We all find ourselves sat in the same virtual world we’ve been living in since we locked down in March. The first few days were a scramble to carve out a work space at home, establish how to continue with immediate tasks, set up (and learn to use!) video conferencing and for many – getting home schooling up and running too.
The early weeks evolved from a mission to set up processes and routines to keep things moving, into establishing remote access to files and documents and of course attending video calls – lots and lots of video calls both professionally and personally!
Four months on, and it’s fair to say that the initial panic dust has settled somewhat. Thankfully the virus itself seems to be on a downward trend thanks to the majority adhering to government advice, but we are not out of the woods yet. Our ‘new normal’ is slowly unravelling with the realisation that work has changed for the long term.
The majority of us are working in a virtual workplace at home, so how do we use our websites to help us to make this work for the long term? We’ve set out 4 areas for thought:
1. First impressions. Gone are face to face meetings (for now!). The first impression you or your business will be making with a prospect will likely be via a quick look at your LinkedIn profile and a long look at your website. To ensure that you are showing off your business to its best, we recommend that you take a slow walk through your website and pay particular attention to the following:
The design – Does it look and feel like your business?
The content – Is it up to date? Are the key messages of your business shining through? Does it feel current? Does it feel alive? Are you using language that connects with potential customers?
The homepage – Is it clear in a few moments what it is that your organisation does and why someone should choose you over a competitor?
The navigation – Is it clear where a visitor needs to go and what they should do next?
Contact – Are your contact details up to date?
2. Does it do what you need? Your website can also act a business tool for you and your team, which is more important than ever with remote working in place. Does your website contain the information that you all need? Does it have proper access levels set up so that the right people can access the right things? Can you communicate via your website? Do you need to? Do you have an intranet? Many businesses have come to us since lockdown and asked for us to develop an intranet to help them to manage things better internally. If this is now for the long term – would you benefit from an intranet?
3. Manual vs automation. Have a look at how things are running in your organisation now that you are working remotely. Is there a heavy load on a particular area? For example, are you processing bookings for something manually? Could this be automated to save time and enable you to divert resource to another area of the business?
4. Is your website fit for purpose for the long term? Work is unlikely to ever be the same again. It’s probable that we will all be working remotely for part of the week for ever more. With this in mind, is your current website fit for this purpose for the long term? Does the success of your business rely on face to face events? Have you thought about how these can be done virtually? How can your website play a part in evolving your business for the long term?
We are Olamalu, Drupal experts and experienced web developers. We’re a friendly and down to earth team, now working remotely but very much together thanks to the systems and processes we’ve set up in lockdown. If you need help or advice on any of the points we’ve raised, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Stay safe.