Door4 + Coronavirus

UPDATE 2021

This page is no longer updated. Door4 now operate on a mixed office/WFH model, with full communication and business as usual. We thank all of our clients, partners and colleagues for their brilliant efforts during this difficult time.

UPDATE 30/06/2020 

Door4 continue to operate with a full team.  We’re fully delivering all of our client commitments, and we continue to take new briefs from existing and new clients.

Some of our team have begun to review our office arrangements, so that we’re able to begin to return to the office.  We have no clear visibility when this will be, but we will take into account our team’s safety and well-being when we make this decision.

Contacting us:

Existing clients.  We recommend phoning or emailing your account manager, directly.
Got a new opportunity for Door4?  Phone Leon Calverley on _______ or email [email protected]

Please note:  our switchboard number (01282 612847) is currently not being answered.  Email is the best method to reach our team, right now.

UPDATE 26/05/2020 

Further to previous updates, Door4 continue to operates at full capacity, with all of our team fully employed.  Work continues almost as usual, fully remote in line with government advice.

We are now beginning to review how we might restart normal office activity, but there is no indication yet of government approval for this.

UPDATE 27/04/2020

We are entering week 7 of ‘lockdown’.  Door4 continue to operates at full pace, with all of our team fully employed, and continuing to deliver for our clients.

Of course, we continue to work remotely, in line with government advice.  We will continue to monitor the situation closely, and update clients and partners on this page.   It goes without saying that we’re very much looking forward to returning to normal working methods.

Internal communication remains comprehensive – our teams are in regular contact, and we continue to use Zoom (and Teams/Hangouts where appropriate) to interact with clients.

UPDATE 03/04/2020 – 14.00

This is now the end of the third week of ‘lockdown’, if we include the first week, after the UK Government ‘suggested’ that we work from home.

It’s been a while since the previous update, and there isn’t a great deal of change.  Our teams have refined the ‘fully distributed team’ way of life, and our daily/weekly stand-ups have become more fruitful and effective.

It’s been impressive to note the number of our clients and partners who happily embrace video-conferencing, when in reality, we found that many participants were voice only before this was forced upon us.   My personal view is that when we’re back to normal (given another 4-6 weeks of this, at least – let’s see) we will all embrace video meetings more, now that we have the experience.  The technology has become literally mainstream at this point, and it seems that almost anybody can quickly and effortlessly jump into a Zoom or Teams call.

Practical impacts on our business are, fortunately, minimised.  We continue to operate sales/purchase ledger as usual.  (So we still send invoices and still pay our suppliers.)  To date, our team is unaffected by the COVID-19 situation.

We continue to welcome all enquiries, from existing and new customers – but recommend that you use email rather than our switchboard telephone for the foreseeable future.

UPDATE 23/03/2020 – 11.00

We are now around a week into our “discretionary lockdown” – that is, our entire team is working from home, in common with millions of others, both in the UK and around the world.

This means that, for some clients, we have been actively investing energy and resources into pivoting their focus.  We sense optimism, and the acknowledgement that this is a temporary measure, leading to plans being laid, albeit early-stage, for what we’ll call the bounce-back.

We continue to operate “as normal” – but nobody could ever pretend that things are entirely normal.  Our client work continues, we’re in constant communication, and we have begun work with some new clients in the last few weeks.

Face-to-face physical meetings have ceased, naturally.  As noted below, we are active users of Zoom video-conferencing, which suits our needs, and our team are in constant communication on Slack.

We have a mixture of clients, across a wide variety of sectors.  Some sectors (in particular e-commerce) are noting increased sales, but of course others (eg leisure) are noting significant downturns.

UPDATE 18/03/2020 – 21.00

Door4 now operate entirely remotely, in line with UK Government advice and will continue to do so, until further notice.

Fortunately, we have many years experience in working in a semi-dispersed format, having operated from Lancashire and Manchester offices, and provided flexible working to our teams.

We use Slack for most internal communications and Zoom video-conferencing for group and client meetings.  This provides us with strong face-to-face communications, and allows us to continue to deliver our service to our clients.

Our delivery across the business continues as normal.  We have been updating clients with any changes to our service levels.  Also, where we believe that alternative approaches should be taken – in particular in media and advertising, we have been conveying these recommendations.

Our client services team are ensuring that each client is aware of contact methods in order to engage with our team.

We remain active and busy.  There are no immediate effects on our team, and clients can be assured that we remain committed to maintaining our quality standards and service levels.

We continue to be open to new business enquiries, and these should be emailed, in the first instance, to Leon Calverley – [email protected]

We will issue further updates, as the situation unfolds.

Thank you to our team, our clients and suppliers for continuing to support us in this testing time.

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UPDATE 16/03/2020 – 17.30 
Following UK Government guidelines, we are beginning to implement a full work-from-home policy across our teams, over the next 24-48 hours. All team members will be accessible, by email. Account managers will be contactable on mobile phones, as usual.

Our switchboard number may be harder to contact than usual, if the office is unmanned. We recommend emailing [email protected], which is always monitored and a member of our team will call you back promptly.

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15/03/2020 (SUPERCEDED)

We can assure our clients that operational business as usual continues for Door4, despite changes to our day-to-day routines and locations. Our campaigns continue to run, our project teams continue to communicate and deliver our projects.

We are mindful of the continued spread of “Coronavirus” and we are keeping appraised with the UK Government and NHS guidelines.

The health and welfare of our team is our number one priority. We have in place a clear set of guidelines around notification of symptoms, and self-isolation in case a suspected infection is detected.

We maintain close personal communication with business leaders at our neighbour businesses, so we understand when infection risks from outside our own business are present.

We continue to provide the same service levels to our clients. The nature of our business means that we are able to work in a dispersed, remote network. We have tested this many times over the last 12 months, for a number of reasons.

We recognise that communication with our clients is vital, and our team have had refresher training on our video-conferencing system.

We have taken the decision to postpone ‘non-essential’ activities, including our workshops, and continue to monitor the situation.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact your Account Manager (if an existing client), or our team at [email protected].

Best wishes

Leon Calverley
Managing Director