What we are doing to survive and thrive.
The JudgeService team would like to share how they got through the first lockdown and how they plan to get through the next lockdown and anymore to come!
Neil Addley also explains how, as a business, JudgeService will continue to follow it's three main objectives in order to come out of the other side of this pandemic.
When the first lockdown back in March fell upon the UK and businesses across the country were forced to close, Managing Director, Neil Addley set out three priorities to keep at the forefront of JudgeService’s actions.
- To protect the team – health and jobs.
- To do our bit for community and clients.
- To spring out the traps when we come back to work.
Protecting the team – health and jobs.
Initially, JudgeService shut down operations and locked up the offices as per government requirements. As we brought people back to work, it remained with most people working from home and only a select few being able to come into our offices in Harrogate, on a rota basis.
Even now, in this second lockdown, JudgeService is operating with a skeleton team of people who need to be in the office, working only half days, with the rest either furloughed or working from home.
Neil is also proud to say that JudgeService has made zero redundancies and has even made four new hires in the main office and has increased the workforce in the Research Centre by just under 50%.
Doing our bit for the community and clients.
Helpnextdoor.com was a website JudgeService created to assist communities who felt like they needed a platform which wasn’t as public as Facebook, where they could ask volunteers for help.
Coming out of the first lockdown, we issued extensive discounts for clients and we carried out a number of post-Covid-19 attitude surveys. For AM (Automotive Management), we performed a “dealer attitude” survey, to provide them with data which highlighted how car dealerships were feeling coming out of the initial lockdown in the UK.
As for our local community in Harrogate, YourPoll by JudgeService, our paid omnibus survey company, worked with a local news agency, The Stray Ferret. This free survey targeted at the residents of Harrogate was able to point out to The Stray Ferret how their readership felt about issues in their local area.
Springing out the traps
When work resumed, the sales team were excellent at finding new business for JudgeService. Although there were some setbacks as some businesses, unfortunately, had to close due to the pandemic, we were ahead.
However, after discussing the second lockdown with car dealerships last week, the attitude this time around is different. Automotive retailers are much more prepared this time around, and although they have respectfully shut their showrooms, many are still operating after lead sales, click and collect, or delivery services to keep the ball rolling.
Neil’s advice for other businesses who might be struggling with what do next is:
“Plan for the short term, plan almost weekly. There is no point planning for 5 weeks’ time. Get your ducks in a row for the week ahead first. Make sure your team know what they are expected to do before you start planning any further down the line.”
"But if you can plan for the long term, use any spare time available to work on where you want to be in three years. That's much more predictable than three months!"
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