Today is officially ‘Blue Monday’ which is claimed to be the most depressing day of the year.
For anyone in business watching the news each night, it may feel that this year we have even more reasons to feel blue than normal. However, it’s worth remembering that many businesses have survived, and in cases actually thrived, through the really difficult conditions over the last couple of years. As we all look to navigate the post-pandemic period and the current cost-of-living crisis, two fundamental truths about how to be successful in business that helped us through are still very much fundamental now.
The first is that a company is only as good as its employees, and secondly the importance of having a strong customer focus if you want to develop loyalty and ensure long-term growth. If you want a customer to always be a customer, you should be there for them whenever they need you. Give them the same high level of service when they need to spend less, that you would when they want to spend more.
During the pandemic everyone faced the combined challenge of working from home while supporting their customers during the uncertain times we were all facing. We consistently kept in touch with our customers through that unprecedented time, and through all the impending chaos, while boardroom strategies laid the groundwork for the response, it was the employees at the coalface who were the ones that ensured the successful implementation of that response, despite themselves feeling the impact of COVID-19 on their own families and personal lives.
And at a time when our customers really needed our help, we’re proud that we recognised we needed to adapt and offer suitable options of funding, whether this was further finance for an asset, or a government backed initiative like CBILs, and the recovery loan scheme. The cost-of-living crisis has also warranted a similar response and we are here helping businesses with VAT loans and deferrals and asset re-finance options to release cash flow when businesses really need it.
As Jim Higginbotham CEO stated “What has really impressed me over this unpredictable time has been the single-mindedness of all our team to put the customer at the heart of what we have done, to reach out to them, to listen and to try wherever we could to look after them – including in many cases offering restructures to current agreements – while simultaneously managing to actually increase our new business orders. There’s no doubt in my mind that focusing on doing the first bit is what led to us achieving the latter.”
Our customer satisfaction levels are now at an even higher level than they were pre-Covid, and we will continue to offer attractive finance solutions to suit you or your businesses circumstances. If you are thinking about a purchase or would like to hear about options for creating a better cash-flow, please do get in touch!
