All planning is local...

A company’s reopening plan and actions are critical parts of winning back customers during this pandemic. Customers want creative combinations of service and safety and are willing to adapt to those changing practices. Good companies see the restrictions they’re under for what they are and not what they hoped they would be… meaning, accept them, figure out how to adapt to them, and get the benefit for their employees and customers and bottom line from them.  Meaning: study your options, develop appropriate plans, train and coach your employees, explain the new “normal” to everyone, keep them focused, and adapt as things evolve. I’m still steaming about the experience I had the other night at a local restaurant here – they either didn’t plan or care, or they were just inept in maintaining their focus. Posting on YELP and other social media sites or deciding whether to go back and be repeat customers are the ways people respond to the marketplace, especially in these challenging times: that’s the real bottom line for any reopening plan. It’s the product AND the way it’s presented. You control that, not some policy or politician – because just like they say about politics, all Covid-19 plans are local. In your shop, on your shoulders. Take action and see that for what it is – not what or how you hoped it would be, today.

 Fred Crawford: President of Aflac Inc.