Tips to help during COVID-19
Reporting of the corona virus seems to be changing minute by minute around the world and we are all faced with uncertainty. We are still here to support you through these unforeseen circumstances and have been diligently working to come up with strategies on how you our loyal clients can keep running your businesses even if it may not be in the manner that you are use to.
Contacting clients using SMS/Email marketing
You may have already contacted your loyal customers in relation to the impact the current situation is having on your business and what steps you have taken whether it be changes to work hours, extra safety precautions put in place to protect staff and clients, number of clients allowed in store at the one time, even temporary closures.
For businesses that have been forced to close their doors and ones that are still open but are experiencing less revenue.
Consider this – Emphasize that you may not be physically open but this does not mean that you are not open for business.
Get the most of You’reOnTime and use our great online features. Notify your customers that they can still purchase gift vouchers to use for future appointments and we have a newly released feature of selling products online. Contact our support and they will get your store open for you.
It’s important to keep communications open with your clients to retain valuable relationships.
Social Media
Social Media platforms are a way of updating existing and potential clients. Most salons already have a Facebook page and for many of them it is already the primary place they keep in contact with clients. Take advantage of this with regular weekly posts to keep them informed. Even if you don't feel like you have much to add a simple post of an image or meme is enough.
Reminders / Campaigns
Most people will have automatic reminders or follow up messages configured as they are a great way of reducing no shows. But if you are shut down but still have appointments in your books it is going to be really confusing if those messages are still going out. Make sure to go into Marketing and turn them off. You can also disable follow up messages on each of your services.
Work Schedules
It might be easy to just add breaks over all the times your staff can't work, but it is probably best to just blank out their work schedule. You can do this for a week or month at a time, depending on how long you are closing. Doing this will stop people from booking during your closed period.
Imminent closure of business
If you are forced to close your doors, please remember to cancel any upcoming bookings. By doing this you will easily be able to run a report of all cancelled bookings and this list of clients can be your first point of contact upon reopening.
Store cleanup/Stock Take
There are a ton of jobs you have probably put off, who has cleaned the top of the cupboards recently? Perfect opportunity to give the store a big spring-clean and while you’re at it do a complete stock inventory. When you open up it will be like a brand new store.
Utilize spare time
Brainstorm ideas on possible campaigns you can do when you are up and running to full capacity again. How often do we not even do these marketing campaigns or leave them until the last minute? Get on Google and see what other people are doing and then plan your year ahead, ready
- Mothers Day / Fathers Days
- Independence Day
- Christmas Campaign
- Relaunch events
Apply for government assistance ASAP
Many governments throughout the world are offering some kind of assistance for small businesses so you should be taking every advantage of this.
United Kingdom
https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus
New Zealand
https://www.business.govt.nz/news/coronavirus-information-for-businesses/
United States
https://disasterloan.sba.gov/ela/
Finally, we are all living through these uncertain times the best way we can with a strong sense of perseverance. We here at You’reOnTime are continuing to work and are dedicated to delivering new features to help your business prosper when things get back to normal, hopefully sooner rather than later.