When the crisis first hit in February 2020, the most notable reaction from our business community was an immediate and virtually total suspension of all activity right across the board.

Understandably, nobody knew what to expect as the news media spewed round-the-clock fear and alarm with their typically sensationalist zeal while the Government, at the mercy of questionable ‘experts’, could provide little real guidance. It seemed anyone’s guess as to what would happen next.

In the months that followed, orders and new enquiries stopped coming in, proposed projects were either postponed or cancelled and the few calls we received were tentative and hesitant. Even the usual unsolicited incoming sales calls dropped to their lowest ever level.

This experience was shared by every business we spoke to as the tradition of playing down difficulties to keep up appearances evaporated in the face of unprecedented concern. We really were all in this together.

For GRS, our biggest problem has been with outbound tele-research and sales with the answer rate of companies we have been calling dropping (at its worst point) to less than 30%. Understandably, many businesses were struggling to adapt to staff homeworking, furlough, supply chain problems and sales pipeline worries of their own.

This has been compounded by the growing number of remote/outsourced switchboards whose knowledge of their staff infrastructure is being limited to little more than a basic list of names and extensions.

It would be misleading to now dismiss these issues by claiming everything is back to normal but a promising level of stability has returned. However, some deep scars remain and the changes to the data industry have been profound. Postponed and cancelled events, a downturn in pro-active lead generation operations and big holes in a variety of other data-generating activities have all contributed to the malaise and deploying positive spin to plaster over the cracks to create an illusion of normality is not the solution.

As we look around and reassess the data industry and move forward, we must make a serious decision: to re-invest and replenish…or not.

Here at GRS we have made the decision to do the former. However, we are quickly learning that we are in the minority, as the short-term fixes that many data providers employed to survive the worst excesses of the downturn now appear to be gaining traction for all the wrong reasons.

Will our customers be seduced by the lure of ‘The Next Big Thing’ or will the stability of the tried and tested retain its appeal?

If GRS is still here this time next year, we will know the answer!

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Here we go again: beware of “The Next Big Thing”!