The most significant event of this year is undoubtedly the Covid-19 pandemic. Apart from the health implications, it has had a profound effect on businesses and economies globally.

Although the full economic effects of the pandemic are still unclear, it has completely changed the business landscape as businesses have had to adapt to survive.

The lockdowns implemented all over the world vastly expanded the market for delivery services, which presented Lala Move with an opportunity to grow.

Lala Move is a Hong Kong-based company that provides on-demand deliveries via its online and web applications. Founded in 2013, it operates in 21 cities in China, Southeast Asia, India and Latin America.

Using the Lala Move app, a client arranges to transfer an item from one point to another at a designated time. The client chooses the mode of transfer (according to specifications), which ranges from a motorcycle to a lorry.

Growing at an exponential rate in a short period of time is challenging for any company. Prior to the lockdown, Lala Move was growing at a 10% to 15% monthly rate.

During the lockdown, this suddenly increased to 100% in a week! The main reason it was able to cope was the reactive, fast decision-making within the company.

Being a small, growing company with an agile infrastructure allowed the company to transform and respond quickly to the growing demand during the pandemic. It did this by carrying out a few business strategies.

Here are five ways that Lala Move transformed its business during the pandemic.

1. Expanding the customer support team

The customer service department plays an important role in any business. Despite the sudden growth during the lockdown, Lala Move still wanted customers to have a pleasant experience on the platform.

This is why the customer support team was the first to scale up during lockdown – to cater for the sudden increase in demand and to ensure smooth, satisfactory use of the app for customers.

Lala Move focused on managing customer expectations by expanding the customer support team.

Initially, this was done by moving existing staff from other departments. As demand increased further, it started hiring new employees for customer support and the operations team.

2. Digital hiring and training strategies

Hiring new employees during lockdown posed several difficulties. Physical interviews were not possible. Lala Move managed this by going digital – from screening suitable candidates to conducting online interviews.

Fortunately, applications were pouring in as people were looking for jobs during the lockdown.

To get a functional team working as soon as possible, swift and accessible training had to be provided, but physical training and large gatherings were impossible due to the lockdown.

Lala Move started providing online training with video conferencing tools or a simple online browser. It was easily accessible, catered to a large group of people and was simple enough for those unfamiliar with online applications.

On the whole, it took Lala Move two to three weeks to sort out this new business strategy – from hiring to training. This would have been unimaginable for the company pre-lockdown.

3. Introducing a new service to cater to the current needs

Lala Move launched a new service, Buy4u, during the lockdown period. A driver/rider would purchase the items and deliver them to the customer.

The success of this service was largely due to timing – it was introduced during the lockdown. It allowed customers to have their groceries delivered to their doorstep without leaving their home.

4. Remote working

Moving forward, Lala Move believes more businesses will encourage work from home (WFH) and hire freelancers to mitigate risk.

Remote work, or WFH, was implemented by many companies during the lockdown. This worked well for Lala Move, more so with the sudden influx of employees and limited office space.

Contrary to popular belief, Lala Move found that WFH did not affect the quality of work of its staff.

5. Staying competitive

Lala Move is different from traditional logistics companies as it uses on-demand gig workers, so it was able to adapt to demand more effectively.

Its competitive pricing and a failure rate of just 1% also set it apart from other businesses.

The global pandemic and lockdown are an example of how volatile and unpredictable the economy can be.

Hence, business transformation strategies are essential to support the growth of every business.

The Covid-19 pandemic has taught Lala Move that a challenging situation always presents an opportunity for growth.

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