Communications and the key to business recovery

As your business emerges from lockdown towards a fuller return to work, clear communications should form a vital part of the business recovery plan, ensuring clients – existing and prospective – know that you are still here to help, planning ahead and moving forward.

The speed with which the current health crisis has impacted our economy and brought about significant change to our personal and professional lives is, at times, head-spinning. It has also left many businesses seemingly paralysed by the short, sharp shock to their operational mechanisms.

Remaining in a state of inertia is, however, not an option for business looking earnestly to recover successfully in a post Covid-19 world. As Government starts sketching out its ideas for a fuller return to work, businesses must start planning for their recovery now. Wait until lockdown is over, or the Government’s emergency money runs out, and you may well have left it too late.

Importantly, as your business plans for recovery, it is vital that clients – existing and prospective – know that you are still here to help, planning ahead and moving forward. They want to see, hear and take inspiration from your positivity, forward direction and leadership. Clear communication inspires confidence in the business, proves an inherent commitment to endure and a resilience to future shocks down the road.

After all, the speed at which change can happen in our professional lives is not solely confined to the impacts of pandemics. Transformational shocks to the structure of businesses can come at any time – as we found out last year, following the sudden death of Satellite MPR's Founder and Managing Director, Claire Lalaguna.

As a small, closely-knit team, we were immediately left shell-shocked – but, equally, our resolve to quickly recover from that shock, move forward and stay true to the core disciplines Claire had established stood us in good stead for what was to come. An essential element in quickly finding our feet again was a process of clear communication with our existing client base, re-assuring them that we were still here to help them with all their comms and marketing requirements, whilst detailing how things would or would not change in the immediate term and outlining some of our ideas for the future. Articulating openly with clients on the immediate impacts and how we intended to operate in the short and long term instilled confidence and resulted in a strong retention rate.

Recovery for us was also about adapting to a changing comms landscape. New Managing Director Steve Oxley and Associate Director Zoe Couch looked to re-organise the business and bring in a broader range of services to better reflect the current marketplace for business communications and marketing. We saw May 2020 – 12 months on from last year’s sad events – as our target for a soft re-launch of sorts. Of course, none of us could have predicted how 2020 would actually play out; whilst some intentions have inevitably changed, last year’s recovery plans have meant that, despite the restrictions imposed by the coronavirus pandemic, our growth plan remains largely intact and we have not stopped looking ever forward.

In all sorts of ways, we find ourselves busier than ever, working on our clients’ behalf to devise alternative strategies to reach their target audiences with their news and ideas. Admittedly, it may not always be what clients originally had in mind several months ago, but we are able to find new ways to make it work.

Equally, in an uncertain media landscape and an events calendar decimated by the need for social distancing, there is more urgency now for clients to communicate through their own digital channels – websites and social media – and we find ourselves advising regularly on webinars and podcasts, as well as writing in-depth blog pieces and online reports.

It seems that, in our requirement to keep physically apart, the need to find effective ways to communicate and share knowledge has never been greater. For many businesses, it may also be the key to successful recovery.

We are here to help. We are Satellite MPR.