In a crisis, the external force that can help companies escape from the crisis is customers. Only with customers can a company gain vitality, and only customers are the decisive factor in growth.
Spring is blooming
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In the previous article "Current Action | Chen Chunhua: The ability to be financially conservative is the basis for the survival of a company", we discussed together how companies can achieve success through sound finances. Growth in crisis. In the process of enterprise development, there is a truth that enterprises must maintain strong vitality, that is, always invest in customers.
In this article, I will share with you in detail: How should companies get closer to customers when facing a crisis?
Customers are the fundamental reason for the existence of a company, and all efforts of the company are judged by customers. Therefore, as an enterprise, you should meet the needs of customers, stay close to customers, and achieve customer success instead of yourself.
How can we get closer to customers? Enterprises can take action in four aspects:
Really solve problems for customers
Because of the environment, because of technology, because of changes in lifestyle, many things are being adjusted and changed, so what should companies do to adapt to such changes? To the customer's side?
The most direct and effective way is to treat customers as friends.Understand the needs of customers as you would a friend, understand the customer's situation and problems, and provide care and help.
A typical example is Huawei .
On March 14, Huawei President Ren Zhengfei issued the "Notice on Rent Reduction and Reduction for Service Merchants During the Epidemic", promising that tenants of Huawei's own properties in each campus will be rent-free for six months retroactively and rent-free for the next nine months. Half.
is already unique in offering rent-free and reduced rent for 15 months. Huawei also requires that all Huawei properties in China that have already collected rent will be refunded before March 31, and 6 months of rent can be refunded. As soon as the notification was posted, it attracted countless likes.
The catering industry is experiencing an unprecedented "spring cold". This time, Huawei has waived rent, reduced rent, and canceled rent for its ecological customers, and used practical actions to overcome the difficulties with catering people.
strive to shorten the distance with customers
The most real and effective ability of an enterprise is the ability to connect with customers. As long as the company clearly solves the customer's problem, the customer will not leave the company. Successful companies always go beyond other companies in their efforts to shorten the distance with customers and have achieved outstanding results.
The COVID-19 epidemic in 2020 has caused widespread concern about the risk of contracting COVID-19. Datong Insurance Service decided to quickly customize an insurance product specifically for COVID-19.
Chairman Jiang Ming wrote to me on WeChat:
"During this special period, Datong's request is to ensure that more customers are protected. Our insurance consultants also particularly hope to use this opportunity to highlight the value of their work. So we decided to work with insurance companies to give up profits and create a cost-effective public welfare product.
In just two days, we found an insurance company that was willing to do this with us, and determined the form of the insurance. The teams from both sides stayed up for several nights to connect to the insurance system, and completed the copy design and promotion plan."
This COVID-19 exclusive product called "Ai Wuyou" became very popular as soon as it was launched, and it was sold within five days. Provided customers with an insurance coverage of RMB 10 billion. Many customers have developed a great impression of Datong through this action of Datong.
Many times, companies think that they have been eliminated by the crisis, but ultimately, customers have eliminated the company. As long as companies are with customers at all times, they can find solutions to overcome difficulties together.
The same thinking mode as customers
Why can't many of the efforts made by companies today fail to increase customers' desire to buy, but instead make customers move further and further away from the company. The fundamental reason is that companies are misled by their own thinking patterns. What companies really need is to change their own thinking patterns and maintain consistency with their customers' thinking patterns.
In times of crisis, companies must learn to abandon the way of thinking and management they are accustomed to in the past, and think from the perspective of customer needs, customer difficulties, and problems faced by customers. This requires companies to quickly understand customers and go to customers to understand their real situation.
After the outbreak of the new crown epidemic in 2020, many companies chose to work online, and the demand for remote meetings and collaborative working increased sharply.
For this reason, Tencent Conference has opened up the collaborative capabilities of 300-person conferences to users nationwide for free for the first time. With the rapid increase in the use of Tencent Conference by the outside world, Tencent Conference immediately expanded its resource capacity. In 8 days, it expanded a total of more than 100,000 cloud hosts , invested more than one million cores of computing resources, and completed more than 100 countries and regions around the world. Area service coverage.
This move set an unprecedented record in the history of China's cloud computing , and further ensured the interaction and economic development of all walks of life, including governments, enterprises, schools, etc., in anti-epidemic experience, trade and other aspects.
When a crisis comes, everyone must face the crisis first, which will also lead to changes in customer needs, which means that customers will make choices based on the actions they take in the crisis.
If we pay attention to this choice, then the efforts made by the enterprise may truly have an impact on customers and be of value.
Build a stronger relationship with customers
In times of crisis, choosing to be close to customers has a more special effect, that is, you and customers can build a stronger relationship.
During the 2020 COVID-19 epidemic, I received a WeChat message from an alumnus of South China University of Technology. He told me that shops were not easy to open and the rent had long been reduced to a quarter of the original price. However, in the face of the epidemic crisis, tenants may not be able to survive, so it is better to take the initiative to waive rent.
He sent a screenshot of the WeChat interaction between him and the tenant. The tenant wrote: "I am destined to meet you in this life. It is really the most precious positive energy given to me by God." I saw this message sent by an alumnus and clicked for him. Thumbs up.
It is extremely important to establish such a strong relationship with customers. Finding ways to grow for customers and making them a link of connection should become the direction of corporate action. Don’t simply understand the relationship between customers and enterprises as an economic relationship or transactional relationship.
There is a partnership between an enterprise and its customers. Only when customers become the solid foundation for successful growth can an enterprise achieve real and feasible sustainable growth. (End of this article)
