Over the last two months, businesses have been forced to alter operations in response to coronavirus restrictions. Ingenuity and innovation has been the product of necessity as businesses developed a myriad of strategies to work around shelter in place orders. Restaurants have mobilized for takeout and delivery, training and educational services moved to virtual environments, and offices across the country established remote networks so that employees could work from home. How well and how quickly businesses adapted has meant the difference between weathering the crisis and closure. Despite those who are maintaining, many are concerned about the long term effects on revenue and whether things will ever go back to business as usual.
Now that the coronavirus is thought to be close to peaking in certain areas, many states are looking to re-open and relaxing social distancing in an effort to revive their local economies – a move that contradicts recommendations from many health officials. In an interview over a month ago, Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, explained;
But multiple cities are at different timing of what their problem is… So you will see different waves of increases, sharp inflections, peaks, and then turn arounds. I think the most important thing that we need to do as a nation is to very aggressively implement the mitigation strategies.”
Just last week the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that the nation may face a second, even larger wave of the virus in the fall and a new report was released stating that the pandemic is likely to last intermittently until 2022, giving merit to the theory that we could face multiple new waves before the threat of COVID-19 has completely diminished.
Predictions like these from health authorities and conflicting instructions from local governments will have businesses operating in a state of uncertainty for some time. In the instance the nation is hit with renewed waves of the virus, emergency control efforts like the current stay at home orders may need to be put rapidly back into place – repeatedly. This means businesses will need to stay nimble and continue to adapt to unexpected operational conditions. Changing operational conditions in most cases requires special communication to customers regarding service changes, new procedures for employees such as use of PPE and revised distancing requirements, updates to facilities or infrastructure like additional IT safe guards, as well as updates to online services and, of course, the deployment of a remote workforce.
Fluctuating operational conditions in collections include policy changes by clients, new compliance guidelines which can vary by industry and state, and changes that must be implemented by the agency itself to ensure special care of those consumers impacted by job loss or illness. In dealing with fluctuating volume and changing requirements means that effective adaptation will come in the form of innovative service delivery and technology. Flexibility and nimble response will be essential to continuity in the coming months, perhaps even years, while treatments and vaccines are developed to contain and control the outbreak.
Thanks to a comprehensive digital initiative, Professional Credit can offer clients and consumers quality service from afar. Just as retailers are focusing efforts on the online experience, our client and consumer portals provide 24-7 access online and full transparency. Omni-channel communication and a mobile app offer more effective communication and account management that aligns with consumers changing preferences. And thanks to a dedicated technology partner, our workforce can move seamlessly from the office to home through a highly secure virtual private network. You may have heard the term “pivot” far too often as of late, but that’s exactly what will be required to gain a competitive advantage in the coronavirus economy. The key to a successful business in the foreseeable future is not only going to be the quality of service and efficiency of delivery alongside of the consumer experience but also how quickly and creatively that model can be modified.