What do HP, FedEx and Google have in common? They are market leaders who were either born or grew exponentially during past depressions and recessions. Their secret? They all believe in the principle that “within every crisis there are great opportunities.” 

You see, in a downturn, there are those who look beyond the obvious, “How do I reduce my costs?” And ask better questions, such as: “How do I keep and attract more customers in a downturn?” Here are three practical ways to get some answers and perhaps find some of those hidden opportunities for yourself.

 
Focus on customer value

Whether in boom times or bad times, getting closer to your customers is always a great idea – even more so during a recession. Why? Because they will be experiencing rapidly changing priorities, and will be looking for new ways to satisfy them. Rediscovering how your customers are redefining value is a smart move.

Bike Hike Adventures is one such example of customer insight. Their intimate customer knowledge won them recognition by National Geographic Adventure magazine as “One of the Best Biking Outfitters in the World.” Armed with customer insights, gleaned from touring with their clients and following up with every traveler after each tour, they are able to continually design award-wining trips and offer updated value-add services.

So what can you do? Well, one thing our company often does is hold insight workshops to discover how our clients’ customers are redefining value and responding to their environment.

Innovate or speculate

Innovation lies at the heart of a company’s long-term viability, particularly during recessionary times. While your competitors are speculating on how to best defend themselves, you can be making rapid gains in competitive advantage with calculated innovation initiatives. 

One of the areas that can offer rapid payoff is service innovation. By taking a closer look at your processes along your service-delivery value chain, you can get a clear picture of your company’s value proposition – from inside and out. Why bother? By reallocating resources to areas where you can create greater customer value, you can increase your profit margins and even reduce operating costs intelligently without sacrificing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

For instance, Vancouver-based Culinary Capers Catering needed to modernize their practices without sacrificing their hard-won market share. So they decided to rethink their core processes, streamlining operations to deliver value to their customers in new ways. The results? Since upgrading their processes, Culinary has doubled in size. Witness the power of service innovation.

Protect your relationships

During recessionary times, resist the temptation to cut corners on your customer relationships.

When times are tough, no matter how afraid you may be, never sacrifice your customer relationships. Notice that successful companies never abandon their marketing strategies in a downturn – they merely adapt them. Instead of cutting back on marketing and advertising spending, they look for alternatives such as blogs or social media to spread their message. Remember, there is always a way to get a bull’s-eye as long as you have a target.

Winning companies always find a way to succeed in tough times. You too can thrive in economic downturns by choosing to stay positive and focused on the fundamentals – delivering outstanding value to your customers. Involve the right people – both from within and from qualified, creative outsiders with a fresh perspective. Ensure that while others panic, you are already seizing opportunities to innovate and grow.

The captain of the first American Women’s Everest Expedition, Alison Levine, says it best: “Storms are always temporary. Then the skies clear, and the sun comes out. In the meantime, you have to keep your bearings, make sure you keep your strength up so you are ready to go back up the mountain again.” Sound advice for us all.

So what strategies are you contemplating using to help you ride out the storm? Are there any specific obstacles you are facing right now preventing you from taking action? I’m interested in hearing from you on this. Please write in to me. I’ll share the results of my informal polling with you in upcoming issues.

Miin Lim is a senior business advisor at Ascent Group, a firm specializing in optimizing service delivery to generate revenue & create sustainable long-term value. Contact Miin at contact@pushthelimit.com and the team at www.pushthelimit.com.