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<p>Ever since we entered our first lockdown in March 2020, we’ve all had to adjust to a new way of life.</p>
<p>Now more than a year on from the start of COVID-19, we can all switch to working from home at a moment’s notice whenever a lockdown period should come into effect.</p>
<p>Even in a post-pandemic future, it’s likely that hybrid models of remote work will continue to be part of our daily lives. A recent study from <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/whats-next-for-remote-work-an-analysis-of-2000-tasks-800-jobs-and-nine-countries">McKinsey Global Institute</a> found 20% of the workforce could work remotely three to five days per week and be equally effective as they would be in their regular office, long after we’ve all received the COVID jab.</p>
<p>But no matter whether it’s the global pandemic or personal preferences leading us to work from home on a more regular basis, there are challenges to overcome when working remotely.</p>
<p>While some personalities find the environment provides a productivity boost, others find it a struggle to remain focussed and motivated. Without a proper office space or clear work hours, it’s very easy to become distracted from work tasks.</p>
<p>At Distl, our team has made a seamless transition to working from home, with many team members opting to work remotely even during times of limited restrictions.</p>
<p>To support other businesses during lockdown, we’ve put together a list of our favourite tools and resources to help maintain a sense of normalcy when we’re all working from home.</p>
<h2><strong>Communications and Connections </strong></h2>
<p>It’s more important than ever to stay connected during lockdown periods. At Distl, we use a number of communication tools to ensure our team feels united even when physically apart.</p>
<h3>Microsoft Teams Video Meetings</h3>
<p>Video conferencing tool Zoom became one of the most popular apps for businesses to use while living and working in isolation. It offers an easy-to-use platform that’s effective for holding team and client meetings in a virtual space.</p>
<p>While Zoom was the go-to app in 2020, we’ve now made the shift to Microsoft Teams. As the video conferencing functionality on Teams is fully integrated with its messaging app as well as Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft OneDrive, it offers an ideal all-in-one solution.</p>
<p>Microsoft Teams has all the same capabilities as Zoom, minus the security concerns and pesky 40-minute time limit. It enables us to conduct our morning team huddles from home, ensuring we maintain our communications and ways of operating with minimal disruption.</p>
<h3>Team Huddles</h3>
<p>When we’re unable to see each other face to face, we hold our morning huddles over Microsoft Teams to build comradery. You can easily adapt the huddle format to whatever works for your business. At Distl, we use a series of questions to structure our huddles, giving each team member the opportunity to speak to the group.</p>
<p>We always start with a fun, get-to-know-you style question that changes week to week. Some past examples include –</p>
<ul>
<li>What’s a technological advancement you’re looking forward to in the next 10 years?</li>
<li>What’s your most irrational fear?</li>
<li>What person living or dead would you love to have a conversation with and why?</li>
<li>What holiday destination are you most looking forward to visiting post-pandemic?</li>
</ul>
<p>From there, each team member shares what they’re currently working on as well as their working capacity for the week.</p>
<h3>Messaging</h3>
<p>Microsoft Teams messenger app allows our team to strike up private conversations, group chats, project-based discussions and more. It also has the capability to create companywide and department-based channels for sharing important news and updates.</p>
<p>From seeking assistance to having casual conversations, Teams offers a flexible alternative to traditional email communication. With quirky, animated emojis and .gif functionality, it’s also a more engaging way for our team to exchange information in real-time.</p>
<h2><strong>Team Bonding </strong></h2>
<p>It can be difficult to bond as team when you’re not working in the same office each day. Social distancing can lead to loneliness and low morale, making it vital to undertake team bonding activities that don’t require face to face interactions.</p>
<h3>Virtual Quizzes</h3>
<p>You can still enjoy a trivia quiz even when you’re stuck inside. One of our favourite team bonding exercises during lockdown 1.0 was lunchtime quizzes. Each week a different staff member would organise a quiz filled with questions about the team, general knowledge, pop culture and more. By using a video conferencing tool, the entire team was able to participate from home.</p>
<h3>Care Packages</h3>
<p>During stressful and uncertain times, people need to feel valued and appreciated more than ever. Sending care packages is a lovely gesture that can provide comfort, lift spirits, and make it just a little bit easier to cope with isolated living.</p>
<p>Last year, we filled our care packages with mini chocolates and lollies, colourful stationery, and a personalised, hand-written card from our director David Metcalf.</p>
<h3><strong>File Sharing </strong><strong> </strong></h3>
<p>Even when you’re working in an office, you need to have an efficient, reliable and secure system that allows for the management of files and documents. With certain internal servers and system networks, it can be difficult to move to a working from home arrangement. To always have a fail-safe in place, your business should investigate adaptable solutions that can be accessed from anywhere.</p>
<h4>OneDrive</h4>
<p>Cloud storage options such as Microsoft OneDrive offer a practical solution when working from home. At Distl, we use OneDrive to ensure all our files are easily accessible from any location. It’s simple to use and enables multiple people to work on multiple files at once.</p>
<p>As all documents and files are available to all team members, there’s no need to worry if someone falls ill or is unreachable for any reason. It also enables our team to reduce our paper consumption, making our business more eco-friendly.</p>
<h4>Google Docs</h4>
<p>Google Docs is another cloud based, collaborative tool that allows you to share a document with colleagues without needing to be in the same room. It works in a similar way to Microsoft Office, enabling you to share files via a link and work together on one document.</p>
<h4>Monday.com</h4>
<p>When there are multiple projects that involve numerous team members with various responsibilities, it can be tricky to stay on top of everything and remain organised, especially when working remotely.</p>
<p>We have been utilising our project management tools more than ever since working from home more frequently. Our go-to is Monday.com. We use the Monday board system to plan our workflow, oversee projects and communicate internally. It has become the main hub that we use each day, allowing us to assign project leaders to jobs and individuals to specific tasks.</p>
<h3><strong>Ergonomic working arrangements </strong></h3>
<p>While it comes with added convenience and comfort, working from home can also lead to muscular issues and eye strain after slouching over a laptop all day in poor lighting.</p>
<p>As an employer, it’s so important to help your team members establish an ergonomic home office set up. At the start of last year’s extended lockdown, we sent out a questionnaire to our team to ensure everyone was working in a safe environment. We also gave our team members the opportunity to borrow equipment from the office, including spare monitors and chairs.</p>
<h4><strong>Want to know more? </strong></h4>
<p>If you’d like to discover more working from home solutions to support your team, check out Safe Work Australia’s general information and guidelines <a href="https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/covid-19-information-workplaces/industry-information/general-industry-information/working-home">here</a>.</p>


