Covid-19 has ushered in a digital revolution that will build more resilient businesses
OPINION: There’s a baker in Hamilton. He has several outlets in the Waikato that typically thrive six days a week. Foot traffic is steady and his commercial operation is growing. He employs 70 people.
Six weeks ago the internet was useful, but played no real part in his business. But as the lockdown struck and he was faced with weeks of significant revenue loss, he built an online store in three days, stood up a contactless delivery system, and took to Facebook to spread the word.
What might have been weeks without cash flow ended up being a few days. Those 70 people remain employed, with some now applying new skills to online customer care and digital ordering systems, and he anticipates the digital component of Volare Bakery will account for an increasing proportion of sales through level 3 and beyond.
Covid-19 has driven us all online, delivering the digital revolution promised 20 years ago in a matter of weeks.
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Online grocery shopping, banking and video conference calling are some of the main drivers of our digital crash course and now, in level three, retail and restaurants have joined the fray and given us a glimpse of digital’s potential to make life easier and more productive.
Through lockdown and even without dependable revenue streams, businesses used social media platforms to stay connected to their customers. Many joined online voucher programmes that connected them to loyal customers keen to support local enterprise. And many found ways to continue to operate using an online commerce platform and delivery system.
Online shopping is not new, neither are digital shop fronts, web pages and social media engagement, but now it is rippling into every industry and its importance is paramount. Covid-19 has been a crash course in digital and without question business must move sales online and reorient their businesses to operate in a digital, contactless economy because that is where we are all going to be for the foreseeable future.
Without the ability to congregate physically, we are going to be conducting the majority of our personal connections and commerce in the digital world. Our customers are there, our events and conferences are likely to be there, it is where we will connect, it is where we will innovate and learn, it is where we can be more productive and efficient.
Just as good branding and an exciting shopfront attract the eye, businesses will need to develop a digital shop front, become accustomed to search engine optimisation, find the right social platform to connect with customers, and work out how to reach out, have clout and standout in the online world.
For some this will be a case of reorienting sales channels and changing how they serve customers. For others this will require a pivot in their product or service, and a change in how they communicate and support their customers. And for all of us we will need to build the digital skills and capability of our people and society at large so we can all benefit.
N -one is immune from this change. As advanced as we believed BNZ’s digital offering was, lockdown brought into sharp focus the need to better support our customers aged 70 years and over. Faced with closed branches and disruption to the normal way of doing things, our overloaded phone lines and internet banking weren’t up to the task of adequately serving older customers. We instituted a dedicated aged care support line, and helped our customers not only get online, but stay there and become comfortable operating in a digital environment.
Where once we had a handful of over 70-year-old customers becoming internet banking users, we now had thousands of new users logging in for the first time and most show no signs of looking back. We are locking in this change. We will keep the dedicated support line and continue to help our customers build digital skills, so they can manage their money online. We will also be launching newly-developed money management tools soon which will reduce the need for some customers to leave their house to conduct their finances. In turn, this will improve the efficiency of our branches where staff can now concentrate on supporting customers in those important financial moments where face-to-face contact is a must.
Change is a challenge and for some businesses the stresses that lockdown has wrought on their sector means they will fail, but there is no riding this one out and waiting for the return to normal. Yearning for the economy that we had before is futile. We can’t go back. Our border is closed and will remain so for some time. We cannot rely on the influx of foreign students, tourists and temporary workers. We must serve the domestic market, recruit locally, learn new skills and take our businesses and aspirations online.
New Zealand is undergoing an economic reboot and digital technologies need to be at its core. They connect us locally, reduce costs of being far away from world markets and make it more likely for Kiwi innovation to get noticed. Applied correctly, they can make businesses more efficient, sustainable and reduce environmental impacts. They have the potential to expand markets, improve the spread of new ideas, deliver more productive and better paying jobs, and allow productive Kiwi SMEs to grow and invest.
Covid-19 has been incredibly challenging for families and for businesses; no-one will be immune from its impacts. But the opportunities in front of us are immense. The path we forge now will be different from the one we had planned. With digital enablement and strong social connections at our core, we can build a nation of resilient and innovative businesses, create jobs, support communities and shape a better economy.
Angela Mentis is the managing director and chief executive of BNZ