How to Support Your Customers During Social Distancing

Social distancing measures have stimulated a drastic change in customer behavior across the globe. With heightened public concerns, most customers remain wary of resuming their normal activities. The ‘lockdown response’ to the crisis has upended every aspect of businesses and dramatically altered the overall customer experience.

In the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, social distancing is a powerful tool to stem the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, but it can be successful only if we all participate in it. Customers are craving their usual comforts; they are longing for authentic human connections. So how do we connect with them during these challenging times when we’re supposed to isolate physically? Even if you temporarily close your business/store, there are ways to keep serving your customers during these grueling times. We’ll walk you through a few tips to keep your customers engaged.

Personalize Marketing

Now is a great time to pause and research your existing customer trends, from ‘where did they find your store’ to ‘the kinds of products they purchase’. Are they on Instagram, are they still sticking to Facebook or maybe they’re solely on Reddit? These are the things you need to know because that’s where you need to go to engage with them and eventually run promotions.

Even though we’re facing a period of uncertainty, don’t turn your back on marketing. Research shows that businesses that keep marketing during challenging times recovered 9X Faster from the 2008 financial downturn. However, while selecting your target audience, it is crucial to resist the urge to ‘Send to all’.

Apptivo’s Email Marketing Campaign helps you send a highly-personalized email for your customers, fostering a stronger relationship with your customers. It enables you to track sales analytics like open rates, bounce rates, and lead conversions. Our Email Marketing tools offer customized templates for you to implement customer segmentation and reach all clients with a more personalized way of advertising.

Online Ordering Service

A lot of retail stores realize that they can’t rely on foot traffic anymore. Around 27% of customers have shifted to online purchasing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s not a cakewalk to set up an entire eCommerce website and manage sales online, but you can’t turn a blind eye to the dramatic increase in online sales by 50% as compared to the pre-pandemic months. Everybody is online now, and all we’re doing is spending time online. So, you have to get online and make sure your content is there.

Apptivo’s eCommerce WordPress Plugin will help transform your WordPress website into an eCommerce site, which will be integrated with your Apptivo account to sell products online from your websites seamlessly. Our CRM software will help you track your leads and target them with regular follow-ups. With Apptivo’s Orders App, you can keep capture order status and provide discounts.

Curbside Pickup/ Delivery Services

With the rising number of COVID-19 cases, it is crucial to reduce physical contact with others, even when we aren’t experiencing any symptoms. Limiting exposure to your customers during this time is imperative, and offering delivery services and curbside pickup is a great way to provide the shopping services to your customers while saving their time and reducing risks for them. In this era of social distancing, people are scared to enter stores and businesses that could offer delivery services certainly have an advantage as the coronavirus pandemic spreads.

However, this drastic shift from in-store retail to curbside pickup demands a robust digital infrastructure that caters to all your customers’ needs. Now more than ever, you require Apptivo’s Helpdesk to address all the issues customers are facing as you transition to this new style of selling. The Helpdesk helps you seamlessly productively communicate with your customers using a sophisticated ticketing system to assign an agent to every customer request, ensuring that all cases close in time. Apptivo’s Cases App provides an entire customer history to track inquiries and problems for delivering responses that are personalized for each recipient.

Communicate With customers

Arm your customers with information and educate them on how social distancing works. One of the most important things you can do today – is to let them know that you are planning on surviving this challenging time, and you are going to open your doors again. Make sure you’re communicating this across all your platforms. Your buyers aren’t in the mindset of buying so, to strengthen their trust, you need to exhibit emotional intelligence and communicate with empathy. Apptivo’s CRM integrated Email software helps you continuously communicate with potential as well as loyal customers in a more personalized way. With Apptivo, you can offer a personal touch to the email campaigns through various customization tools dispensed by Apptivo.

Wrapping Up

Social distancing has been the primary strategy for avoiding exposure, and you want to create a safe environment for your customers. Let your customers know the strategies you have adopted to support public safety, as this will have a lasting impact on your company’s reputation. Now is a perfect time to adapt to eCommerce and establish strong and personalized digital marketing. Apptivo is here to support you in this endeavor of yours to thrive in these challenging times.