Among the chaos and confusion with COVID, opportunities emerge within the market, innovation and ingenuity abound, and we are reminded of the importance of leadership and clarity in many areas from families to organizations to communities.
There is not a single person or business not affected by COVID in some way.
You may have experienced some anxiety over the uncertain unfolding of events in the last few weeks, along with possible sales dips and tough decisions that many companies are grappling with, from better understanding the fast pace of the changing environment and grasping what best to do next.
The market still needs you; your consumers still need you; and your organization, employees, co-workers need you; and we need good solid levelheaded leadership now more than ever.
What’s the next best indicated step? Clarity and focus.
In a time like this when there is confusion, ambiguity and uncertainty there can be a tendency to have fuzzy brain and lack of clarity. Dr. Henry Cloud Clinical Psychologist and author of “Boundaries for Leaders” wrote about the importance of “setting key boundaries of attention”, that “when we look at great leaders… part of their success is attributed to the fact that they’re able to set key boundaries in several areas. One of the most important is their ability to create executable attention.”
Individual and organizational ingenuity, innovation, and determination are finding solutions for the COVID epidemic not to mention the voluntary compliance of individuals with social distancing measures. There are new opportunities in this current crisis, from Etsy providers making masks, to staffing companies that supply nurses to hospitals and increased demand in post-acute skilled. In addition, other types of care demands have experienced an uptick in the market from workman’s compensation groups and insurance providers partnering with large corporations on safety measures in order to keep distribution centers and grocery stores operational with hiring occupational health workers such as nurses for screening, evaluation and benefiting employees, community and public health.
Home Care demand is still steady and growing with some temporary disruption to logistics flow, slowing of new client adds, while experiencing natural attrition; eventually the adult children will return to work, the economy will get moving again and we can expect a pent up higher curve with demand.
Community-based care is adapting to connect with customers offering virtual tours and will experience a similar demand curve when Covid is over.
Things are changing while we find a new normal. In any changing business environment, we need to understand the evolving patterns of buyer behavior and fine-tune strategies appropriately.
For example, Trella health CEO Ian Juliano and his team (Trella Health is Healthcare IT firm that empowers post-acute care providers and their referral sources to work together across the care continuum for healthier more cost-effective care outcomes) had a great forum discussion last week on trends in healthcare and the post-acute referral partners are prioritizing their care networks on where they are sending patients.
It’s as important as ever to look at the data in a meaningful strategic way and during this time to put yourself in a position in your market to capture more client acquisition opportunities, increase relationship capital and serve the community.
As sales start to drop, businesses typically cut costs, reduce prices, and postpone new investments that will create competitive advantages in the future. Marketing expenditures in areas from communications to research are often far reduced across the spectrum. Looking at the history of recessions, depressions and cyclical markets, Harvard Business Journal compared companies that responded rather than reacted to measured change initiatives and ‘such indiscriminate cost cutting is a mistake. While it is wise to keep costs under control’, keeping customer needs at the forefront and taking a laser scalpel to cost cutting rather than a broadcast approach to the marketing budget, and adjust strategies with agility, re-calibrate tactics , product and service offerings in response to shifting demand will help create a competitive advantage in order to evolve and grow both during and after the pandemic, a recession and even a depression.
Keep checking in with customers, learn and understand your market inside and out and what consumers are in most need of, anticipating trends by following the data flow and consumer trends. As this pandemic reaches its peak and scales down to more normal levels, continue to position yourself as a top of mind value partner.
Working with a business consultant is a great is a great way to help improve outcomes and maximize your investment with your healthcare business.
Are you exploring ways to maximize your results? Whether it’s recruitment and retention, sales, customer service, marketing; maximize your return on investment with your home care, hospice, home health or assisted living business.
Schedule a discovery meeting with Sixth Sense Solutions today. Visit our appointment calendar at https://SixthSenseDiscoveryMeeting.as.me/, call us at 949-241-6690, or you can reach our team via email at info@SixSenseSolutions.com