Finding the Best Solutions in the Midst of a Crisis
Today is the 22nd day where Wuhan, a city equivalent to 80 Paris and with 11 million inhabitants, has been on quarantine. My friend in Wuhan stayed home for almost 22 days except going to the lobby twice.
Yesterday, the cleaning robot at her house was not working. She had to call the customer service, but the rep who was supposed to reprogram the device on site was instructed to not come to the client's house due to the coronavirus.
I asked, "How was it solved?" She replied, "We exchanged contacts on WeChat (an Instant Messenger service similar to WhatsApp) and did a live video call." She added, "He then showed me how to fix the device step by step."
Just after 15 minutes without face-to-face interaction, the device is working properly now. This is just an example of solving a business issue effectively under the current circumstance.
During the lockdown, some residential communities have purchased food and other necessities collectively instead of letting each household do their own shopping. Some take-out delivery services have added the option of "no face-to-face interaction" when placing the order online and by phone. Many service companies have leveraged online platforms as well as digital tools to provide their services.
Indeed, it goes without saying that meetings can be postponed, but customers' needs cannot be postponed.
In the face of crisis, businesses still have to make customer happiness their top priority and find new ways to keep the business "as usual".
Yes, bad things happen to all of us. Depending on how we see them, they can ruin us, or they can profoundly improve our system, process or services.
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