Is COVID-19 affecting your business?

Business as usual?

With the official number of those infected with COVID-19 grows larger day by day, many businesses are being forced to change the way they operate. Across the globe, sports events are being cancelled, airports are empty and there is a shortage of basic supplies in many cities. The news agenda for the past few weeks is dominated by the effect on businesses and the global economy as a whole.

With the UK government doing their best to avoid panic, business is trying to continue as usual. Yet, many people are choosing to work from home and many are avoiding public transport. To combat this, many businesses are preparing for a work from home scenario, ensuring that employees have the resources to do so. In real estate, the entire business depends on viewings taking place in person. So how can you manage the risk?

How do you continue running viewings and closing deals if people are worried to leave their home? First and foremost you do the following:

Utilise 3-D tours or video tours of the property
Ensure that the pictures of the property are taken from every angle

What is the opportunity present?

The opportunity present is that this is a great time to engage with your existing customers and potential customers. How do you do this?

Reassure existing landlords and tenants

Use this as a time to re-engage with your landlords and tenants and assure them that business will run as usual
Your landlords need to know that you will find innovative ways to ensure that their properties will still close
Have a follow-up call with your clients to help further foster your relationship with them

Shift your advertising focus

Do not follow your instinct to stop all advertising until consumer confidence has returned.
Rather than pausing all your ad campaigns, consider reallocating the budget
Why? We know that there is an increased number of employees being encouraged to work from home. With more people working from home and avoiding the outdoors, more time will be spent in front of a screen (be that a computer screen or a smartphone). It would be a waste not to keep your brand awareness campaigns active during this time.

Use your CRM

Your database is the most valuable asset you have. Use this time to utilise leads and tenants that are already in your database and remind them of your brand, and your USP. Follow-up with them and see if they’re still looking for a home and send them properties that match their requirements. Utilise the 3-D tours or video tours to allow these applicants to view properties without having to leave their homes.

Use XChange

At XChange, we make it easy to monetise your existing leads. By using our tech you can take your existing leads and find properties that match their given requirements, automatically. Not only that, but a lot of our properties also have 3-D tours or video tours of the property! Meaning, all you need is a computer, an applicant and you’re ready to start closing deals! It’s as simple as that.

Step up Your Internal Communication

Remember that your internal communication strategy is just as important as your external one. The property industry is a networking industry. People-contact is inevitable. Considering the current circumstances of the COVID-19 outbreak, you need to setup methods to ensure that your team can communicate with other members as well as their clients without compromising their safety.

Overall, the hope is that COVID-19 will be contained and life will get back to normal soon.

On behalf of XChange, we’re here to help!

Here’s some need to know information

How COVID-19 is spread

From what we know about other coronaviruses, spread of COVID-19 is most likely to happen when there is close contact (within 2 metres or less) with an infected person. It is likely that the risk increases the longer someone has close contact with an infected person.

Respiratory secretions produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes containing the virus are most likely to be the main means of transmission.

There are 2 main routes by which people can spread COVID-19:

infection can be spread to people who are nearby (within 2 metres) or possibly could be inhaled into the lungs.
it is also possible that someone may become infected by touching a surface, object or the hand of an infected person that has been contaminated with respiratory secretions and then touching their own mouth, nose, or eyes (such as touching a doorknob or shaking hands then touching own face)

There is currently little evidence that people who are without symptoms are infectious to others.

Preventing spread of infection

There is currently no vaccine to prevent COVID-19. The best way to prevent infection is to avoid being exposed to the virus. Public Health England (PHE) recommends that the following general cold and flu precautions are taken to help prevent people from catching and spreading COVID-19:

cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or your sleeve (not your hands) when you cough or sneeze. See Catch it, Bin it, Kill it
put used tissues in the bin straight away
wash your hands with soap and water often – use hand sanitiser gel if soap and water are not available. See hand washing guidance
try to avoid close contact with people who are unwell
clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces
do not touch your eyes, nose or mouth if your hands are not clean

If you are worried about symptoms, please call NHS 111. Do not go directly to your GP or other healthcare environments.

Is COVID-19 affecting your business?

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