Our world is filled with more uncertainty than ever. Will tariffs sink our economy? Is political whiplash getting in the way of business as usual? How can you cope with volatility and rising costs without driving customers away?

What can your business do—what must it do—to survive and even thrive in these turbulent times? Consider these topics and tactics.

Customer Experience

How’s your customer experience? That is, how positively do your customers experience your business, your products or services? How do they interact with you? Is it working, or could it stand improvement? In good times, satisfying customers is important; when times get tougher, it becomes that much more critical.

Tactic: Assess how you interact with your customers and how they prefer to interact with you. Identify any pain points and work to eliminate them. You may find unexpected ways to improve your customer interactions while boosting your bottom line.

Printed Materials

Many businesses still rely on printed materials in a variety of contexts. But print can be costly, so your first impulse may be to slash costs—a fine idea if you do it right. If your business is like many, various internal groups have been producing printed materials for years, often without coordination. This can cause redundancy and a significant amount of waste.

Tactic: Conduct a top-to-bottom communication audit to determine what’s being produced, what’s effective and what’s not, what’s truly needed and what can be replaced by digital assets. Based on the results, you can create new, consolidated materials to fill gaps while eliminating any printed communications that don’t continue to add value.

E-Engagement

What about e-engagement? “E-engagement” is shorthand for a whole range of digital interactions that touch your customers and connect them with you. If you have a customer-facing website or use e-mail, you’re already e-engaged. But chances are that you’re not as e-engaged with customers as you should be.

Tactic: Develop and implement a top-to-bottom e-engagement strategy. If you’re not already, start using interactive technologies to deliver statements, invoices and required regulatory documents, online and on demand.

Or maybe there should be an app for that. Many customers expect to interact with you on the go, so make it easy by developing a robust app for the major mobile platforms.

Your e-engagement strategy should start with a communication audit. Look at the ways you currently communicate, including online, and see which communications can best be delivered digitally. Next, determine how to integrate your digital and offline communications, and how to encourage customers to take advantage of e-engagement.

Quality e-engagement isn’t free. But compared to traditional printing and mailing costs, an e-engagement investment can pay real dividends in cost savings and increased customer satisfaction.

Surviving and Thriving

Getting through turbulent times takes tenacity and fresh thinking. What worked up till now may not be your best way forward.

Ready to survive and thrive? Time to take a fresh look at your communication strategy. Let Andy help.