The trajectory of COVID-19 is constantly changing. News and information around the subject has been mixed, vague and inconsistent at times. However, one thing seems to be for certain: this global health pandemic is evolving into a global economic pandemic as the doors of so many businesses remain shut.
75% of small to medium sized businesses state that they have been impacted by COVID-19, with a further 6% stating they weren’t quite sure yet.
COVID-19 is uncharted territory for all businesses. However, consumers and employees alike are championing transparency because everyone needs the information they need to make decisions.
The Good Marketer is a transparent digital marketing agency in London. From the very start, we have been committed to this core value.
But First, How Avoiding Transparency Can Impact Business
As COVID-19 cases in the UK began to escalate throughout March 2020, consumers watched - and took note - of how businesses of all sizes reacted. More importantly, they also paid attention to how they communicated their management of the situation.
This information is expected to re-shape how consumers move forward in a post-pandemic world.
For example, the Frasers group, who own Sports Direct, have come under criticism to the extent that the CEO has issued a public apology. Sports Direct employees state that they were told they would be “immediately fired” for self isolating. Moreover, the company inflated the cost of some sporting goods by 50% to capitalise on this time.
The public apology letter issued by the Fraser Group stated that their lack of transparency and miscommunication with employees was “poor”.
As a result of these actions, consumer opinions of the company have plummeted from 1.1 to -18.4 on the YouGov index.
This is not expected to pick up soon. Many people in the UK are calling for boycotts and consumers are promising they will remember which companies treated staff and customers with honesty and respect once the lockdown is alleviated.
How to Be Transparent with Your Employees
In order to convey transparency to your customers, you must first start with internal customers, your employees.
Trust, communication and transparency are fundamental to the success of your business. These core values improve productivity by an expected 20 - 25% and increase output.
There are other benefits of fostering this ethical culture, including lower staff turnover and a good public opinion, but these attitudes must be adopted across the company. Halfheartedly implementing a transparent ethos can make your business seem insincere and unauthentic. Experts state that these are some of the critical ways to be transparent with your employees:
Clearly Outline Job Responsibilities - Showing your team what is expected of them takes the guesswork out of doing a job. It means they know which boxes to tick to ensure what they’re doing is correct. Individuals are more likely to take ownership of their jobs and fewer tasks can slip through the cracks of poor communication. Moreover, it shows that you trust your team.
Frequent & Open Communication - One of the biggest benefits of being an SME is that it’s easy to get everyone together as often as possible. Open communication is critical to creating a transparent environment; this could be as quick as a 5 minute briefing, morning catch ups to ask questions and get quick responses from team members, or scheduled meetings. It’s recommended that these are face-to-face wherever possible but still run by management.
Taking the time out to establish this kind of communication makes employees feel confident that if there were any changes in the business, they would be notified. Failing to keep staff up to date on what’s going on can make them feel like they’re not privy and thus underappreciated and undervalued.
Ask Opinions - Whilst you’re hosting regular catch ups with your team, remember to ask their thoughts on potential changes to the business. Give them as much detail as possible. This will provide the opportunity for staff to air any grievances. Disagreements and discussions are not negative when managed by an honest and supportive work environment. Asking for your team’s thoughts will also bolster the collaborative, community culture that builds businesses up. Your fantastic team might even have suggestions to help improve on your ideas. This is a great way to troubleshoot and identify costly issues with a new business avenue.
Share Results (& Ideas) - Employees want to know what came of a project they worked so hard on. Results - good or bad - bolster employee engagement, encourage overall business growth and innovation. However, in the interest of transparency, this should also include any results that didn’t turn out as projected, including something that the management team were working on that didn’t plan out.
Transparency with everyone affords you loyalty. This can make a huge difference in business. In times of economic struggle or social uncertainty, employees are less likely to panic and customers are more likely to continue their support.
Recommended: Top 8 Tips for Developing Cross-Functional Teams in Your Organization
How to Be Transparent with Your Customers
Being honest with customers worries a lot of companies as they believe any slight flaw will turn revenue away.
However, it also encourages improvement. A business that is transparent and willing to share as much information as possible with customers strive to do better and to make more ethical, conscious business decisions. This could be from the materials they build with to the language they use to market their products.
If you’re still not convinced on transparency, consider this: 94% of all consumers say that they would be loyal to a brand that offers complete transparency. Repeat purchases and bookings or reliable clients are the most lucrative way to achieve ROI.
Now that’s got your attention, these are the meaningful ways that you can achieve transparency with your customers:
Explain Your Pricing - Advertisements and marketing are designed to justify the price of your products and services, but not explain why you charge what you do. Breaking this down can actually boost sales, as 74% of consumers say that they are willing to pay more to a company that offers complete transparency.
Service-based companies should provide itemised invoices, showing exactly how customer’s money was used, including time frames. This could also include the materials you have chosen to use to make a product, which might be ethically sourced and cost a little more.
Manage Feedback - Actively and visibly responding to reviews on platforms such as Google My Business or even social channels promotes transparency. Firstly, new customers are confident that if there is an issue with your goods or services, you’re a genuine, trustworthy business. However, fair and reasonable responses that address the issue at hand also show that you’ve got nothing to hide.
Educate Your Customers - Using your platforms or just your team, remember to help your customer grow, too. 2020 consumer behaviour shows that customers want to be making ethical, and make responsible decisions both for themselves and the world around them. This means that green choices are here to stay, but so are investments.
Investing time in making recommendations on products or suggesting a service will show that you are not a company trying to force a sale, but who actually wants to help those who support you.
Clarify Your Labelling- Trying to hide things in the small print is an outdated ethos. Social media means that companies’ cannot pull the wool over customer’s eyes and get away with it. Boldly label your goods, list ingredients and materials clearly. This can convey quality as much as transparency, building trust with customers.
Updates & Regular Communication - As with building trust and transparency with employees, it’s imperative to maintain the same open communication with customers. This means ensuring that they can access your team. Publish multiple avenues for communication to ensure customer’s questions never go unanswered.
However, also make sure that you can get in touch with them when you need to. A proactive approach to order updates, whether that’s delays or dispatches, shows that you value a customer’s business. It builds buying confidence which is the foundation for repeat purchases.
Transparency is more than just good marketing. It’s about being honest and ethical.
COVID-19 is expected to accelerate shifts in consumer behaviour. However, it’s also a time for innovation and potentially even reinvention. Implement these transparent, honest ideas into your business for a foundation that can weather influx as well as downturn and benefit from long-term ROI.
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Tom Welbourne is the Director & Founder of The Good Marketer, a Digital Marketing Agency in London which works with Small Businesses to drive more traffic, generate conversions and increase sales.
