How Businesses Can Communicate to Customers During COVID-19

The COVID-19 outbreak is affecting businesses worldwide. Depending on the state, many businesses are being forced to shut down or adjust their operations due to shelter-at-home or social distancing regulations.

The fight against Coronavirus is important, but luckily, we have a robust digital landscape to keep businesses running and communicate with our customers. It is important to make sure that your customers hear from you and stay updated on any changes at this time.

We’ve compiled some recommendations on using digital tools to communicate with your customers during COVID-19.

Find Ways to Serve Customer Needs

Many businesses like gyms and restaurants have been forced to close for the safety of our community. Some businesses are still able to operate but have limited customer interaction. Whatever your situation might be, find ways to serve your customer needs.

Assess your offerings and see how they could be helpful to people during this time. Do you have a service that makes working from home easier? A product that would be great for parents with kids at home? Think of ways your business can help and adjust your messaging to highlight that.

You may need to consider alternate channels if your options are limited. Luckily, we have many digital tools that you can utilize for things like hosting events, classes, or consultations. Consider hosting Facebook or Instagram live or doing private conferences over Zoom rather than in-person meetings.

Highlight Important Information about Covid-19

Be proactive in informing your customers of pertinent information, like changes in your business hours, or any additional precautions you are taking to comply with government regulations. Make a post on your website, share it on your social media, and send it out to your email list.

Try to do whatever you can to prominently display this information so that customers can easily find it. A great way to make sure your customers are seeing your message is to add it to the homepage of your website through a pop-up or a banner. You can also pin your announcement to the top of your Facebook page to increase visibility and add a link to your Instagram bio. Be sure to share on your Google My Business page and update your hours on there as well.

Be Responsive to Inquiries

Now more than ever, it’s important to be responsive to any inquiries your business has. Work with your team to make sure all channels are covered, and you respond to any questions that come in.

Make sure if your team is working from home you have a remote phone set up and your phones are still being answered. Stay on top of your company’s social media accounts and respond to any direct messages through Facebook or Instagram. You can even set up a chat tool on your website to quickly answer any questions a user visiting might have.

Also, if you are getting a lot of questions about your business at this time, it may be a good idea to compile a FAQ page on your website to answer those questions. You can quickly give answers to questions about your business operations, canceled events, refunds, and anything else your customers are interested in.

Stay Informed

It’s important for all of us to stay on top of changing government regulations and recommendations from organizations like WHO and CDC, and it’s especially important for business owners.

Some states have stay-at-home orders, while some are starting to allow businesses to open up, so you should be sure to keep up with what your area’s government is recommending so you can respond and make changes that may affect your business.

You may need to work quickly to adjust messaging on your website or social media if these changes happen so keep your eye on the local news, so you are informed of changes as soon as they happen.

Get Help from A Digital Agency

These difficult times have shown us how important having a digital presence is in the current business landscape.

Not every business owner is on top of all the digital trends to know how to adapt their strategy, so Atilus is here to help. We have compiled several resources on how to help get your business through COVID-19 that you can see here. We also offer free consultations to help your business with web design, digital marketing, ADA compliance, and any other digital services.

To set up a free consultation, give us a call at (239) 321-1271 or contact us online today.