Adapting Your Business to Meet the Challenge of Social Distancing

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In times of adversity, it’s inspiring to see how people and businesses adapt to face incredible challenges. In the face of Coronavirus, small businesses have moved quickly and innovatively to survive and keep their services relevant—from keeping appointments via videoconferencing to creating entirely new services. Need ideas on how to keep yourself relevant and profitable? Here are some ideas!

Behind the Scenes

Find ways to cut costs 

With your business already strained, it’s important to find ways to keep your costs low. Take the time to shop around for solutions that offer lower prices or rates so that you can save now and in the future. It’s not just important in a crisis, it’s a step you should take to keep more money in your pocket in the future. There are always ways to save cash, and merchant services businesses are adapting in the short term to help the businesses they serve. If your providers aren’t adapting, it’s time to switch to providers who are, and who will look out for your interests in the next disaster. 

For example, Riverside Payments has adopted some changes to combat the strains that Coronavirus has placed on your business—such as waiving monthly minimums and waiving fees for vendors who are forced to close. Find solutions that are willing to keep your best interests at heart during these troubled times.  

Educate your Employees

In light of the outbreak, it’s important to make sure your employees are protected to the best of your abilities. Provide your employees with reputable resources with accurate information about the coronavirus outbreak, such as The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The World Health Organization, and the FDA. 

If your employees are still coming to work, make sure you have adequate sanitization supplies, and train your employees on how to use it. It’s important to set expectations so that everyone is on the same page—the right page—and staying safe. 

Shift to Pickup or Delivery options

If you’re a bar or restaurant, it’s likely that you’ve had to close your dining rooms due to social distancing measures. Make sure your customers know if and how they can still order from your business so that you can keep your cash flowing, even with your doors closed. That leads us to the next point.

Repurpose your employees

Your hostess and waiters are currently out of service, because there’s nobody to host or serve. Instead of letting them go or putting them on leave, put them to work. With the shift in your business from dine-in to delivery or from in-store to online, there are tasks those employees can take on in order to stay busy while keeping your business afloat. That includes order packing, delivery driving, taking call-in orders, or helping out on social media to create a customer-involvement strategy (we’ll get into that later). Your business is shifting so, if possible, you should shift your workers too. 

For your customers

Adopt a Gift Card Program

If you haven’t yet, get going on gift cards. It’s essentially a micro-loan—a customer investing in your financial future with deferred revenue that needs to be settled in the future. It needs to be honored, but it increases cash flow in the short term and can help pay the bills and your employees. 

People also tend to spend more on their dining experiences than a gift card will cover, so you’ll still have future gains, even if you have a flood of gift card deferred revenue after the crisis is over. 

Live Stream and Video

Have something you can livestream? From teaching a virtual cooking class to hosting online yoga classes, there are tons of ways you can get your customers involved in the process, and they’ll be grateful to have something to keep them busy at home! Here are a few fun ideas:

  • Coffee shops: Live stream the creation of the most complicated drink order you’ve ever gotten. 

  • Restaurants: Teach people how to make (one of) your dishes at home (but hold back a little. You still want them to dine-in once this is all over)! 

  • Bars: Do a video guide of how to pair food with different drinks! No one knows how to do that better than you!

  • Clothing retail: give quick lessons on how to style your most popular items! 

Get active on Social Media

Let yourself become a hub for digital conversation. Ask your customers what they want to see on your specials menu when your doors open again. Ask them how they’d style that funky jacket for a night on the town. Create Instagram and Facebook story challenge templates for your audience to use and spread! Keep being that fun space that people go to for a good time, even if you can’t be that space in person. 

Got more ideas? Add to our list in the comments! We’ll keep updating as we go!