Managing Through Crisis: Yext, Patch & GramercyOne in Superstorm Sandy

Last week’s devastating weather attack on the northeastern U.S. was a big story in all corners of the hyperlocal landscape. Hyperlocal sites like Baristanet and TheBatavian were continually posting updates with information on their communities’ impact and resources, driven to a large degree by information coming in from residents. Services for local businesses, such as directories and scheduling tools, were fielding calls about changing hours and temporary phone numbers and locations, so that customers would have the latest information on how to reach them. As well, services like daily deals, check-ins and local logistics took a hit as local businesses pulled back on offers, and local consumers focused on more dire needs such as power, food and water.

These businesses themselves, too, those based in the Sandy-affected areas, had their own companies and employees to tend to as well. We asked three of them based in New York City, Patch, Yext and GramercyOne, to share the details on how to manage through a crisis. Their experiences shared the same urgency around helping their employees find shelter and safety, in some cases by providing hotel rooms. But the way they kept the day-to-day work going differed, largely reflecting the contrasts in their businesses: while Yext set up temporary headquarters in unused event space in Times Square, Patch told everyone to stay home and kept operations humming with a remote workforce. Meanwhile, GramercyOne, leveraging its cloud-based business, leaned on tools that didn’t require location or physical presence.

The Patch story: Click here to read how chief content officer Rachel Feddersen and the rest of the management team supported the production of 10,000 stories during the storm.

The Yext story: Click here for a look inside the company’s temporary headquarters pulled together on the fly.

The GramercyOne story: Click here to learn how the cloud served to keep GramercyOne and its customers on course.