Best practices to keep in touch with customers in uncertain times

Maintaining customer relationships is a key to building your business, but with constantly changing restrictions from COVID-19, it’s harder than ever. And with so many businesses moving to digital platforms, it's hard to know what’s working. 

Keeping in touch with customers helps you to stay top of mind making them more likely to return to your business and recommend you to others. If your business is closed due to COVID-19, keeping your customers up-to-date is the best way to make sure they come back once you’ve opened. 

Keep them in the loop

Advertise new products: 

Have a new line of beers at your bar? Just finished a new sunglasses line? Let your customers know! With fewer people visiting brick-and-mortar businesses regularly, your email and social media marketing is your virtual shop window to advertise new products and drive sales. 

Build Your Brand 

Sharing fun or entertaining content can enhance that personal connection and impact how they feel about your business. Try sending out a quick quiz or some funny pictures relevant to your business. 

Reassure them and keep them informed 

Whether your business has had to close or put new restrictions in place, your customers will want to know. Sending an email detailing, updating your website, and social media will put your customers at ease, encouraging them to return to your business whenever they can.

Use multiple channels 

It’s a crowded space out there. You need to reach your customers where they are. Make sure you’re using a healthy mix of tools to communicate with your audience. Email, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok are all great ways to get in front of your customers. 

Engage with them! 

Don’t just set it and forget it. Make sure you’re keeping up with responses and questions to your posts. Hearing from you directly really helps build that personal connection. 

Try Messageboards

If your business has a niche product or service, you might find message boards are a good place to find your customers. This might be a message board related to a particular hobby or interest or one devoted to the local area. Reddit is maybe the most popular place to find groups with niche interests, but you can find message boards on a wide range of websites.

Let them know how they can support you: 

Customers miss you as much as you miss them. If you’ve changed your business offering to adapt to updated COVID-19 restrictions let me know! 

If you’re looking to cover a large cost and are struggling financially, you may find a crowd-funding campaign helpful. After all, if you’ve built great relationships with loyal customers, you will probably find they want to help however they can. Using platforms like Kickstarter or IndieGogo, you could offer rewards in the form of vouchers, products or services based on how much they donate.

Wrapping Up: 

How you keep in touch with your customers is really up to you, but the golden rule is to be genuine. If you have the time, give a personal touch as the business owner by writing a newsletter yourself. Be honest, COVID-19 has impacted us all and consumers want to know how they can support their favorite businesses. 

 So, don’t be shy! Make sure you're communicating often and keeping content fresh and engaging. The more they see you now, the more likely they’ll be the first in the door when things get back to normal.