At the beginning of the pandemic, the goal of most businesses was simply to survive. Many companies closed down their brick and mortar offices and even downsized their workforce. Despite that, loads of businesses still failed to make it.
On the other hand, the pandemic also became a catalyst for many innovations that changed the way we do things. From the rise of online food deliveries to virtual classes, we witnessed how several companies came up with creative ways to conduct business even in the absence of face-to-face interactions.
The industries vary, but the companies that have managed to thrive conducting business remotely seem to have a few strategies in common.
Read on to find out more.
Have a Schedule- and Stick To It
Innovation requires creativity, sure. But for creativity to prosper, your remote employees need to feel safe and secure first. To achieve this, you need to foster an orderly environment by implementing and maintaining a reliable schedule for things like on-cam meetings, weekly reports, and even weekly catch up sessions.
Of course, once you have a schedule, it’s best to stick to it. For example, if Wednesdays are for video conferencing, your team members should have enough flexibility on other days to work on different ideas and concepts.
Ironically, a predictable schedule can help foster creativity – not least because it helps people set aside time for uninterrupted brainstorming.
Introduce A Culture of Service
Excellent customer service sets top-performing companies apart from their peers, whether online or offline. After all, businesses depend on their customers for growth and expansion. Without them, you would have no business.
If you want your organisation to grow and innovate in the right direction, you should focus on who your target audience is. It’s good to know where they come from, but figuring out what they want is even more important.
To do this, you’ll need to cultivate topnotch customer-facing teams.
Thus, train your staff to listen and observe when interacting with customers. Make it a habit to touch base with them regularly to pick up on your target market’s concerns, feedback, and insights.
Once you develop an accurate customer avatar, use it to guide your innovative efforts moving forward.
Transform Leaders Into Stewards
Innovation isn’t often confined to a single person or to one team. It’s actually a group effort that involves everyone in the company. Hence, as the head of organisation, make it your goal to practice and model good stewardship.
How does stewardship differ from traditional leadership? While the latter emphasises authority and hierarchies, the former is more conducive to collaboration and collectivism. Under proper stewardship, everyone’s ideas count because there’s no monopoly on innovation.
Under good stewardship, individual team members have more autonomy. Thus, they are empowered to serve customers’ needs in different creative ways AND contribute to the company’s common purpose.
Reduce Customer Distance
Many customers feel alienated by the lack of face to face interactions alone. The technical terms or jargon that most organisations employ, along with a robotic approach, aren’t likely to help either.
Customer distance doesn’t just refer to, well, physical distance. The level of personal connection also matters. Sure, your customer-facing roles can use an outline or rough script to facilitate interactions smoothly, but give them room to react in a more humane and more personalised manner too.
Done well, warmer customer service interactions can cultivate loyalty and good will among your target market. As a bonus, this approach often encourages real-time feedback too.
Give Credit Where Credit is Due
When your remote workforce feels trusted and valued, they tend to go the extra mile.
Thus, when someone on your team is doing a great job, make it known and appreciated. This will help develop their confidence and make them feel safe and secure. When someone feels that they don’t have to watch their back at work (or that a superior will take credit for their innovation), they can focus on coming up with ways to do their job better and more efficiently.
Best of all, they’ll be less likely to leave your company – and give their innovative efforts somewhere else.
Remote Staff has been assisting Australian SMEs and entrepreneurs find skilled remote workers from the Philippines since 2007. Aside from hiring, we also assist with onboarding and monitoring so you’ll have enough time to innovate and get your company off the ground.
Call us today or schedule a call back and let’s get started.
Serena has been working remotely and writing content for the better part of the last decade. To date, she's written for Pepper.ph and Mabuhay Magazine, among others, and has churned out more than a thousand articles on everything from The Basics of Stock Market Investing to How to Make Milk Tea-Flavored Taho at home. Hermits, aspiring hermits, and non-hermits with interesting project propositions may email her at serena.estrella10@gmail.com.
