Every week at 365cups, I kick off by saying “it’s back to normal”, but it isn’t. We are fielding more enquiries than ever, I am talking to so many people on some days that my voice hurts (and I had to turn our 1300 number off). And then there’s the workload that has just tripled in every sense – from users, clients, support even our average daily order value!
We had clients delivering coffee and cocktails, we had old clients come back onto the system and sadly some clients have had to close their doors.
I have done more than 50 calls just trying to help people out, get them online, turn side hustles into full-time gigs, email marketing, mental health, you name it, I was talking about it! I decided to jump in and serve, and it has been a fascinating and wild ride!
The Good
Thanks to social media, it was by chance that I happened to watch Ben Lee perform one of his iconic songs All in this together on Facebook live, one of my favourite songs. Ben performed this before things “blew up” it is what inspired me to step up and serve in any way I could: not just our clients, but my local community and anyone in my network.
I was not alone with this notion, my networks from Springboard to Business Chicks pivoted and just started connecting and talking and before we knew it the whole world was zooming.
The musicians have been good, I now can’t go a day without seeking out a bit of Jimmy and Jane, with the power of technology connecting us in so many ways. I even joined a gym in Toowomba that was doing live fitness classes, which was more about just connecting people with lots of gifs and good vibes!
The Bad
I think it was the brand beugus.apparel posted a graphic to their stories about essential and non-essential workers, with healthcare the top essential workers and artist the top “non-essential” workers. How ironic, using graphic art, by a graphic artist in print medium to visualise a concept, images, numbers and statement to deliver this message
The arts, along with tourism, sport, weddings and funerals, so much suffering and every time I speak to a business owner, the conversation starts and ends around JobKeeper, what will happen when it ends, if it ends early. And all the while I am thinking about all those who don’t even qualify!
The innovative
Although I want to dive deep into this, I just have to shine the light on telehealth. For me, it is a gamechanger.As a mum of an immunosuppressed child and as a tech entrepreneur, this is everything I am always championing!
While Space X launched its Starlink mission on June 13, I was out walking with my daughter and my little boy had returned to school and I had an 11-minute conversation with his Pead Nephrologist.
Now that might not sound like much, but this consult that I do every three months (and have since his kidney transplant in 2012) usually involves a 2 day – $2000 round trip to Sydney which usually take a week to prepare for, and almost feels like a week to recover from.
Two weeks and two thousand dollars or an 11-minute conversation while walking in the sunshine, while he is at school! What would you prefer?
While this might seem exaggerated, I have also been talking to my usual medical team and the pressure that telehealth has taken off the hospital system. I can tell you now if you don’t pull into the car park by 8am at Westmead Children’s Hospital good luck getting a park, that’s after the crawl down the M5 and M7 (which I have heard have been moving at the recommended speed zone) and those pesky IPTAAS forms all submitted and what is usually a 7 week turn around I got my return in 3 days THREE DAYS! #gamechanger
So, while we need to send rockets to Mars, innovation can also be the day-to-day things in making life easier, and using technology makes this process scalable, global and accessible. We need both and we need it done in days, not months or even years!
This week, the NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian made a statement about our reliance on online services and has committed $1.6 billion in digital infrastructure to improve services, reduce red tape and protect data.
From my perspective, it looks like attitudes toward the online world and online service delivery have shifted from a “nice to have” to “must-have” overnight.
I believe that consumers are now open to online, because it has been seen through this crisis as exactly as it is – just another way to do the same old thing.
Simone Eyles is co-founder at 365cups.com, an online ordering business founded in Wagga Wagga in regional NSW and with customers across Australia and New Zealand (and the world). Simone now lives and works from Merimbula on the beautiful NSW south coast.
Do you know more? Contact James Riley via Email.