Please turn your device to portrait.
With homebound consumers focused on renos, the Coronavirus pandemic is generally understood to have been good for business in the window furnishings space. However, ensuring a smooth operation mid-crisis is not without its challenges.
Business coach and consultant Tony Cassar talked resistance-building, COVID 19-proof marketing strategies and more, with company leaders including:-
Tony Cassar: Building business resilience has become more relevant than ever during COVID-19. What’s been your company’s experience in this regard?
Ron Gottlieb – Ricky Richards: We had to adapt to a new way of doing things. We had to be open to totally new ideas and our people had to really get out of their comfort zone. The team has become even stronger and the tech that we adopted has allowed the team and the business to grow. We have to help and support each other from both a business perspective and a personal perspective, especially when we had the parents in our team home schooling as well as attending meetings and carrying out their roles as normal. Many team members have put their hands up to be trained in other areas of the company and are therefore more multi-skilled, which is adding value across the board. The Ricky team spirit has always been strong on service. We also have a commitment to maintain our quality of products and stock levels.
Graham Gibson -Bartlett Blinds: We found that regular open and honest communication with staff has been important to maintain resilience and ensure staff morale remains high. The diversity of our product offering and our ability to adapt and transfer skill-sets across the broader Bartlett business have also been critical to ensure a level of resilience through the pandemic.
Chris Parkinson – Ozroll: We fortunately didn’t need to proactively focus on this area as apart from initial concerns, our company continued to grow. I’d add though that we are very mindful that we have found ourselves in a very fortunate situation by maintaining a business as usual approach, whereas we know that there are others, particularly those involved in industries such as events and services, who have really struggled and in some cases may not survive this pandemic. Managing growth can be challenging enough when relying on regular supply chains, but more so with extended lead times and major disruption to the logistical networks. The recent Melbourne lock down increases the challenges for us both in terms of procurement and supply of products.
David Fezer – Alpha Tubular Motors: We focused all energy on growing our market share during what were unknown and unprecedented times. Rather than cut back on staff or hours, we did the opposite. Warren Buffet’s approach is that when there’s a crash, start buying in heavily. We put more money and energy into growing our business than ever before, including some pivots to meet the market’s needs. We now have more diversity in our offer and have never been so busy.
David Morris – Image Blinds: When COVID-19 first hit, we moved quickly to protect the business by reducing expenses, and unfortunately that meant reducing staffing levels. I took the tough decision (which I regret, as shortly afterwards as jobkeeper was then announced) to reduce our staff by 15%. Fortunately since then we have been able to hire the same number of people back; not all the same people and not all the same positions, but the same number of people. We’re currently looking for more people now.
Debbie Hessenberger – Vertilux: We’re adapting to changing circumstances by implementing appropriate strategies, all while preparing for a potentially extended period of heightened uncertainty regarding demand and supply. We’re also working to anticipate long-lasting changes to the work environment, while at the same time, not forgetting to communicate our wins to boost morale.
Joseph Zammit – Apollo Blinds: We effectively informed our staff members, customers and the community through a formal announcement from our Directors at Apollo Blinds on how we have responded to COVID-19. With the pandemic declared by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on 11 March 2020, we were forced to review and change our business operations. Ensuring the health and safety of our staff members and customers was and remains our number one priority. We continued to operate our business as usual with the exception of a reduction in the staff in our showrooms during the first phase of lockdown in late March. Our objective was to provide the best and safest experience possible when conducting a free measure and quote consultation. We also rolled out hand sanitised stations for staff members and customers to grow accustomed to safe hygiene practices becoming the social norm. Despite the fact our showrooms hours had been reduced across our franchise stores/branches, our online, phone and video consultations were still operating at full capacity.
We incorporated a number of new measures:
APOLLO BLINDS SOCIAL DISTANCING
For safety reasons, our sales consultants now exercise “Zero Contact” that restricts any unnecessary physical contact with customers. Social distancing of 1.5 metres from customers is required during consultation and installation.
REINFORCED HYGIENE AND HANDLING
We encourage all staff to practice rigorous hygiene and handling measures in the workplace. This includes regular hand washing or sanitisation. Blinds, controls, remote controls are all wiped down with disinfectant during the installation process.
