope” to identify parts that can be moved to digital channels. For retail firms, he recommends putting inventory online, streamlining the checkout process, and offering generous return policies. For service‑based firms, he suggests adding 24‑hour live‑chat (or outsourcing it to a call‑center service), enabling online invoicing and payment, and using video‑conferencing tools like Zoom for consultations and virtual property tours. Whynacht stresses that businesses that fail to adopt these conveniences risk becoming obsolete within 12‑18 months, while those that reinvent their delivery methods can stay competitive and even thrive. The episode ends with a call to action for listeners to rethink and redesign their existing services rather than creating entirely new ones.
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Hey, it's June 26th, 2020. Well, there's some parts of the world still on high levels of coronavirus. Fortunately, here where we are recording, where we're located located in Nova Scotia, Canada. We, um, we haven't had many cases actually. Uh, I think we've been almost 20-some days, no cases, no active cases, no new cases. And I congratulate and commend our Canadian government for doing what it needed to do to not only lock down borders but also support Canadians through these tough times. Today's episode, I wanted to talk to us and talk to you more specifically about something that is happening, and this is a positive thing, and you need to think of this opportunity in your business. Now, we've been fortunate enough over the last 3 months to be working with a lot of businesses who have been transitioning from their traditional retail-type sales to online-type sales, and What we're seeing is that consumers have been forced to go online during these lockdowns, these shutdowns of what they had traditionally shopped in-store for, and they have been able to see the convenience of doing this. Now, there might be some of you out there that feel that shopping online is a bit of an inconvenience for certain reasons, that you're not able to, you know, try on products, see products, and things like that. But you got a lot of stores that have a really great return policy policy and they're able to allow you to send stuff back. So what we're seeing when, when people are convenienced and they're seeing that it's so easy to be able to buy at any time, have it delivered right to your door, that now as things starts to open up, people are still looking for purchasing online. So what does that mean for you? It means that you need to look at your business with a really fine microscope and say, hey, what element of my business can I do online? What element of my business can I create more conveniently for my client base? Now, if you are in a retail type outlet, this is a lot easier than if you're not in a retail type outlet because you have a commodity product. You have something that you can actually ship. To them? So how can you put your inventory online, allow people to buy? What's the transaction process like? What convenience factor can you add to that? Now, if you've got a service-type business, what can you do to make it more convenient? A lot of times it comes down to the, the initial inquiries, the initial consults. Think about all the questions that your clients or prospects may be having. Think about the time when they may be having those and what can you implement. Maybe on your website you're going to put a 24-hour live chat. Now you might be saying, hey, you know what, I'm not going to sit at my computer for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week waiting for a chat to come up, come in. And reality is you don't have to, nor should you have to. There are services out there where you can hire them just like a call center to monitor and answer your questions that are coming in. Now, we had used a service like this several years ago for a couple different clients, and how it all works is they build an onboarding document, they ask you a bunch of questions, um, they learn your business, and then when a chat comes in, the agent that is associated with them will be able to answer a you know, a wrath of different questions for that person. The ultimate goal is getting them to schedule a consult with you. If you are in a service-type business, they will gather that information, they'll schedule a time based on your availability, so that when you wake up in the morning, you look at your email, you've got booked consults in there, and you've got people that have been answered in those times you are sleeping. So a great service like that. What about making your invoices available to be paid online? Right now we don't have to exchange cash. Everybody's so worried about germs and things like that and getting close. So, you know, if you are in a service-type business where you come out and do a service on a product, maybe it's driveway sealing, maybe it's landscaping, maybe it's roofing, doesn't matter what it is, you have been able to position your business so that you don't have to have that personal contact when delivering the service. Even cable companies now are able to do that. And then it comes time to pay the bill. Now, exchanging cards, doing those type of things, you know what, that will then make it more personal to be able to— not personal, but that gives you that higher risk of coming in contact with somebody in that period of time. So making invoices available online for payment, you know, there are lots of services where you can do that right away. Right? So at the time of sale, you can send that through and they can pay it right there, even while you're still on site. So a lot of different things that you're able to do to position your business more effectively and provide that convenience factor for them. Using Zoom— we talked about this in previous episodes— video chat, being able to do your consults live, your, your initial, you know, onboarding live through digital methods. Real estate agents Agents are doing this more effectively now for being able to do home showings where they're using video live streaming from their mobile device walking through the home for clients who are not in the area or don't want to go out to somebody's house currently. And it's really a large convenience factor for them. We're going to see more and more of this happening, and it is just a matter of time until those who aren't embracing it, until those who haven't thought ahead of where we currently are to be able to implement that are going to be left behind. We are in a huge transition, huge. You know, you overhear the word of pivoting your business. We don't want to use that word. What we need to do is we need to reinvent the way that we do business. For our business, our marketing company, we have never been this busy. This is the opportunity to look at your business right now and think about it. If I keep doing what I'm doing the way that I've been doing it, am I going to make myself obsolete in the next 12 to 18 months? If you think there is an opportunity of that happening, and those who are more innovative and those who are more creative could overcome you surpass you and service your client base better than you can, then you need to give yourself a whole new makeover. Doesn't mean doing different services. It just means doing the services you do differently. Thanks for listening.
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