By Jeff Underwood on March 1st, 2021
Beginning as a novel idea, work-from-home and working outside of an office environment have become a standard operating practice for businesses and customers alike. For many employees, the work-from-home opportunity occurred nearly a year ago. Many companies, including RectorSeal moved quickly, adopted guidelines, and delivered support for employees who could perform their jobs away from a traditional office environment. Initially, select employees received the option of working-from-home a few days a week or a select number of days each month. Many companies soon migrated, offering as many employees as possible to work from home for an entire month. That led to additional months, followed by extra months. In many companies, work-from-home is now a standard rather than an exception. With a large percentage of employees working from home, companies had to ensure that employees could connect with other employees, and notably, with customers. In many cases, employees received company-provided support at no cost, such as enhanced internet connections, office furniture, computers, and more.
The global COVID 19 pandemic certainly attributed dramatically to the work-from-home movement, but from one perspective, it is a natural evolution of business commerce and communication between companies and customers. The business environment changed, but employers felt that adequate productivity measurements were being used to ensure its ability to provide services to customers.
In a typical, somewhat now historical, office environment, employee productivity often is monitored by their physical presence. Moreover, productivity frequently is measured by physically reviewing projects and assignments. Group meetings are a tool useful to determine how well employees are completing tasks. With the prospect of physical group meetings now impossible, the use of web-based meeting apps soared. Although not a direct replacement for physical sessions, web-based meetings allow visual communication along with the opportunity to interact as a group who might have felt slightly isolated. They also allow a bit of office humor when the mute button is used too often, resulting in non-verbal communications during the meetings. While all of that activity seems transformational and new, were companies reacting to a longer-term precedent that began several years ago, perhaps more than a decade?
All successful businesses share common goals, such as being readily available for prospective and current customer interactions and be as user-friendly as possible when delivering goods and services. As everyone reading this knows, price is only one component of a successful business relationship between a company and its customers. Let's take a step back from today's business environment and current technology to explore how businesses transitioned to an 'always open' status.
Here's an obvious fact about businesses. They have to be open to conduct commerce. Once upon a time, companies established their hours of operation. Over time, that changed, and companies adjusted their business hours to reflect when customers wanted to engage with the business. The 9-to-5 Monday thru Friday business hours evolved to extended business hours. Companies opened on weekends too. Today, companies that are open 24 hours a day are typical. As those trends were growing, technology provided an accelerated twist to the physical relationship between a company and its customers.
The widespread adoption of email allowed companies and customers to conduct commerce without the need for face-to-face interactions. Initially, email communications and interactions were limited to business hours as employees did not have access to their email systems outside of their offices.
The seed for massive future changes between company and customer commerce interactions occurred around April 30, 1993. When computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee released the source code for the world's first web browser and editor, the business world began to change rapidly. Today, technology allows companies to function 24/7/365. Further, employees no longer need to be tied directly to a company's physical assets.
As computer technology evolved from mainframe to desktop and laptop connectivity, companies were freed from many physical constraints that potentially hindered commerce. Today, employees and customers can connect, communicate, and conduct business from any location on the planet, any time of day or night. Virtual organizations and companies are becoming the norm for business. Given the freedom enjoyed by employees working in remote locations, has productivity suffered? Many employees at RectorSeal have remarked that productivity has increased since working from home. They report that it was common for multiple physical interruptions to occur when working in the office that hindered productivity—many of those resulted from employees passing the work area and conversing. Many employees advise that they work longer hours since working remotely.
Direct benefits to employees working from home include less time driving, purchasing less fuel for their cars, and a sense of freedom resulting from the company's trust by allowing the work-from-home opportunity. Inclement weather that formerly caused decreased productivity before work-from-home programs is now less of a concern to employees and employers. When conditions made travel unsafe, employee productivity suffered. Now employees can work safely from home without travel concerns. All in all, any initial fears that productivity would suffer from employees working remotely have been significantly reduced. In fact, many companies are aggressively moving forward with plans to maintain working from home programs past concerns that originated due to the COVID 19 pandemic.
Another business tool that allows remote connectivity is an eCommerce system. Web technology helped unleash this powerful business tool that offers companies and customers outstanding benefits. A robust eCommerce system will enable customers to interact with a company 24/7/365. Users of the RectorSeal eCommerce system can order goods and services, review pricing, delivery, inventory, and pay invoices, to name a few of the many features. Moreover, it is not unusual to connect the eCommerce system to online training programs. That allows customers to receive specific training programs to help ensure the correct use of the eCommerce system's products and services.
eCommerce systems allow a company to streamline interactions with customers, which leads to increased efficiency and productivity for the company and the customer. The result of that interaction enables the customer to engage with a company on their terms, not the suppliers. That supports the ease of conducting business the companies strive to achieve. Allowing a customer more control over the interaction with a supplier is essential to establishing a long-term relationship. eCommerce is so prevalent today that a business without one probably is considered a second or third-tier business and not supporting a customer-friendly environment.
Is eCommerce the end of a trend for connecting on a remote basis with customers? I would disagree. eCommerce systems will continue to evolve as technology offers enhancements and customer demands change. Like our life before work-from-home and eCommerce, companies like RectorSeal will continue to find new ways to support our employees, locate new customers, retain loyal customers, and make it easier to provide the products and services that customers desire.
'Change is the only constant' is a phrase often associated with businesses. Considering the changes that have affected employees, employers, and customers during the last decade - and the past year - I wholeheartedly agree that future change is coming to provide a better environment for everyone.
About the author
Jeff Underwood is currently Vice President of Sales and Marketing at RectorSeal. Previously, he was the Vice President of Marketing at a leading HVAC manufacturer. He first became associated with the HVAC industry as a consultant at Bain and Company. Jeff resides with his family near Houston, Texas.