If you’re like most business owners, you’re probably having trouble getting back to your pre-lockdown sales numbers. After all, many of us were forced to close our stores for a long period of time and the customers that we typically saw would have likely found other solutions. Perhaps they now prefer the convenience and savings they get from an online store, or maybe they’re not even aware that you’re open again.
Reopening your business has become incredibly difficult, but there are a couple of ways to help convince and encourage your customers to revisit your store.
Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/P0fL3KdLgzU (CC0)
Make sure your store is prepared for customers
There’s a long list of reopening tips that you can find on almost any government website, so we’re not going to go into those specifics. However, we will remind you that it’s important to prepare measures to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, and also to consider customer safety in general. This includes some distancing measures and providing things such as face masks and hand sanitiser if needed.
Many businesses are starting to loosen the rules around wearing masks and using sanitiser, but that doesn’t mean that you should completely ignore those rules. You should also be working with professional companies such as Sharp Exterior Cleaning to clean the exterior of your store and make it more presentable for customers. This is both for hygiene purposes and to make your store look more welcoming, especially if you’ve not had a customer for several weeks or months.
Let people know that your store is open again
If you had a solid business reputation and loyal customers before you had to close your store, then there’s a good chance that you can easily start climbing back to your previous sales figures if you just let people know that you’re back.
There are many different channels that you can do this on. A great start would be Facebook, a social media platform that almost every business uses. You can also look at updating your Google listing so that you show up on Google Maps again. You can also use other social media platforms that you have a presence on, such as Twitter or Instagram. Letting people know that you’re open should be the first thing you do once your store is open again, and you should continue to remind people via emails and marketing campaigns.
Give people a welcome back reward
There are loads of promotion ideas that you can use to help draw in customers that were previously regulars. For instance, you can attract them with discounts on their favourite products, or you can even give them some bonuses if you have a loyalty scheme.
This is a fantastic marketing option because it encourages people to come and support your store despite the difficulties that you may have faced when you had to close. If you welcome your loyal customers back with welcome arms, then you’ll see your sales numbers return to normal in a short amount of time.