In this year that has upended all our personal and professional lives, we have been privileged to see so many clients rise to the challenge—with ingenuity, with compassion and with grace.
From SAFCO to Avadyne to Holiday Inn Club Vacations, our clients took advantage of technology to shift as many employees as possible to remote work, instituted new cleaning and other safety protocols and accelerated efforts to accommodate growing customer demand for digital and contactless interactions.
2020’s Terrible Toll
I do not diminish the loss, grief, fear, stress and uncertainty that has gripped us all this year and as we head into 2021.
So many have lost lives and livelihoods. Millions more are struggling to hang on and to make ends meet.
And we’ve all made sacrifices and surrendered dreams and expectations of how things should be, from weddings, graduations, holiday celebrations and sports seasons to the (virtual instead of in-person) start of kindergarten, high school or college.
2020’s Grace
In the end, though, our collective ability to adapt to these tumultuous conditions sustains us. It is inspiring and reassuring. In some ways, it’s making us better.
- Instead of going back to dozens of owners lining up to check in at the same time, one major vacation ownership company plans to stick with curbside check-in even after pandemic concerns ease. It “is a clear process win for both resorts and owners,” said the operator.
- When the pandemic hit, SAFCO moved forward with launching its virtual funding portal for car dealers to speed up the financing process.
- We at Nordis have spent the last few months streamlining client service and implementation processes to improve and speed up the overall experience.
A Brighter 2021
With COVID-19 vaccines rolling out, there’s reason to believe we will put the worst of the pandemic behind us in 2021. And with the contentious U.S. presidential election behind us, there’s hope we can move away from divisiveness and toward each other.
This quote from poet and social justice activist Sonya Renee Taylor sums up my hope and wish for all of us in 2021:
“We will not go back to normal. Normal never was. Our pre-corona existence was not normal other than we normalized greed, inequity, exhaustion, depletion, extraction, disconnection, confusion, rage, hoarding, hate and lack. We should not long to return, my friends. We are being given the opportunity to stitch a new garment. One that fits all humanity and nature.”
For our part, we at Nordis will boost our efforts to tap compassion and inclusion in our day-to-day decision-making, one stitch to making 2021 a better normal for all of us.
