Many small business founders fantasise about ‘going viral’. Some will even actively try to achieve that viral moment through social media, influencer collaborations, or inventive product creations. However, many find themselves unprepared for the consequences of trending online, being recommended by a celebrity, or attracting significant press coverage.
Founders often devote considerable attention to company formation and launching their business, but they typically spend less time preparing for the practical challenges that can accompany unexpected growth. While a sudden increase in demand can boost revenue, it can also strain staffing, stock levels, and customer service standards.
In this article, 1st Formations will explore how small businesses can prepare for and manage viral moments.
Why viral success can be both positive and disruptive
Virality can bring challenges alongside its benefits. A sudden increase in visibility often causes practical problems for small businesses, particularly those operating with limited teams and inventory.
While a large increase in orders might sound great, small businesses often can’t cope with the new demand that a viral moment can bring. As a result, they miss out on sales opportunities. Sometimes, they may also face increased public scrutiny at an already challenging time. For example, a restaurant might struggle to serve its customers as quickly as usual if it suddenly has more tables booked than ever before. This may lead to negative reviews surrounding the service. These reviews can be particularly damaging when more people research the business and encounter these criticisms online.
While there can be downsides to going viral, small businesses can learn how to better prepare for these sudden increases in demand so that they can reap the benefits. It’s not possible to predict how, when, or if virality will occur. However, it is possible to make your business model more adaptable and ready to cope with demand increases.
Assess whether your business can cope with increased demand
Before you chase virality, consider whether your business can accommodate additional customers. If you can’t, there is little point in trying to attract more.
To understand whether your business can cope with increased demand, you need to evaluate your capacity. Consider how many orders, appointments, or table covers the business can realistically handle before service standards begin to slip. If you’re at capacity, it may be time to think about a sustainable expansion plan, but it’s likely not the right moment to try to draw in a bigger crowd.
You should also consider your stock levels and suppliers. You need to understand suppliers’ lead times and whether they could accommodate increased demand. You don’t need to commit to higher volume orders, but it’s important to know what’s possible.
Technology is also important. Websites, booking systems, and payment platforms should function reliably during periods of increased traffic. Viral moments aside, it’s usually still worth investing in tech that can scale and grow with you.
Having robust processes can also help businesses cope with increased demand. If you document company procedures, it’s easier to train temporary staff to support during busy periods.
Small businesses don’t need enterprise-level infrastructure, but understanding capacity and finding efficient ways to increase it can support sustainable growth and any sudden spikes in demand.
Communicate clearly with customers during busy periods
Preparations for going viral can only go so far. If you usually fulfil 100 orders, you can’t suddenly deliver 1,000. Maintaining the staffing levels and storage capacity needed for that level of demand is unlikely to be profitable if a viral moment never happens. Because of this, customers will likely face delays if demand exceeds your usual capacity. Managing customer expectations during this busy period can help protect trust and encourage customers to return in future.
To limit frustration in a particularly busy period, it can help to communicate any issues clearly with customers. Typically, customers are more understanding of delays than business owners expect, provided owners manage expectations honestly. Transparent communication can help preserve trust during periods of increased demand. This can give a positive first impression to new customers and keep existing ones happy, too.
Some of the things you can do to better deal with delays or disruptions include updating estimated delivery times to allow for longer turnarounds, posting operational updates on social media to explain the situation, and setting up automatic responders to emails to let customers know if replies will take longer. It’s also important to avoid making promises that you can’t realistically fulfil. Sometimes, it’s better to stop taking orders to pause and reflect on what’s realistic rather than take on too much and disappoint customers with refunds.
Handling difficulties well can leave a lasting impression on customers. Sometimes, how you deal with a situation can be more memorable than the viral moment itself. Customers are likely to respond more positively when businesses approach the situation professionally and realistically. Clear communication can help preserve trust when a small business needs to slow down or change temporarily.
Protect your team from burnout
Viral success can create pressure. In the immediate moment, it causes a busy period during which staff may work longer hours than usual at a faster pace. This is understandably stressful, and if it’s prolonged, it can lead to burnout.
In addition, more stress can happen after the busy period subsides. If demand drops back, there is often pressure to regain momentum. Sometimes, this expectation is unrealistic and can lead to feelings of frustration, particularly among founders.
If founders feel compelled to accept every order, extend work hours continuously, and respond to messages quickly at all hours, they can soon burn out. They may spend a considerable amount of time trying to recreate conditions that triggered the original success, too. As virality is often random, this is hard to do and often unsustainable.
To reduce the risk of burnout, set realistic boundaries. For example, there may be an increase in email queries, but employees should still reply to messages only within a certain period. This stops staff from writing emails outside of their working hours. It’s also important for founders to delegate where possible. This may include bringing in temporary assistance to take care of certain responsibilities.
Exhausted teams are more likely to make mistakes that affect customer experience. Tired founders may also struggle to make considered decisions, so avoiding burnout is a business issue as well as a wellbeing concern.
Convert short-term attention into long-term growth
Viral moments fade. The businesses that benefit most are usually those that use the short-lived opportunity to strengthen customer relationships in the long run.
Founders can encourage repeat engagement by delivering a positive first experience. It’s also beneficial to collect customer contact information and encourage newsletter sign-ups and social media follows. If a customer consents to receiving marketing communications, it’s easier to reach them again and encourage them to return.
It’s important, though, to remember that metrics such as repeat purchases can provide a better indication of long-term stability than social media engagement. So, worry less about views and likes and instead focus on your sales performance when evaluating long-term growth potential.
While not every new customer will become a loyal advocate, retaining even a small percentage of the expanded audience can help grow the business.
Use the experience to strengthen the business
Difficult experiences can reveal valuable lessons, so founders can benefit from going viral even if it’s hard to manage in the immediate aftermath.
Once demand returns to more typical levels, founders should review what happened by assessing which processes worked well, whether there were any bottlenecks, and what customers thought about their interactions with the company. By analysing this, you might be able to identify areas where you can make efficiencies, which will improve day-to-day operations and help you respond more effectively if another spike in demand occurs.
Going viral is sometimes seen as a one-off event. However, even if you don’t regularly reach the same levels of demand again, you can still use the learnings from it to refine operations for a long time ahead. Any improvements you make can help drive efficiency and support more sustainable long-term growth.
Preparing for viral success can help businesses adapt to change
While nobody can predict or guarantee viral success, understanding how to deal with sudden increases in demand can help small businesses respond more effectively.
By preparing for surges and recognising how you’ll need to adapt your business, you’ll put yourself in a better position to navigate sudden growth. This might be due to any unexpected surge in demand. For example, if there’s a local event near your physical location, you might have considerably more footfall. Knowing how to deal with a viral moment will give you the same tools to deal with other events that can cause spikes in demand.
Viral moments may be temporary, but the preparations founders put in place and the lessons they learn from these experiences can contribute to long-term business success.