STAFF HEALTH AND SAFETY
Apollo Blinds will closely monitor the advice and recommendations from health authorities and ensure we are in the best position to minimise the spread of infection should a staff member present with symptoms or be diagnosed with Covid 19. In turn, we ask customers to inform a staff member to reschedule any appointments if they’re showing any symptoms, or have been exposed to anyone with the virus.
David Snoad – Pinz: We started taking notice of the news about the virus very early on and were discussing the potential impact with our customers and suppliers well before things really took hold. As a senior management team we were looking at staffing, production and marketing strategies, and planning contingencies early in the year. Our mantra throughout has been to ensure that if these unfortunate circumstances lead to Pinz having to temporarily close, it would have to be due to something that is completely out of our control, rather than something that we could have planned for or managed to the best of our ability. In regards to developing resilience, the best thing we did was to ensure that we were educated and making decisions based on sound advice. We spent time ensuring that we were on top of all the employment conditions and stimulus packages (as much as that was possible in such a quickly changing situation). Although we didn’t always have the answers, we were able to take some comfort in feeling like we had some foresight, which gave us a sense of control.
Tony Cassar: During COVID-19, businesses had to respond to a rapidly unfolding situation without any guiding precedent. What critical challenges have you faced during the pandemic?
Ron Gottlieb – Ricky Richards: Understanding the unknown as it arises; being aware that things will never go back to where they were; managing the expectations of our team and keeping as many people working as possible. For those of us who have been in the workforce a long time, the way we do things has changed. For those just starting out it will just be their way of doing things. It will be interesting to see their reactions as restrictions begin to lift. The issue of state borders and how they are impacting businesses and lives so near to each other in such different ways is also a challenge. And a big one of course is maintaining our high standard of service and support to the industries that we are involved in.
Graham Gibson – Bartlett Blinds: There have been some challenges in relation to sourcing raw materials, which in turn has created increased lead-time pressures to ensure we are meeting the needs of our valued customer base. As with all businesses, the operational implications of maintaining an extremely clean and hygienic workplace and limiting face to face contact present new challenges for staff. We have adapted well to utilising technology to remotely stay in touch with customers and suppliers, however the lack of face to face contact is certainly a challenge in the business world when building rapport and meeting new people.
Chris Parkinson – Ozroll: Our main challenge from the outset was to maintain a calm and confident workforce. There was a lot of trepidation and fear of the unknown so we needed to address that and get on the front foot. Maintaining regular communication with all staff, combined with the introduction of standard COVID-19 practices such as hygiene and social distancing, helped promote a safe and healthy environment. It was also pleasing that increasing orders and demand for products contributed to a business as usual approach.
David Fezer – Alpha Tubular Motors: The key challenge we face is keeping up with enormous growth and stock forecasts. We pride ourselves on never running out of stock, delivering exceptional service every time and seeing 100 per cent growth rates month after month compared to the previous year. I believe we still have not run out of stock. I’m so proud of our amazing team of champions.
David Morris – Image Blinds: The main challenge at the moment is getting enough stock from fabric and component suppliers to keep up with manufacturing. Fortunately we have some very strong, and long term relationships, which are beyond the normal customer / supplier relationship, our suppliers are our friends, and many of our friends have been fantastic in working through Covid 19’s challenges with us
Debbie Hessenberger – Vertilux: Maintaining enhanced hygiene and physical distancing have proved challenging, along with the shutdown of European suppliers and effective management of resources. Another critical one for us was remote team management and engagement.
Joseph Zammit – Apollo Blinds: Given the uncertainty and nature of this virus, we have had customers questioning the origin of the products that we make. Most blinds, awnings, roller shutters, curtains and screens are Australian Made except for our shutters. A formal message was sent out to our customers advising them that the whole transit process is automated from Country of Origin (China) to our warehouse (Sydney), with no human physical contact made during that time.
As the outbreak occurred in China and spread across the world, one of our product ranges (shutters) was impacted with the delay of shipment (up to several weeks) for arrival into Australia. This resulted in delays to installation and delivery of products to our customers for existing jobs. In the end, our customers were very understanding and appreciative, as long as we continued to be transparent and kept them updated on the status of their order.
Consumer spending was at a minimum during the first lockdown in late March. People were more conservative with their spending as they faced the unknown such as a potential loss of unemployment. Sales were impacted with a drop as compared to our previous year’s sales performance. Apollo Blinds definitely felt the sting as we moved through uncharted waters in the months of March and April 2020.
