4 Ways To Stay On Top In An Uncertain Economy

Whenever the economy feels a little unstable, the first thing to go is the typical ebb and flow of consumer behavior. It used to be clear cut: people just stopped spending and did whatever they could to save.

Now, though, folks are still spending when logic and past trends say they shouldn’t. But they’re buying different things than usual, and there isn’t always a discernible rhyme or reason why.

In this modern age, the economy may be fickle, but human beings are even more so. Here’s how to stay on top and win with customers when habits, trends, and the market are anyone’s guess.

1. Conduct A Competitive Content Analysis

Often, your success in economically uncertain times boils down to how you’re representing yourself to your customers. You want them to see you as a helpful, authoritative information source and a trusted ally offering useful solutions. You don’t want to spam them with a barrage of ads at a time when they’re barely getting by.

Plus, during times of economic uncertainty, brand loyalty tends to go out the window. People can’t always afford to stick to the brands they normally love, since they have to cut costs somewhere. Customers hunt for the lowest prices they can find online, giving you a unique opportunity to be discovered.

But in order to be discovered, you have to be discoverable, which means knowing what the algorithms are looking for. You also need to know what your competition is doing right about content and how you can do better. They might have terrific, informative content in one subject area, but be totally lacking in material on another.

The best way to handle this is by performing a competitive content analysis of your and your competitors’ content. A competitive content analysis tells you why other businesses in your niche might be ranking higher in search results. Then, it can help you audit your own content to tell you what’s missing or what might need optimizing.

2. Use Tech To Streamline Resource Management

If you’re in retail, your business could be hemorrhaging money to supply chain issues, stockouts, and inventory storage costs. Order too much supply, and you spend an arm and a leg on warehouse space or excess inventory and liquidation fees. Order too little, and you aggravate your customers, who will turn to other businesses when you run out of merchandise.

The problem only gets worse if you sell anything perishable — particularly food and beverages that come with an expiration date. Then, you’re not just looking at storage and liquidation costs, but getting a bad rap for contributing to food waste.

Even if you don’t sell a physical product, your business could be losing money and customers to poor resource planning. Maybe you’re paying too many employees to work a call center shift that doesn’t see a lot of volume. Or perhaps you don’t have enough staff on the floor for peak times at your facility, testing customer patience.

When it comes to inventory and staffing management, demand planning and predictive analytics are your friend. In retail, you’ll want the best inventory planning software available at your budget, to know exactly how much to order. In all industries, try workforce demand forecasting algorithms to always have the right amount of people on shift at a given time.

3. Offer Lower Prices… Maybe

Low prices can be a winning strategy in times when wallets are tight and customer spending is less predictable. When times are tough, consumers often forgo brand loyalty and seek out the cheapest products. If you can offer lower prices without sacrificing quality, your company may be able to weather some pretty harsh storms.

Until recently, AriZona Iced Tea managed to keep the price of its most popular drink cans to only 99 cents. The company did this for several decades by keeping advertising, materials, and transportation budgets low and charging more for less iconic products. When the company was finally forced to raise prices, it only did so on certain tea products and in certain markets.

If keeping prices low isn’t realistic, consider offering your customers some flexible payment options. Buy Now, Pay Later providers like Afterpay, Affirm, and Klarna have gained increasing popularity over the last several years. Offering BNPL at checkout or creating your own flexible payment plan can keep customers around longer without impacting your bottom line.

All of that said, there are times when offering cheaper options isn’t a good idea. If you’re a luxury brand, lowering prices could dilute your brand and destroy your reputation. If the numbers aren’t looking good, you’ll have to find another way to keep sales going strong. And this goes for all companies: sacrificing customer experience for lower prices will always hurt you in the long run.

4. Retain Your Top Talent

Whatever you do, don’t jump to laying off workers except in the absolute worst case scenario. It’s bad PR, and you risk losing some of the smartest workers with the most institutional knowledge at your organization. Replacing knowledgeable workers with less-expensive new talent can also hurt your customer experience and cost you in onboarding and training.

It’s important to note that a vast majority of consumers now say they favor brands that share their values. Many report they will switch from one brand to another if they disagree with the company’s ideology. If your customers value humanitarian concerns, they aren’t going to want to see undue firings. Hold on to your best people if you want to hold on to your loyal customers.

Layoffs don’t just scare your customers off; they can also prevent you from attracting and retaining good talent later on. No one wants to work for an employer they worry could let them go at the drop of a hat.

Preserving Customer Experience

At the end of the day, any good strategy for surviving an uncertain economy is really just about one thing. Prioritize your customer — their needs, their wants, their values — and you’re business will benefit.

If you’re not sure what your customers want, survey them, and make them feel involved in your brand decisions. Reach out on social media, send useful emails, respond to comments, and turn your customer base into a real community.

Read Also:

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• Customer Service Advantages And Disadvantages For Your Business Growth