S3 Blog

During a credit crunch it can be very tempting for a business to almost refuse to spend money on investments and these can be seen as quite risky. No business want to lose money and during a credit crunch businesses bottom line is the key to the business succeeding. As a result many businesses will not invest and this can actually be to their detriment as it is possible to invest your way out of trouble.

Whilst it may seem quite foolhardy to invest money during a credit crunch investing your way out of trouble can sometimes be the most sensible move for a business. This can be for several reasons, such as:

1. Often making investments in small, up and coming new businesses which have massive potential, can be a very wise decision during a credit crunch - if the business can afford it. Investing money during a credit crunch usually works out cheaper than investing during a time of financial stability. So in effect a business can invest less money and still benefit in the same way once a credit crunch is over.

2. Making wise investment during the credit crunch can be a lifesaver for many businesses. Just make sure that if you choose to invest in the business capital that you have done a great deal of research on your potential investment before parting with any money.

3. Some businesses find that by investing money in a certain way they can actually offer customers more options. So instead of weakening the business by spending money, investing money works out as a preferred method of strengthening the business.

4. Investing should always make the business money in the long run, if your investment has this potential then you should take it with both hands.

5. Maybe your business actually needs to invest to survive a credit crunch. If this is the case and that is all that is standing between your business succeeding or failing then investment is the obvious choice for any smart business owner.

6. Investing doesn’t necessarily have to involve money - your business may need to invest time in a project to succeed. As a business owner if you can see that some of your employees time could be invested and could produce healthy profits then this is an option that you should certainly consider.

7. Look at the long-term when thinking about making investments - to make sure that your business can survive a credit crunch you need to look into the future. If you can see that an investment could stand to make a massive return in two or three years this should be appealing. However before you invest make sure that your business can stand to be without this money for a set period of time, otherwise your investment would be in vain

Investing your way out of trouble certainly is possible but it is essential that a business owner knows that the business can afford to invest any money before any transactions go ahead.

With the credit crunch on everyone’s minds it is no wonder that businesses are developing customer strategies to cope with the downturn. Any business that planned ahead and had a contingency plan for this will no doubt be feeling less of the strain, but for any business who did not have a plan or a strategy here are 10 customer strategies for the downturn:

1.Find out what kind of a return the business is getting from its marketing. Doing this will help to streamline business costs and will prevent customers from feeling the impact of over priced and ineffective marketing.

2.Target pricing – this means looking at your pricing and targeting it more effectively. If your customers can no longer afford your rates (and this will show in your sale figures) it is time to think about carefully targeting your prices

3.Listen to customer feedback – this is always essential for a business but never more so than in a credit crunch, listen to what your customers want and take notice! Do this and it will make all the difference.

4.Be relevant to the correct customers – being too general in your marketing and casting your net too wide can have disastrous effects during a downturn. Businesses who try to do this will find that they rapidly lose revenue and customers in the process by trying to be everything for everyone.

5.Enhance the customer experience – make sure that you are using CRM software that will make every customer contact count and enable a business to get the most out of these every time.

6.Perform a ‘healthcheck’ on your business – see which customers are loyal even during a downturn and give them a little something back. This could be in the way of loyalty discounts, something which customers are always keen to use when money is tight. Remember you want to keep hold of loyal customers and not just the ones that buy from you when you are giving discounts.

7.Increase customer engagement – engaging customers with your brand or business will create loyal customers which is exactly what you are looking for.

8.Take a close look at your loyalty schemes – are they targeting the right customers and are you, as a business getting the most out of them? If not it is time to change your loyalty schemes and raise revenue at the same time.

9.Think about affiliate programmes – these can stand to make customers who know, understand and willing to commit themselves to an affiliate programme a fair amount of money, whilst driving more customers your way. If you don’t already have an affiliate programme maybe it is time to think about one.

10.Keep costs to a minimum so that you are not having to penalise customers by increasing prices – do this by trying to use just one software application to run your business through, such as S3 CRM – the one stop shop for all your business and customer relationship management needs.

Hi All,

Just in case you have missed it, check out our new video.

S3CRM Video

Sarah