The New Normal – Through the Eyes of the Managing Director

As our usual way of work and life has been changed completely over the past couple of weeks, it has been a challenge for a lot of us to find the ‘new normal’. Working from home, when you’re so used to the office environment and camaraderie, is something that everyone from our offices had to get used to. No amount of Zoom, Whatsapp, Skype or emails can beat a face to face conversation.

Transparency and honesty is interlaced in our core business values, and in challenging times like these, we believe that it’s more important than ever. That’s why we have released a series of blog posts, written by our fantastic team of telemarketers across our group of companies, to showcase their days working at home – their trials and tribulations and, of course, their triumphs.

Our Managing Director, Harry, writes his own blog post on how life for him has changed over the past week.

Over the past few days, a lot has changed globally. However, in such times of uncertainty, it has been heartening to see how everyone has rallied together to try and find some lightness in this difficult time. It really is the little changes – when I go for a run in the morning, I’ve noticed little things like people saying hello or good morning to each other – things that simply doesn’t happen usually.  It is in these small kindnesses that we are able to change and adapt with the changing climate – through the encouragement and support of each other, even if it’s just a smile from a stranger. 

As with these little changes, there are big changes that come alongside them. One of the biggest for myself – and for a vast majority of people I imagine! – is dividing up work and home. It is easy to divide yourself up into different facets of your being dependent on who you are with and what activity you are doing. For myself, when I am in the office, I am just simply Harry, the MD. I am the person who can focus on selling as well as retaining clients and motivating my staff. I can handle meetings, raise morale and incentivise staff. I can deal with any professional problem and think up strategies moving forward with my team. 

However, at home, I am Dad. I am mealtime, playtime and bedtime all in one. These two parts are sometimes difficult to juggle in a normal situation – but even more strained in our current climate. Sure there might have been times where the odd work day at home is needed, but to consistently try and combine and juggle the two is extremely challenging! Keeping myself disciplined is difficult enough – but hearing the same Peppa Pig clip every day can make it 10x harder. As well as this, no matter how much you try to stay in a separate room than everything else going on, it’s not that easy – sometimes even MD’s want to join in and play as well! 

How our businesses have changed

Within our group, we have seen and implemented changes in our structure in order to ensure that our clients are still achieving the highest ROI possible. 

For Home Lead Gen, our B2C  arm, we have been really busy due to the increased contact rate. As people are at home, they have more time to talk during the day and therefore we are able to have lucrative and informative conversations with them. We are also ensuring that our campaigns are specific to the here and now. As the future is still uncertain for many people, we have seen across the board that people aren’t looking at weeks or months down the line, like we used to. Rather, we are looking at today or this week. At the moment, it is all about what can benefit a consumer right now and how we can help with those needs. 

For our B2B arm, The Lead Lab, a lot of campaigns that we were working on were working towards setting up face to face appointments. As the restrictions grew, we quickly refocused and are now setting up over the phone appointments. This can add to a sales pipeline very nicely as a way to generate future meeting opportunities. At the same time, we looked at ways for agents to spend time data researching in order to ensure purer data when we can recommence calling activities for certain clients. 

In short, the way that our business works has changed – and is constantly changing. I am proud of the way that my team has taken each challenge on the chin and adapted it to suit them. Our daily team catch up calls show that we all still have the same spirit when it comes to sales – even if we are at home alone! We have a range of amazing campaigns running at the moment and I’m looking forward to seeing what else this year brings.