Every day we see businesses adapting to new circumstances in creative ways. Many organisations are constantly innovating so they can remain at the disposal of their customers. Some companies are forging new alliances, others open up their business to do good for society.
In our weekly digest, we'll highlight some of these inspiring stories. This week: Mini, DPG Media, Zappos and Decathlon!
This week, Mini launched an initiative together with Get Driven, a Belgian private driver service company. Restaurants and bistros could apply to receive a Mini with a private driver for four weeks, to deliver meals. The response was overwhelming, so Mini selected 15 businesses across Flanders and Brussels. You can find the list here, who knows, maybe your favourite restaurant is one of them!
P.S. Likewise, businesses in Antwerp can go and have a look at the website of De Geus, a bike store. They are lending a number of cargo bikes to local entrepreneurs who are looking for an eco-friendly way to get products to their customers!
How can isolated patients keep in touch with other people? Often, people who are quarantined in hospitals can no longer communicate with their family in tough times. To make isolation a bit more bearable, Digitopia is expanding the use of its care robot ‘James’.
James was already used to let patients communicate with hospital staff so they wouldn’t have to enter the rooms. From now on James can also be used for video chats with family or friends. Mobile Vikings in its turn, will make sure there’s an optimal internet connection. Hospitals can install a separate modem that connects to an external 4G network.
Decathlon announced two cooperations in two days. First, the French retailer started a project with Delhaize. Like many others, Decathlon had to close all its stores until further notice. Delhaize will offer a small variety of Decathlon products in its stores.
With this initiative, both companies want to motivate people to maintain an active lifestyle, even if they need to stay indoors. They are currently testing the collab in five Delhaize supermarkets. If the project is successful, they will expand it to more stores in the coming weeks.
Only one day later, Decathlon had another big announcement as they are forging an alliance with Colruyt too. Since supermarkets remain open they need enough manpower to keep stores running. At the same time, Decathlon had to close its branches, leaving their staff unemployed. So from now on, employees from Decathlon can get a temporary job at Colruyt to earn some extra money.
The American shoe retailer Zappos launched their own counterpart of the corona-helpdesk. The initiative is called ‘Customer Service for Anything’. Isolation and lockdown measures are hard, and our interactions with other people are limited. Customer Service for Anything is Zappos’ way to brighten people’s days.
Americans can call the hotline to ask customer service agents anything. It doesn’t matter if you’re a customer or not. Want to know what Netflix series to watch next, or if your supermarket has a certain product in stock? Zappos to the rescue!
That was it for this week! Did you see some inspiring business news or you launched a great initiative yourself? Feel free to let us know for our next HC Digest!
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