Honesty Is The Best COVID-19 Policy
By Jordan Brannon, President at Coalition Technologies
For nearly 10 years, I’ve had the opportunity to grow a digital marketing agency focused on e-commerce businesses (Coalition Technologies).
Founded by my brother, Coalition was a well timed entrance into what would become one of the fastest growing industries in the world. Better yet, e-commerce would sustain that growth as it ate up more and more of traditional retail’s lunch.
Due in part to our early focus on e-commerce and also due to our commitment to building scalable solutions early on, the agency thrived. March 2020 was on pace to be our best month ever. Client satisfaction was at an all time high, our teams were growing, our sales pipeline looked encouraging, and we were looking forward to a banner year.
BUT, this little sneaky bastard of a virus made its way from Wuhan, China, around the globe, and right into our neighborhoods. By March, we already knew what was coming — our CEO (the aforementioned brother) was fairly prescient about what COVID would do to the global economy and had planned for a rapid deceleration even before Washington, New York, and California started taking measures to control the spread of the virus. So, as our sales pipeline evaporated and clients were forced to pause services due to quarantine measures, we and our teams were well prepared.
What did we do differently than everyone else? Why are we still operating at the same staffing levels as when the virus first hit?
Communication is probably our biggest non-secret.
By the end of February, we’d already begun talking to our leadership team and our individual team members about what we thought was going to happen. Via email, all hands meetings, and smaller one on one meetings, we communicated with everyone our outlook for the economy and our national health.
As the days and weeks accelerated the negative news and the real impact of the virus, our team had already mentally braced for the descent. Kind of like the run up to a big drop on a roller coaster, your nerves will always get a bit frayed, BUT at least you have the chance to prep yourself for what’s coming.
I think that preemptive, honest communication was critical. When the drop did hit, most of our team was already looking to reduce personal expenses, mindfully store necessary goods, and self-quarantine.
Our standards for communication were pretty simple- be straightforward and honest. State facts as facts and opinions as opinions. Use data to backup your projections whenever possible. Emphasize personal health and well being as central to all our communication. Don’t mask the bad, but don’t just bury people in it either.
In the third week of March, we really hit that big roller coaster drop. We had more clients pause work in a 10 day stretch than we had ever had in any month in our decade plus of work. Most of our team members ended up in lock down within the next two weeks. Most of them had friends and family who were laid off or furloughed as a result of quarantine measures. Some had friends and family who fell ill.
That was honestly the scariest stretch- as much as we had prepared and messaged what was coming, you can never quite be immune to that sinking feeling in the bottom of your stomach.
However, all our preparatory work and communication seemed to really pay off. The drop came and went, and people stayed working. The resources we had accrued for clients helped prevent some losses and have since allowed some clients to get back to work with us sooner.
Best of all, since COVID19 hit, we’ve not had to lay anyone off or furlough our staff.
We did have a financial impact to be sure, but that too we were ready for. My brother and I volunteered to lead the way with the deepest paycuts, then reached out to key team members in leadership roles for the same. When we made the announcement in a company-wide meeting what we were doing, a number of team members stepped up and volunteered their own contributions. Then more did. When we finally asked everyone who was able to make some commitment, over half the company came through.
I was overwhelmed. I’m not an emotional guy but honestly, I could have cried seeing the outpouring of support for the company and its people. After spending a decade working to better understand what culture meant for a company, here was proof we’d built it.
Our team has been extremely positive through the whole thing too. We see team members taking time for personal chat and conversations. Checking in on other team members in parts of the globe that are seeing the worst impact. Putting together fun and encouraging ways to help break up the mood that has settled in as all of our days begin to look vaguely like the same room in our homes.
We’re certainly not out of the woods yet, and unless certain politicians set aside political ambitions and make a meaningful commitment to preserving life and economic opportunity, we might be in the woods a lot longer.
However, given our experience so far, I know that honest, straightforward communication that prioritizes the people around you is a surefire way to get us through whatever comes next.
Even if there is another curve or big drop in this ride in the near future, we’ll be ready for it.