David Snoad – Pinz: Given the significant potential for a severe drop in business, the fact that we are describing an increase in sales as a key challenge could sound a little ungrateful, but it does present a challenge particularly as the traditional awning and Christmas season gets closer. Planning for the seasonal increase from our normal winter production levels is pretty standard, but when that level is increased significantly (as it has been) then the potential lift in capacity that may be required needs to be much more closely considered. The other challenge here is the unpredictability of what this summer season might actually bring. Do we plan for the same percentage seasonal growth as per previous years? Can this level of sales activity grow to that degree or will it plateau or even drop off? Where’s that crystal ball when you need it?
Tony Cassar: What new measures/strategies have you implemented during COVID-19?
Ron Gottlieb – Ricky Richards: On a personal level I have grown an outrageous beard which I have nicknamed Jobkeeper! Who knows if it will last beyond September? Aside from that, we have consolidated our warehousing to be more efficient. We changed shifts in our warehouse and administration areas to work different, separated hours, so our teams could be protected in health and also protected in their jobs. These changes, while not originally slated as permanent, have given even more flexibility to the group without any detriment to the performance of the company and have now been implemented in a more permanent way. We are now open for more hours each day, which also helps us in assisting our customers. At the very beginning we made a decision to maintain our service levels so if anything we have become even more focused on our strong stock levels as well as working very hard with our suppliers to maintain pricing. All parts of the company have pitched in with this endgame in mind. We needed to be available for our customers, who were also obviously facing a tough situation, and we wanted to make sure that they knew they could depend on us.
Graham Gibson – Bartlett Blinds: Our Bartlett Blinds delivery vans are only used by the same driver each week, with no sharing of vehicles. Most other new practices and strategies have been driven by the Government protocols such as increased hygiene measures and mask wearing, social distancing, working from home where possible and ensuring limited customer/supplier visits.
Chris Parkinson – Ozroll: From a manufacturing perspective we introduced all of the standard COVID-19 hygiene practices, which included changing start, finish and break times, to ensure social distancing across the various departments. Maintaining permanent and casual employees as well as employing new people assisted with any concerns and enabled us to keep up with the volume of work throughout this period.
David Fezer – Alpha Tubular Motors: We have implemented more online correspondence with platforms such as Zoom and have offered financial incentives for companies that were initially hit hard in the first month. Overall through this experience, we have developed new skills that enable us to remain calm in a storm.
David Morris – Image Blinds: One simple measure or strategy applies here: “Invest in local manufacturing.”
Debbie Hessenberger – Vertilux: Three areas of focus we have adopted to navigate the transition from initial crisis response to the “next normal” are:
Joseph Zammit – Apollo Blinds: Demonstrating to our existing and new customers that we have implemented and follow all health authority and government regulations. This gives customers the peace of mind that they are protected from COVID-19. We’ve also launched virtual consultations, where customers can be video called via different social media platforms or apps to engage with our sales reps in the comfort and safety of their home.
David Snoad – Pinz: Our key plan has been to work with our suppliers and customers to help keep our customers busy and to keep cash flowing through the supply chain; from the retailers to Pinz as the fabricator, and through to our suppliers. Controlling lead times has been critical, particularly at the beginning of the pandemic throughout March and April where things were very uncertain, to ensure that if we were forced to close that we weren’t stuck with a large amount of work in progress. Similarly we needed to avoid having jobs in production that our customers might be looking to delay or cancel if they were unable to install. We focused on core business and on a targeted range of products that we knew would give us strong production efficiencies and quick turnaround times. We also worked very closely with our supply chain and tried to keep ahead of the curve as much as we could. We were watching the eastern states very closely throughout July and when the second wave really started to take hold in Victoria we made the decision to invest our cash in stock and ordered two to three months’ worth of product from the Victorian based suppliers, just in case they were forced to close. We didn’t want to be in a position where our production had to stop due to supply issues or delays.
Tony Cassar: How have your marketing strategies evolved to deal with the pandemic? Which ones worked well and why?
Ron Gottlieb – Ricky Richards: Continual communication with our customers and suppliers has been critical. We’ve also launched an upgraded website and increased our presence on social media. The development of an online ordering portal, which is about to be launched, has also been critical.