Working From Home Solutions

<p>Good digital marketers will spend their career building up their technical knowledge. They will continually hone their skillset, developing the ability to interpret analytics, identify trends and uncover opportunities.</p>
<p>But there’s a lot more to digital marketing than just the metrics. It’s also about understanding people; learning how they behave online, what motivates their decisions, and how to influence their thinking.</p>
<p>After working in the industry for over a decade, our PPC specialist Steph Boito knows how to combine her analytical mindset with her empathetic nature to continuously improve her work.</p>
<p>“Sometimes there can be a perception that this role is all about numbers and data, however that’s just part of the role,” Steph explained.</p>
<p>“What drives that is working on a deep understanding of each client personality, making a symbiotic relationship between the data and the business”.</p>
<p>Hailing from London with Italian heritage, Steph has a passion for international languages and diverse cultural experiences.</p>
<p>She graduated in the UK with a Bachelor of Arts in Marketing and Communications and Spanish, starting her career in a global digital marketing agency.</p>
<p>“I find myself at home amongst people of varied cultures and interests,” Steph said.</p>
<p>“I subscribe to the concept that new experiences are always welcome and apply that to my personal and professional life”.</p>
<p>Since coming to Perth and obtaining her Australian citizenship, Steph has been with Distl for the past three years.</p>
<p>“You never know who is going to walk through Distl&#8217;s door next and that excites me. I really enjoy going on a journey with our clients and achieving some really great results for them. The digital world moves so quickly, and I look forward to ensuring our clients are always at the forefront of the digital movement”.</p>
<p>Most recently, Steph has helped our clients Bambury and <a href="https://distl.com.au/works/adage-furniture/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Adage Furniture</a> achieve some strong results through a range of PPC campaigns.</p>
<p>From building and construction companies to engineering firms and health service providers, she applies her skillset to a diverse range of businesses.</p>
<p>Always a positive burst of energy who’s known for her British humour, Steph loves working within the supportive team culture at Distl.</p>
<p>“All the company values and the agency&#8217;s approach really resonate with me,” she said.</p>
<p>“I think having a good rapport and good communication with the team is essential in making me better at my role”.</p>


