What are some strategies for staying connected with customers and teams while most are working remotely?
1. Establish weekly video conferencing meetings. During the meetings, each team employee can provide updates on customer feedback (i.e., roadblocks customers are experiencing) and have them share their WIN's. Encourage a culture of open communication and feedback.
2. Communicate clear company guidelines for working remotely. This might include the following: who's eligible for remote work, schedules that cover visibility and utilizing tools for availability, what are the allowances for work flexibility, set expected response time to internal and external email communications. Productivity measurements and outcomes should be a part of the expectations as well.
3. Having good cloud-based management tools to manage communications and information for projects is essential to providing improved work efficiencies. This will eliminate the confusion that comes with managing projects and communicating with the team without having to be in one location.
4. Review and make necessary updates to the company security policies to include company equipment such as laptops, cell phones, no public wi-fi. Be sure to include the employee's responsibility in maintaining confidential company and customer information.
5. The wellbeing of your employees and customers matter. Implement surveys to give a check and balance on how everyone is doing. Provide ongoing appreciation for the work completed outside of normal working conditions, going above and beyond to provide additional support to customers.
"At the end of the day people won't remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.” ― Maya Angelou