Due to the increased threat of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the safety of our team, MicroD will transition to a remote workforce beginning March 17, 2020. We do not expect this adjustment to cause any disruption to our ongoing support and service delivery to you and your business.
In an effort to support our clients, MicroD announced today it is launching a program for its retailer and manufacturer clients in response to the COVID-19 impacts on the retail industry. The COVID-19 Response Program launched free of charge for all MicroD clients to include website enhancements and communication to consumers regarding the COVID-19 pandemic in an effort to promote more online showroom traffic in lieu of in-store visits.
Better Website Speed for More Traffic
This COVID-19 Response Plan includes enhanced website functionality to maintain superior consumer experiences in a time of increased website traffic. MicroD’s team has noticed an increase in overall traffic across the company’s over 400 retail websites due to the increasing quarantine measures implemented across the United States.
To better ensure all MicroD websites continue to deliver an excellent response in light of this online traffic increase, MicroD proactively implemented Cloudflare’s Argo Smart Traffic Routing for all of its websites. Used by millions of websites, Cloudflare offers Argo Smart Routing which enables MicroD website traffic to be routed in real-time over the fastest and most reliable paths even as conditions change.
Ron Gordon, Sr. VP of Technology at MicroD explained “Argo Smart Routing speeds access to our sites in much the same way that Waze or Google Maps can provide faster route advice for drivers commuting across town. Argo does the same for our website traffic.”
Once implemented we immediately saw a decrease in the average page load time for our typical websites of 1 second. This represents a typical improvement of about 30%. Improvements varied depending upon the location of the consumer, the current traffic across the internet, and the location of trouble-spots. International traffic improved by as much as 50%, sometimes more.
COVID-19 Communication Plan for Consumers
In addition to the technical components of routing increased website traffic for its clients, MicroD implemented a COVID-19 Communication Plan for its retail and manufacturing clients. Now more than ever, it is important for our retailers and manufacturers to be able to signal changes in the shopping experience for consumers.
We know it is important to communicate any changes in your business with your customers during this unprecedented time. MicroD stands with you to support your business in these unique circumstances. That’s why we’re offering our resources to MicroD clients to help manage this message to furniture shoppers and customers.
The plan would enable MicroD clients to prioritize and showcase pertinent store and brand communication to consumers visiting the retail website. It puts MicroD clients in the driver’s seat and keeps each of them ahead of this crisis as best they can be. Complete with a website banner, landing page, and on-site messaging updates, this communication plan is available now to all clients with a MicroD website. We encourage each client who may be interested in this communication plan to reach out to MicroD.
Clients on MicroD’s website platform, OmniVue, have the ability to proactively communicate with consumers through their website banners and landing pages on the store’s steps to protect the consumers and staff during this crisis.
LiveChat & MicroD Partnership
To communicate further with its consumers, retailers who work with MicroD can now take advantage of an additional tier of service in the company’s COVID-19 Response Program by leveraging MicroD’s newest partnership with LiveChat, a tool that facilitates communication between a company and its customers through online messaging.
MicroD and LiveChat will offer MicroD clients the opportunity to implement this communication tool during a critical time for consumers free of charge for 90 days. MicroD advisor teams will work with retailers and manufacturers to build a virtual shopping strategy, utilizing these tools within the COVID-19 Response Program.
This benefit comes as a result of the LiveChat Partner Program which enables MicroD to help our retailers communicate with consumers and assist in virtual shopping experiences during the crisis.
Response from MicroD
“MicroD’s first and foremost responsibility is to do everything we can to help our customer’ businesses. While COVID-19 has created unprecedented challenges for all businesses, we want to do our absolute best to partner with the industry and our clients to see companies through this pandemic,” said MicroD CEO, Manoj Nigam. “Now more than ever, the online presence is critical for retailers and manufacturers to outlast this crisis. With our COVID-19 Response Program we are leveraging our technology, talent of our people and dedicated service to work with our clients on best ways to fight this crisis together.”
MicroD is committed to partnering with you in challenging times. There will be a digital guide for MicroD clients to learn more about this program in addition to several best practice strategies from our retail and marketing experts. As we go forward, we’ll be sure to keep you updated, and know that we always value your questions, ideas, and feedback. If you have questions or concerns, please let us know.
*Correction: The LiveChat service will be available for all MicroD clients free for 60 days.