Why The Most Important Thing You Can Do Right Now Is Communicate With Your Customers

One of the most important things you can do to keep your business afloat during the Coronavirus outbreak is communicate with your customers.

Remember your customers? The ones that used to come by every day for lunch or once a week to shop with you? They’re still around but now they’re at home, sheltering in place, or maybe during this crisis, they are just too scared to do anything but go straight to work and then straight home again. You used to see them, face to face, all the time but now, you hardly see your customers at all, if ever, because of the virus.

Your customers may think you’re closed.

Why wouldn’t they? It’s all over the news that businesses are shutting down either temporarily or even some permanently because of the Coronavirus. Why would your business be any different? Right now, one of the most important things you can do in your small business is find a way to communicate with those customers. If you’re open, don’t assume people know it. If you’re offering delivery or have put your inventory online for people to browse, don’t just assume that they will catch on. You must tell them.

Before the virus outbreak, you had the luxury of talking to your customers in person but now, you’ve got to find other ways to communicate.

You might have to learn new ways to get your message to customers, some that maybe you’re not so familiar with like email or the old fashioned telephone. Remember those? One of the first things you need to do is update your website with all the information about any new store hours or ways your taking precautions to protect your customers’ health so they will continue to do business with you.

You MUST step up your game on social media.

More and more people are tuning to social media to seek out and share news, check on their friends or shop and you need to be there communicating with them. Why is that so important right now? Your competition is all over social media right now and when this is all be over, hopefully before too long, you want those customers who you’ve spent years cultivating to continue to be loyal to you and not the person who met their needs while you stayed silent.

Yes, it’s still important to wash your hands and stay six feet away from people.

Nothing replaces the importance of protecting your health and the health of your family but during this crisis, it’s also important to remember that what you do now will determine the health of your business in the future. It you want to come out on the other side with customers who are still loyal to you and your business, you must communicate with them now and keep communicating.