Tips for Letting Your Customers Know Your Store has Reopened
As government regulations begin to ease in certain parts of North America, many retail stores are reopening their business. We recently sent several eblasts out as part of a Reopening Series—a toolkit designed to help you better prepare your business to reopen. In the first email, we offered these communication guidelines, which address not only social media, but the website and emails as well:
- Post your store hours, appointment options, and health and safety policy on your website, social media, and throughout the store.
- Send an email to your customers letting them know you have reopened, and the steps you are taking to ensure their comfort and safety.
- Update the store’s voicemail communicating business hours and assure callers that protocols are in place to provide a safe shopping experience.
- Update digital signage to reflect hours and to let them know you are doing your part to create a safe shopping experience.
- Messaging should encourage appointments so you can plan the customer’s experience.
Our most recent email in the Reopening series provided several Communications Templates , which includes messaging for an email to your team and clients, or content that you can use for either a social media post or website. Here’s a basic template you can use for social media:
We’re open! We look forward to seeing you soon. Here are our current store hours: [List Days of week/Times]
We realize that you may be concerned about health and safety as our community is in Phase [X] of the state’s reopening protocol. We have taken extra steps to ensure your well-being. Contact us and we are happy to discuss these policies with you. For your convenience, curbside pickup/delivery is available, as are virtual appointments or private appointments.
Contact us today at [phone number] or email us [email].
While not directly related to social media, you can view our Reopening Checklist here, and the Reopening Guidelines here.
General Social Media Tips
We’ve heard from some members who would like some ideas on what they can post about in this new normal. Social media is such a great place to connect with your customers; and if there is a silver living in this pandemic, it’s that it’s given us a chance to connect in different and meaningful ways with our audience. Keep these tips in mind:
- Keep your audience informed as your business hours change and you progress from Phase One operations to Phase Two and so on.
- Be sure to clearly post this information on all your social media platforms, in particular, on your Instagram or Twitter profile, and as part of your Facebook cover image. That way, the message doesn’t get buried in a sea of posts.
- Keep them updated on what you are doing to keep them safe and comfortable in the store.
- Share photos or video of your staff cleaning, wearing personal protective equipment (PPE), and display some of the adjustments you’ve made in-store to provide for social distancing.
- Stay positive.
- Keep your posts upbeat and reassuring.
- Your audience, and your clients, buy jewelry for a reason: it represents something important to them, whether it’s love and romance, a milestone, or a symbol of accomplishment. Remind them of that.
- Distract them.
- Don’t forget to post jewelry! Your incredible inventory and custom designs are what you do best. Providing some beautiful eye candy is a much-needed distraction.
- If you are doing work in the community, let your audience know.
- Whether you’ve been making masks, delivering food to families in need, or giving gifts of jewelry to healthcare workers, let your clients know!
- Support your fellow local businesses! Let your audience know the good works of others in your local community. Give a shout-out to the dry cleaner who is making masks for front-line workers, the bookstore owner who created a food drive, a radio station live-streaming a charity concert. Recognize the works of others in your community.
If you have some tips of your own to share or have questions about anything above, please contact us at [email protected].
