How to navigate your business in this challenging moment? How to protect it and at the same time support your clients. Five Cee Digital Alliance agencies from Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia are here to share their best-practice and proven methodologies from the regional perspective squeezed in a nutshell.
Marta Gryniewicz, Bluerank
Maintain constant contact with your client
You probably have read this a thousand times by now. But that is just because, it should be a rule obey by not only digital agency, but every company in general. Our clients might be flustered and stressed down. That is why the best thing to do is to pick up the phone and talk. This is the first step.
Draw up various scenarios
It might be tailored to each client or formulate for the whole company in general. In either case, you are ready and qualified to apply preventive measures. This approach helps to discern threats but also opportunities and prevent things to get out of hand. More tellingly, clients are more able to embrace difficult changes mildly.
Case by case approach
Preparing different scenarios for each partner is one of the options for a special approach towards clients. Andrej Salner from Basta Digital says: "For key clients, we are preparing individual recommendations and analyses on which campaigns to suspend, how to shift budgets and activities, how to remain relevant". This personal touch is crucial simply because different branches of business have been hit in varying degrees and they call for distinct actions.
Be flexible if you can
In regards to clients who have been experienced a huge revenue drop and are on the slippery slope it is essential to be as much flexible as we can when it comes to cooperation. There is a range of proposals that we can offer for them. For instance: postponing payments without interruption of work progress, discounts, or even adding some extra management free of charge. Working out some sort of payment plan is something that partners will appreciate for sure.
Keep your clients in the loop
The common denominator for business in general right now is the dynamic of changes which require constant analyzing and adjusting to the situation. That is why it is significant to keep updating our clients firstly what is going on in their projects (some CRM or project managing apps enables us to plug them into a particular group or project so that they can constantly monitor their performance). It is also a good idea to suggest them to take advantage of federal relief if there is one in their country. On another level, we should provide them with news and knowledge that they will benefit from. A CEO of Netpeak Bulgaria, Gennadiy Vorobyov explains: "We have advised our clients to update their working hours for customers, contact information, new terms, and conditions or contact restrictions, changes in order processing, products or services, deliveries, or anything else that has changed - update the information everywhere and add it wherever someone might look for it and need it."
Be visible!
We very much adhere to this tip and the same we recommend to our clients. Now is the best time to use your voice and take advantage of social media channels. That is why agencies from Cee Digital Alliance are active in various ways from interesting and handy articles, sharing quality reports or holding webinars. Moreover, any kind of social initiatives and ideas on how to support not only your clients but the local industry are more than welcome. Bluerank, for instance came up with "we are saving local businesses" action which is aimed to purchase vouchers with the extended deadline for most affected, local services. It is also great to support and publicize the proactive attitude of our clients.
See where opportunities are and reach out for them!
In the blight of pandemic, we all have to start thinking outside the box and seek for new chances or new targets. Even though, a significant number of companies face difficulties, some industries have taken the market by storm and they are thriving and prospering. Our goal is to define them and their needs. Do not miss the boat and make a competitive pitch today!