Every business right now is being affected by COVID-19 in one way or another. Whether that is employees starting to work from home when they never have before, or closing there doors completely because the government has asked them to.
So when we asked if any companies out there have adapted there normal way of working due to COVID-19, Servu got back to us instantly!
About Servu
Servu is a unique and innovative approach to Customer Relationship and Activity Management designed specifically for businesses in the service sector. We began Servu to effectively streamline and organise service-based businesses by bridging the gap between the office and the field.
I founded Servu in July 2019 after I was working in the office of a field-based operation and became seemingly inspired through my frustration of using outdated and slow solutions to managing business activities. I set about developing a fresh and attractive solution at the start of 2019; researching current alternatives and finding gaps in the market.
I slowly discovered that there was a real need for a cloud-based, secure and compliant, affordable solution to Field Service Management. So I developed the very early alpha of the platform for release in July the same year, it had some fantastic reception, a lot of people seemed interested and were suddenly throwing ideas and concepts at me that I had not even considered.
I brought in a co-director in November 2019 to help seek new opportunities and build links, whilst I could focus on developing the product as quickly as possible. And here we are 10 months down the line, with a bunch of fantastic customers, suppliers and connections built! As well as having a platform that serves a key purpose for our customers, and delivers results, at scale.
What steps did you take to change the direction of your business?
Fortunately, Servu has been geared up to working remotely since the start, but the rise and spread of Coronavirus has hit us hard in other areas, we had a lot of new business with pen almost on paper who have unfortunately had to postpone contracts and deals with us until after the dust settles. 2020 was set to be our year of rapid expansion with some really key targets we wanted to achieve by the end of each quarter. We’ve gone back to the drawing board and strategised how we are going to continue to make 2020 a success for us, despite the ongoing impact COVID-19 is having on businesses.
Firstly, we re-aligned our marketing efforts to become a platform that can help to support businesses through the spread of COVID-19. We are a platform that, at the end of the day, helps bridge the gap between the field and the office. Through the use of our bulk messaging tools, our customers are able to communicate with both their workforce and client-base, with ease on our platform. So we’ve focussed on pushing that as our key selling point during the rise of remote working and social distancing. We’ve combined this with an offer of free usage of our platform for small teams for up to three months – https://servu.co.uk/post/how-were-helping-smbs-during-the-spread-of-coronavirus.html
Secondly, we adjusted our key targets for each quarter by 75%, allowing us to spend more time with our existing customers and helping them to obtain the most amount of value out of our product, as well as spending more time doing outreach and onboarding.
Thirdly, we entered a new sector of Counsellors and Therapists, in order to help them take their business online. We now work with a handful of independent counsellors who use our platform to manage bookings and their clients remotely. Through our brand new Zapier integration, these counsellors were able to automatically send Zoom meeting invitations to their clients from one platform. We’ve done a guide to support counsellors on how to move their practice online during the spread of COVID-19: https://servu.co.uk/post/working-as-a-remote-counsellor-during-covid-19.html
Do you see the business keeping the current format alongside the normal business when we can go back to normal?
I think we will continue to retain our approach to remote working as we always have. As a cloud-based product business, we embrace the power of other remote tools such as Slack, Google Drive and Zoom; however, I would like to think that when things do return to normality (whatever that means!), we can all get back around the table to discuss how we re-adjust ourselves back again and what measures we need to put in place to prevent any downtime should anything like this happen again.
That being said, I think we will continue to market to different sectors as have embraced during this pandemic; we have received a great reception from the counselling and therapy sector, where we may never have approached prior to COVID-19.
What 3 nuggets of wisdom can you pass on to people looking to adapt their business in the current situation?
- Dig deep and discover how you can adjust your marketing efforts to use your business to support others through this situation. Whether that’s through physically manufacturing products that help or offering access to your service to help communities and business, it all counts. What you do now counts. People will remember the efforts that you have gone to during these uncertain times and use that as a deciding factor when they come to buy from you later down the line.
- Remember that things will get back to normal. Like many, we were initially extremely frustrated when they first announced the shutting down of businesses and then eventually the nationwide lockdown. We thought that was it. However, what keeps us going is that we can use this period of slight downtime to make our processes better, learn more, read more and build on our brand so that when things get back to normal, we come back better and stronger than before.
- Use this time to learn more and develop your skills. Watch webinars, read books & white papers, see what your competitors are doing, connect with new people on LinkedIn and maybe even take an online course. This is a great opportunity to become best-in-class and prepare to offer a service level that nobody else ever has.
How have your employees adapted to the new way of working?
Very well actually, as I mentioned we’ve been geared up for remote working since day 1, we trust and empower our team to use all necessary tools to do their job and if anything we have seen an increase in motivation to do more to help sustain the business during these times.
At a time of such uncertainty, how have you maintained team morale?
We’re empowering our team to help support others through this pandemic. We’ve embraced totally flexible working, and if members of our team need to take time to support their family or their community, they are completely entitled to do this. By reducing our key targets, everyone feels a lot less concerned and anxious about having to commit 100% during these uncertain times.
We also have a range of guides and internal resources to help our team maintain good mental and physical wellbeing, in addition to a tool on our Slack that allows our team to access free Cognitive Behavioural Therapy directly from their devices.
Thank you so much, Charlie, for answering all of our questions. If you want to find out more about Servu then please check them out here: https://servu.co.uk/
If you would like to let us know how your business is coping with coronavirus then please contact us here: https://sculptsuccess.com/contact
