When businesses reopen for customers after lockdown, it’s not going back to the way business used to be. Chris has 5 shifts for you to consider.

As different places begin to allow local businesses to open up, you’re not alone if you’re breathing a sigh of relief mixed with a gasp of worry. We all need the money. We all want to get back to being useful for the people we serve. And some or most of us are worried about what happens next. Let’s talk about some of it.

OPEN UP! It’s the Customers!

Remember this above all else: everyone is tense. No one will likely be their most courteous and their best behaved. No matter how grown up and strong we all our, this really counts as actual real mental trauma. It’s going to take a bit to get over it, and that means you as the business owner will have to smother their customers and prospects with kindness, but there’s a lot more.

1. Clean Up

Customers are going to want to understand how you’re handing a clean work environment after this pandemic. Even if you personally think it’s silly in some cases, don’t discount your customer’s vote on this one. Make it clear and obvious and explain how you are handling everything, even things you can’t imagine someone wondering about like whether you disinfect your cardboard before boxing up their product. (Turns out this is a big and common question now when people consider purchasing something online.)

2. Sell Online

Even after the big bad bug is finally vanquished enough for us not to care about it, people are used to ordering and buying online for many products and services you can’t even imagine people getting remotely. I have a friend who sells hay and the moment he got the web store live on his website, he had orders.

3. Communicate More

Partly because of online sales and definitely because of this “If I can’t see it, how do I know what’s going on?” mindset, people are looking for more “touches” between themselves and companies, even in B2B situations. If the order typically takes a week to build and ship, then give people updates every day or two. When I ordered DoorDash to get a burger sent to me during lockdown, I received five or six texts from the app, telling me the food was being made, the food was ready for pickup, the driver picked up the food, the driver is two minutes away, and the driver is here. Do something like that.

4. Consider New Payment Options in Two Ways

On the one hand, if you’re not using things like PayPal, Stripe, Venmo, and Cashapp, you might want to get some accounts setup. People are sending money through multiple channels. Second, you might realize that with nearly 30 million people unemployed in the US on the day I wrote this to you, cash is tight. You might have to sell “smaller bites” versions of what you offer, so that people can afford you. There are many creative ways to work on this.

5. Reach Out

It’s no surprise that this is my advice. I’ve spent twenty years begging companies to use tools like video and audio and good email marketing to reach potential customers. There’s a lot to this, it seems, but at the root of it all is the same goal: communicate and connect with the people you hope to help and earn the right to sell and serve.

Here’s help

To that end, Becky and Deb have a whole new program about learning to restart your local shopping. If that’s your kind of small town business, then it’s pretty important you check that out.

If not, realize that all businesses are going through some form of what you’re experiencing and that it’s important to accept that it won’t be perfect. But know this, also: people are really getting behind “shop local” in a way they’ve never expressed it before. This might be an ideal time to change up some of your work and really earn their money and customer longevity.

You ready?

Looking down on Kennett Township, PA, from the fire truck bucket. What if a disaster happened here? What would be the best plan while rebuilding?

Note: This week and next week, I’m pleased to share these guest posts by Whitney Hoffman. She’s sharing some thoughts about being ready for and recovering from disasters. -Becky

Guest post by Whitney Hoffman

I’ve been a Township Supervisor in Kennett Township PA for over three years now. We’re located in what some people call an ex-urban area, where suburban and rural meet. We’re known as the Mushroom Capital of the World. Mushroom farms, most family owned, make a $2.5 billion impact on the economy throughout the area.

Our town, Kennett Square, and the surrounding area including our Township have the same problems many small towns all over the country have. How do we keep our town center vibrant, and how do we make sure there are attractive jobs available so our kids have something to come home to after they are grown and go off to school.

It doesn’t take long as a local elected official to learn about the importance of zoning and building codes to shape how businesses thrive or die, and how important having good infrastructure is to the success of your community.

That’s why looking at the devastation of small towns in the latest disasters hit home hard for me. While the emergency responders take care of the initial needs after a storm, the long term responsibility weighs on the people who sit on city councils, planning commissions and zoning hearing boards. The decisions they make about how land is going to be used, reused and what kind of construction will be allowed will affect how their community comes back, and how vulnerable it may be (or not) in future storms.

For example, in our town, we have a number of areas that were zoned for commercial office parks. That’s simply something people don’t need as much of any more, so the question becomes what do you do with old office parks as they gradually empty out, or how to you attract development to undeveloped parcels in that area, that are more reflective of the needs of the community?

Traditionally, the local zoning was for “single use” – businesses went in one section of town, housing in another. But now, people want more livable, walkable communities. That’s why we’ve spent a tremendous amount of time and effort to try to create new code that allows for “Traditional Neighborhood designs”. This means mixed use on a parcel, allowing commercial use with live/work unit apartments above, townhomes and even single family homes, all on the same parcel, even if it’s only about 10 acres.

And it means creating some rules that might even fast-track approvals. So for example, if you want to avoid a lengthy conditional use process, plans to develop a parcel that meets a specific set of criteria, including environmentally friendly aspects like green roofing, LEED certified buildings, water-table friendly stormwater management, etc., get advantages in the approval process.

When I look at the devastation after disasters, as a local official, I feel for everyone in the affected area. But I also see that the elected officials and planning commissions have a unique opportunity to remake and reshape their towns. They can start over, and reshape their town with new codes to make things better than ever. They have an opportunity to look at their community and build something that really works. Maybe that’s adding bike lanes while you are redoing streetscapes. Maybe it’s adding trails and other ways to get around rather than depending only on cars and highways. The key is not to let the temptation of rebuilding it “just like it was” prevent you from designing something better and something that has a longer lifespan.

It’s going to be tough to design the town you want and put in place building codes that ensure the longevity and resilience to any future storms. But it is a once in a lifetime opportunity to make a mark on the town and design it the way we wish we could. Make it a place people are eager to call home for generations, whether they are returning or decide it’s the perfect new place to put down roots.

You have more of a blank canvas than many people ever get. Make great decisions now. Your community will thank you for generations to come.

More about Whitney

I was sworn in as a Kennett Township Supervisor in January 2016, and now serve as Vice Chair of the Board as of January 3, 2017. I am the first elected female Supervisor in the history of the Township.

I am currently working as a social media manager for Mingl Marketing and its sister company, Comfort Media Group in Philadelphia, and I also consult as a digital marketing strategist for Epic Marketing in Delaware on a project by project basis.

My consulting business, Hoffman Digital Media, specializes in digital media strategy, content marketing, and management for the web. I work with businesses and organizations to help them hone and develop a social media and 360 degree marketing strategy, ensuring that they can target potential customers online as well as measure the return on investment of marketing dollars. I speak regularly to businesses and community organizations on social media, content strategy, business strategy, technology and digital citizenship issues to groups of all sizes.

Read Whitney’s second post, How small towns can cut through the noise to communicate with residents during disasters 

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