That is a question that I asked from Roman two weeks ago looking at how fast the news of the new virus was spreading. We kind of put a thought on hold after giving it 5 seconds of thought.
Now the newsfeed is every day getting darker and darker. Today is a new time to ask for this and the question should not be so much asked as is our health in danger, which I hope is not, but how does this affect the whole economy and our company. There are signs that the crisis is coming and they are becoming stronger each day.
What happens with the crisis?
We are aware that the economy is cyclical. Since the cycles are around 10 years and the last time economy hit the bottom was 2008-2009. The whole time SportID has been around things have been good and there has been no recess. Now that we see this approaching, we have no clue how this will affect our business and our company.
What the crises so far have taught to people is that for the strong companies they offer great opportunities and weak ones will suffer a lot or even die. We know that we are not a huge and well-funded company, therefore we cannot claim to be very strong. The times do not exactly support raising funds either. This means that we have to be mentally strong and clever and put in a lot of effort to get out of this storm stronger than we are entering.
But let’s see what are the threats and opportunities in our business for the coming weeks and months, maybe even for a couple of years if the recess hits.
Our mantra should be: "Do not cut back the healthcare costs"
First of all, we all know that in many companies many people might lose their jobs due to the decline in the economy. Salaries will go down, people even voluntarily accept the fact if the alternative is to lose their job. So what happens with the benefits – they are the first ones to go, before the salaries are cut.
But for us, there is also an opportunity that we have to see. The start of the crisis is all about health. Who gets mostly influenced by the diseases? The weaker your body the more you are influenced, the more you suffer and the more likely the consequences are harder. So the healthier your employees are the healthier is your company – this is truer than ever and this is the message that we need to get through to our customers and even more. This is a message that resonates well on the circumstances – the best defence against the virus is to attack. This could be our marketing message on all fronts at the moment. To keep and attract customers.
This will be important to us, to our service providers but also to our customers. It is our job to save them from the stupid decision to cut back from their health.
The (hard) life of service providers
During recessions, one of the first things to cut back from is the fitness club membership. So we can imagine that if people start losing jobs the numbers will go down for our partners as well. This will decrease our revenue but will give us an additional opportunity as well. We still have all the information about who gets and does not get health benefits. We can expect that the offers will get better for SportID customers and we can direct our customers with better offers to our best partner clubs so that they would survive the storm.
A lot of planning and a lot of quick decisions at the same time and a lot of communication towards our customers is needed these times. If we manage to keep the offers reasonably priced we can still keep a steady flow of customers and cash flow for our partners and get even better deals for our customers and more revenue for ourselves as well.
Opportunities in insurance
We can very well imagine how the marketing message of our friends in Viveo Health will spread:" Do not go to the doctor if you have health issues. Call the doctor!" And we do not have to oppose this message, we can embrace it. Together with Viveo Health, we can provide an ideal health and wellness package for every company. Every person can get what they need. Those who are younger and more fit get the fitness benefit, those who are older and risk group of the current coronavirus can call the doctor and get the help much faster but above all, they get peace of mind for every day.
For sure we can sell more ERGO health insurance packages as well. Our clear message - if you are not at the moment putting your health benefit money to any use, you are not thinking straight at all. This is for sure a golden opportunity to sell health insurance to as many people as possible since people are thinking a lot about their health these days.
More challenges to keep more fit
Most likely crowded events will not be a trend for this spring. So getting good offers from event organisers is obligatory for us and they will come as well as cancellation of some events. But above all, we should also promote more being individually active and competing virtually. Challenges-challenges-challenges. Those could be the keywords we should use to promote physical activity of the employees of our customers. Be active and take care of your health, this message should be louder and clearer than ever. April is the month of healthy workplace in Estonia and we can spread this message across other Baltics as well.
In the end, we do not know what is going to happen. These thoughts are just a possibility that we have to consider. And it is just a warning that we should be prepared for hard times and have a clear answer to our customers – do not cut back from your employees' health.