Graham Gibson – Bartlett Blinds: No doubt our social media presence has lifted throughout the pandemic in order to continually promote our brand, our products and capability. We have also recognised the importance of using social media platforms to ensure our customers, suppliers and industry counterparts are aware we are fully operational and have implemented appropriate measures through the pandemic. Prior to COVID-19, we had locked in an AFL TV advertising campaign to launch our new retail TV commercial. Despite the delayed start with the AFL hiatus the subsequent condensed AFL fixturing has resulted in us receiving some great value and filler spots. This campaign has certainly helped our retail enquiry rate for blinds quotes.
Chris Parkinson – Ozroll: Marketing throughout this period is a strange one, particularly as we are still unable to maintain a face to face presence with our customers, due to ongoing border restrictions. Maintaining regular contact via the phone and providing regular updates as to product changes and/or improvements using Facebook, Instagram and digital mail outs has enabled us to keep our customers up to date. We have had to cancel our intended participation at a couple of planned trade fairs, more recently the R+T in Stuttgart, which has now been postponed to 2022.
David Fezer – Alpha Tubular Motors: We have focused on aggressive online marketing campaigns throughout Australia and the North American markets, interacting with video and physical marketing. We’ve also put a lot of time and energy into staff training, to always deliver and respond immediately, to be at our best at all times and to learn to thrive under pressure.
David Morris – Image Blinds: What I at least hope has worked to some degree is our theory of “Do the opposite.” Basically we looked at where our opposition were advertising, and what and how they were advertising. Then we had a decision to make. Do we spend money advertising where and how they do, to get the same customer enquiries? Or do we do the total opposite and try to attract customers from a different demographic? The second one is what we did, and I think it’s worked for us.
Debbie Hessenberger – Vertilux: We adapted our messaging to put a pleasant spin on a bad situation, which has included increased communications to keep our distributors up-to-date on production management and our response to the changing situation.
We’ve also leveraged the current healthcare crisis to highlight increased product awareness and used advertising campaigns to promote safe healthcare and industry solutions. And we redirected marketing spend to expand our Virtual Exposure including Web and SEO enhancements, to improve brand presence and activity on social media channels and digital platforms. This has included sharing more content while making sure it’s relevant and appropriate.
We are now turning our thoughts post COVID-19 and have been working on a number of exciting new developments including a NEW Commercial Case and the roll out of a dynamic website refresh to include improved capability and usability for the end user.
Joseph Zammit – Apollo Blinds: We’ve reassessed our digital marketing strategy and focused on key messages through our social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn) and corporate company website. The purpose here is to educate and inform our customers that Apollo Blinds has taken a proactive approach in providing a safe experience during the consultation and installation period. Interestingly we also reduced spending on Google ads as we saw an increase on organic searches to our websites as more people are spending time surfing the internet during lockdown periods.
It has been a very unusual start to the new decade, but the pandemic didn’t stop us from our determination to steer ahead with the launch of two new products: Security Screens Doors & Windows with our new partner Amplimesh Security Screens in late April 2020. Lockdowns were still in place during this period and the government stimuli helped keep the economy afloat. We have seen a surge in sales as more people are restricted to their homes and the sense of home security has become a priority. This was a win-win for us and a surprisingly positive outcome for the business.
Our marketing efforts have also focused on educating our customers that most of our products except for shutters are Australian made.
On another note, once a year the Apollo Group holds a brand conference and originally it was due to be held in Coffs Harbour in August. It was then rescheduled to Sydney in September but was again cancelled. Sadly this is the first time our annual conference will not be held as a gathering but these are the times we live in.
Pinz – David Snoad: We knew that as a wholesale fabricator we couldn’t necessarily make our customers’ phones ring, but we wanted to make sure that if phones were ringing or consumers were shopping, our customers had the best opportunity to get the sale. We heavily targeted our biggest customers who could have the largest impact and worked with them with them to create a very competitive offering to the market.
We also provided support to our customers from our marketing and graphic design team with creative marketing and advertising campaign ideas, customised graphics for social media campaigns and any other solutions we could offer to help them generate and capture leads. At a time where some businesses were understandably worried and confused, we had a clear message to our customers about what we wanted to achieve and why. This kept everyone highly motivated to push ahead hard.