Beyond the Data: Steph’s Approach to PPC

<p>There are a lot of marketing buzz words that will come and go over time, but every so often we’ll come across an emerging trend with real staying power.</p>
<p>The latest one to make us sit up and pay attention is Customer Experience, or CX in its buzz word form.</p>
<p>CX isn’t a new concept, but what’s interesting about it is the way it is now being applied in modern day marketing.</p>
<p>As the name suggests, CX is the impression or perception your customers have of your brand throughout every stage of their journey with you.</p>
<p>There was a time when businesses would think of CX as simply having a few staff available to assist in-store customers, or positioning an eye-catching display in the front window, but this is no longer case.</p>
<p>CX is fast becoming one of the most important factors to consider in any marketing strategy. It’s all about finding ways to connect with your audience to stimulate emotion, generate action, and build trust in your brand.</p>
<p>Here at Distl, we’re always hungry to learn more about the latest industry trends. That’s why we recently attended the inaugural WAMA (WA Marketing Association) CX: Experience Matters Breakfast Panel.</p>
<p>Surrounded by Perth’s marketing community, our eyes and ears were glued to Peta Maddock (Water Corporation), Susie Davison (HBF) and Danielle Giles (SCITECH) for over an hour and a half as they shared their experiences and expert opinions on CX.</p>
<p>The insights (and delicious breakfast) left our team buzzing with ideas on how we can help businesses further improve their customer experiences.</p>
<p>Here are the key takeaways from the event that have given us food for thought on how we can provide our clients with even more value.</p>
<h2>Know your customer by getting to know your customer</h2>
<p>You can look at all the data and analytics your heart desires, but if you really want to understand the needs of your target market, you need to speak with (and work with) your customers.</p>
<p>One of the simplest yet most significant takeaways we gained from the panel discussion came from HBF’s head of customer experience Susie Davison.</p>
<p>As part of her onboarding for a previous marketing role in banking, she spent 6 months working at one of their branches in customer service.</p>
<p>Not only did Susie gain a deeper understanding of the day-to-day operations of the company, but she also had the opportunity to speak with customers on a level most executives never experience.</p>
<p>What she learned during that time was invaluable and she used her insights to roll out a slew of successful campaigns that made a meaningful impact on customer satisfaction.</p>
<h2>Less 4Ps and more X</h2>
<p>Customers have access to all the information they could ever need at the touch of a phone screen. For businesses, this signals a need to shift focus away from what is being communicated to how key messages should be conveyed.</p>
<p>As it’s all about the journey, not just the destination, the traditional marketing principle of the 4Ps (product, place, price, and promotion) is only one part of the equation. Brands also need to consider how they will attract their audience to their digital and/or brick and mortar stores, and how to create a space that will nurture CX throughout the entire customer journey.</p>
<h3>CX should be part of everything you do</h3>
<p>CX is not just about sales, marketing, or even communications. While each one of these will be strengthened by a good customer experience strategy, CX needs to be integrated into every part of a business.</p>
<p>During the event Q&amp;A, one audience member shared her frustration in her marketing role as she felt there were too many processes to deal with and hoops to jump through.</p>
<p>She later discovered that by incorporating CX strategies into every aspect of her role, she was also able to create better experiences for her colleagues and other key stakeholders in the business.</p>
<p>By applying CX internally, you’re empowering team members and stakeholders to interact with your business in a way that fosters a sense of community and encourages brand advocacy.</p>
<h3>How we use CX</h3>
<p>At Distl, CX is an important factor we consider when devising strategies for our clients as well as our own business.</p>
<p>We build strong relationships with our clients and take the time to understand their unique customer journeys, enabling us to facilitate positive customer experiences.</p>
<p>From developing user-friendly websites to distributing brand surveys via eDM campaigns, we seek to continually improve customer experiences for our clients.</p>
<h4>Your CX strategy</h4>
<p>While CX underpins everything we do at Distl, the next step is to develop a CX specific strategic that takes every aspect of your business into account.</p>
<p>Our in-house specialists can work closely with your team to help you gain further insight into your target market and identify ways to enhance your interactions with your customers, as well as your internal team members and key stakeholders.</p>
<p>If you’re interested in exploring CX further and seeing how it could be applied to your brand, get in touch with your account manager or <a href="https://distl.com.au/contact-us/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">contact</a> us today.</p>


CX: Why Customer Experience Matters

Home

The recipe for an
unstoppable brand.

Build brand equity. Enjoy sustainable success.

What does all-in branding and digital look like?

Insights

Working From Home Solutions

Beyond the Data: Steph’s Approach to PPC

CX: Why Customer Experience Matters

The recipe for an unstoppable brand.

Build brand equity. Enjoy sustainable success.

What does all-in branding and digital look like?

Insights

Working From Home Solutions

Beyond the Data: Steph’s Approach to PPC

CX: Why Customer Experience Matters

The recipe for an
unstoppable brand.