Managing Customer Lighting During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Like all businesses, SONARAY has had to adjust to doing business in what people have become accustomed to calling the “new normal.” For SONARAY this means that while life goes on, the look and feel of that business is a bit different.

The company continues normal business operating hours and continues with no disruption in the product supply chain. In fact, SONARAY has as a very strong point, a large stock of QuickShip inventory at its Americas headquarters in Central Virginia. Most orders are still routinely shipped with many of the orders being shipped same day.

Employees are working partly from home (where it is possible) and also alternating on coming into the office. Zoom has become a standard course of conversing not only with employees and for meetings, but also routinely with customers for training webinars.

In fact, COVID-19 has actually helped SONARAY become stronger in some ways. The old saying is that “necessity is the mother of invention” and SONARAY has, with many companies, re-invented the way it communicates, trains, and sells products. Twice a month the brand has showcased products in mini-webinars that highlight specific families of products. These webinars are normally 15 minutes in length and are conducted via Zoom with presentations and displays of actual fixtures. Then, after the webinar there is time to answer questions as they pertain to the products. SONARAY tapes these presentations and makes them available on their website. SONARAY also generally emails the webinar presentation to its manufacturer representative partners the day after the actual webinar so that those who missed the webinar, or who want to view the webinar at their leisure are able to do just that.

One of the keys to the mini-webinars is that the content is informative and relevant with a real emphasis on keeping the webinars short. SONARAY spokespeople say that they have heard from representatives that they have been inundated from manufacturers with requests for various virtual meetings. These meetings sometimes stretch well over an hour and actually distract from the learning experience. SONARAY is very sensitive to providing the right information in a timely manner with special attention to keeping the experience hopefully meaningful and relatively short.

SONARAY also continues to offer its full suite of services during the pandemic. That is, lighting layouts, technical support, quick shipment, and on-hand stock continue to be readily available. In addition, many SONARAY fixtures offer customers exceptional versatility in their design so they can be used not only for ergonomic spacing, but in ways that allow businesses to light space in new floor plans that keep their workers safe as they come back to work.

SONARAY has used the pandemic to continue an emphasis on building its brand and mind share with representatives, supply houses, and those in the value chain. While SONARAY sales people can’t visit many folks face-to-face these days, the brand remains even more committed to building solid relationships with representatives and customers by providing value and regular communication in unobtrusive ways.

The whole of us will certainly be glad when business returns to a more normal way of doing things, but SONARAY emphasizes that they are ready to manage customer expectations and lighting during the pandemic.

Product development, customer service, marketing, and the like will continue with a stern commitment to being a relevant part of the lighting world for customers and those representing SONARAY.