The infectious disease called COVID-19 is everywhere, and it is shutting down many things from schools to businesses. As stock markets fall, people isolate, and borders close, many companies may already be feeling high levels of anxiety.
How can project managers and partners support their customers in these times of uncertainty? Here are four tips:
1. Use an Onboarding Platform
The B2B customer onboarding process does not need to be complicated with the right tools. In this platform, project management teams can work seamlessly, not only with their clients but also with their vendors and suppliers.
The program may include the following features:
- Ability for customers to keep track of the progress
- Delegate tasks and monitor their progress
- Manage multiple teams and projects simultaneously
- Automate specific processes, such as e-mails
All these features are helpful and even necessary for clients that may be in other parts of the world and cannot travel due to bans.
2. Offer Financial Help
The drastic changes happening around the world will hurt businesses in many aspects, particularly their pockets. They may struggle to pay off their bills, including retainer’s fees for project management teams.
While this strategy demands careful decision making, it is something worth exploring. Some of the options they can look into include:
- Offering discounts or vouchers clients can use later
- Forgoing the retainer’s fee for at least a month
- Providing more affordable service packages to the clients
In these difficult times, it is always better to support and keep customers from leaving as much as possible. It may be more challenging to look for new clients later.
3. Communicate with the Customers Regularly
For those who are using platforms for the B2B onboarding process, this step is not difficult. The software can already improve communication among parties. Otherwise, project managers can consider doing the following:
- Provide a daily schedule and end-of-day task report
- Give updates on the situation of the office (e.g., how many are working from home or reduced operating hours)
- Inform them of milestones and challenges as some of them may not have immediate access to data
- Call, text, or e-mail to catch up to help build stronger personal relationships
4. Practice Transparency
It is not unusual for some people these days to conceal specific information to their client for many reasons. Perhaps they do not want customers to lose faith in them. They also do not want to cause any more panic.
But there are ways to balance fear and reason, and the one that stands in between them is transparency. When project managers are open to their struggles, then clients become better capable of making strategic decisions.
They can begin to understand the reality and work with the rest of the team on how to deal with the present and plan the future. It is high time for project managers and businesses to remember that credibility and trustworthiness pay.
These are times of uncertainty, but for businesses, the anxiety goes beyond their physical and mental health. They worry about their companies, income, customers, and employees.
Now is the right moment for everyone to step up and help each to survive. Project management teams can also do their share with the tips provided above. This way, the damage caused by the virus hopefully goes down, and businesses can recover more quickly.
