Slowly as lockdown measures are easing up, businesses across the world are starting to reopen and while they are doing that, they are increasingly getting used to the idea of the ‘new normal’. While it is good news that businesses are opening up once again, the world we had before has changed. In the new world of Covid-19, there needs to be stringent health measures in place for it to work in this new climate.

Hard work and luck might have worked earlier but in this new environment, you need to be proactively smart and strategic about how you reopen your business and also how you run it on a daily basis. Let’s explore some tips on how reopening of businesses can be made as smooth as possible –

Reopening Your Small Business Post COVID-19

Secure The Safety Of Your Employees

The new normal mandates that there be protocols in place that guarantee the health safety of your employees. ‘Business as usual’ should now include a regular cleaning schedule with more frequency, paying close attention to high touch areas. Apart from this, there should also be enough personal protective equipment (PPE) to go around for your employees.

Regular wellness checks including temperature scans and mandatory questionnaire fill ups should also be implemented to ensure that only employees who are feeling 100% okay are coming to work. In this regard, it will be good to exercise a more flexible sick leave policy that will let employees who are feeling under the weather to work remotely if needed. Also, there needs to be contingency plans in place in the event someone contracts the virus or is in touch with someone who is infected.

By following these, you are ensuring the safety of your customers as well.

Explore New Opportunities

Chances are that in the COVID situation you have incurred losses and you are expected to incur further losses in the near future too. This loss in demand for your product/services can be tackled by moving into a new product/services category. The ones who are quick to incorporate this newness, will be the ones who will benefit in the post-COVID era. You can begin this by assessing what your main business assets are and use them differently from what you have done in the past.

For instance, if you own a nightclub, you might be facing losses, since people will be staying away from crowded places for some time to come. However, you can turn the situation in your favour by adopting a different business model like small concerts or movie screening which can be successfully done with social distancing norms present.

Connecting With Your Customers

A straightforward, time-tested way of establishing renewed connections with your customers is by offering sales or promotion. This can be achieved in a number of ways – by bundling up older and new products together, offering significant discounts on old products, percentage discounts, free shipping etc.

Whatever you offer, ensure that you are strategic about it. According to studies, percentage discounts have been found to generate more conversions than flat-rate discounts. A 5% discount will achieve more sales than a $5 reduction in price. Additionally, you can donate your surplus stock to build your brand image as a caring, community-sensitive business.

Use your email list and social media accounts to announce your promotions. Sales and promotions are effective in getting cash flow moving and product shifting. Permute and combine various promotional tactics to see which works best for you and your business.

Communicate Better

There is no shying away from the truth that COVID-19 has impacted businesses negatively and how/what you communicate should also recognize this change, and not hide behind jargon. Your pre-COVID business communications plan may need to be revisited.

Ensure that your business communications plans include transparency, expectation-setting and regular updates. Every stakeholder of your business, from customers to employees are filled with uncertainty and in these conditions, it is now more important than ever to give out clear messages instead of cryptic ones which can be misconstrued.

This is also the time when you set expectations right and not overtly promise things that cannot be fulfilled. Many businesses which promised too much had to retract their statements in the realities of layoffs, low sales and other disruptions. If you know order delivery will be slow, communicate that to your customers early on; if layoffs are in order, let your employees know that at the earliest so that they can make adequate plans.

Additionally, once your business is open, you need to be more regular with your updates. Regular updates set the right pace and normalcy while also maintaining brand loyalty. And most importantly, your loyal customers and employees deserve this commitment from you. So, let everyone know what’s going on and what they can rightfully expect from you.

 By Daniel Calvin, who has been helping businesses achieve optimal growth for over a decade. He is also the writer and community relations manager for Officetex.

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