Communication Ideas During Covid-19

Times are tough for sure and likely to get tougher over the next few weeks. That being said, some of the most important things you can do are to plan ahead, find alternate means of revenue and communicate with your customers.

Let’s use restaurants as an example. Restaurants are being forcibly limited and dining rooms are even being shut down due to the Coronavirus. How does a restaurant owner stay in business with that happening? They must plan ahead. Cut any costs that aren’t bringing in revenue and create or invent new products/methods to bring in new revenue. Restaurant owners can focus on take-out and delivery orders exclusively during this time. Some food delivery services such as Uber Eats are dropping the service charge for delivering food at this time. Take advantage of this. People still want their favorite food items and will either get it delivered or come and get it themselves. Another excellent option is to sell gift cards. Everyone from celebrities to politicians is recommending people to buy gift cards now at their favorite businesses and use them later when this mess is all over.

Perhaps, the most important thing to do is to communicate with your customers. They need to know you are still open or you have just started a new delivery option, how they need to come to pick up the order themselves or that you are running a special on gift cards this week or month, etc. Use any means of communication to get the message out that you possibly can. Social media, your website or most importantly if you have a way of mobile marketing to speak directly to your customers, now is the time to use it as much as possible. Be sure to include your phone number for take-out ordering and link to online ordering to any text or other communications to your customers. Speaking directly to your customers to keep them informed on your cleaning and disinfecting processes, specials on gift cards, deliver or take-out options, etc. is vital right now in the midst of this pandemic.

The successful companies that manage to withstand this time span will do these 3 things: Communicate, plan, and think of other ways to drive revenue.  TL Connects works with many restaurants so that is why we used this example here, but many of the same methods work with all types of businesses.

We stand with you and want to help in any way we can.

Useful links on COVID-19
CDC Businesses-employers website
CDC Factsheets-Print Resources to share
WebMD – What is COVID-19