Is it too late for small businesses? I see an opportunity

Mr. Naftali Nyabuto

I have spoken to hundreds of small and medium businesses on what I call ‘the spider economy’, and ‘loyalty programs’ on the subject of business process disruptions.

The disruption that is affecting distribution channels and customer-centric solutions is here with us and they are going to hit hard anybody trying to resist them.

Unfortunately, that disruption has been glaringly exposed at this time of the pandemic, and it has gotten many businesses snoring heavily under the billow of complacency. All this because many of them, have always been misled to think that moments of harvest means a season of celebrations and therefore forgotten to purchase seed for the next planting season.

Speaking in one of the workshops organized by one of the leading loyalty program providers in Kenya mzawadi, I said, ‘Retailers and manufacturers in Kenya are the most non-progressive businesses in-terms of technology because they have always slumbered into thinking that, as long as the product is moving, then their customers are loyal’.
This kind of thinking has exposed those brands at the coronavirus crisis time because they have realized that they have been ‘winking at the lady ‘in the dark. They no longer know where to get a quarantined client or how to communicate with them.

Manufacturers, but also most small and micro retailers do not only experience this nature of brand complacency and business egoism.

I believe that there should be no excuse for any size of business as to why they are not using any technologies, including even the simplest of mobile platforms to sell, engage and create loyalty programs. The technology shall help businesses to streamline their value chains, create an experience in customer relations, customer acquisition, reduce marketing costs, creating alternative selling channels, and understand customer behaviors.

Fortunately, they are not expensive tools, with Software as a Service (SaaS) models of technology emerging and charging as low as Sh1000 per month, you have no excuse not to catch up. This concept of technological advancement might have seemed farfetched mostly for small and micro businesses, but now the prophecy has come to haunt many.

The customer is no longer coming to knock on doors, value chains have been disrupted, customer behaviors have changed, marketing budgets are shrinking, companies are panicking, and all of a sudden, we are all in the dark, looking for that elusive client and praying he will make the next call to you.

But it is not too late to correct the mistakes, you have the opportunity to bounce back and retrace where you went wrong.

The first strategy your business needs to take is to remove the veil, your business had blocked your customers from calling you, emailing you or talking to you since you had a brick and mortar business or you were a manufacturer and never cared.

Now is the time to have your contacts online, be reachable and have a personalized connection with your clients. Remember, customers cannot connect with the brand, they connect with the people and the product.

After the veil, the brand needs to be open to the idea of starting to embrace partnerships. Unfortunately, solitary tendencies will crash your company. Collaborate and your business will be back much quicker than you thought or remain solitary and you may take years to recover.

The next strategy is to get your presence online. You cannot be talking of globalization and remain offline.

At these times of pandemic, clients are utilizing online platforms to research, order essential goods, learn and keep themselves updated. Another important pointer is for every business to stop living in the past glory. It doesn’t mean when you had a good harvest the past year, subsequent years are going to be the same. Your business needs to live with the trend, be ahead of the park by aspiring to innovate and use technologies before it is too late.

Last tip, and this is like a life story, keep in touch with your clients. This is where it gets interesting, if you were wearing the veil and never bothered to know your client or never made an effort to understand them, I am not sure how this will work for you.  However, if you were lucky to have had technology in place, keep talking to them, give them hope, let them know you care and you will see how they will stream back when they recover from the recession.

As a business, therefore, you have an opportunity to think not only about survival but also about your recovery plan. Use this moment to strategize, establish partnerships, negotiate them and wait for the right moment to bounce back. The fact that even the senior-most executives of any company are at home, this equalizer is the opportunity you will not want to miss.
Mr Nyabuto is the Chief Executive Officer Tally International