How do I connect and communicate with my customers?

- [Jess] This is Jess Stratton with LinkedIn Learning. And I'm also a small business owner and I study how we communicate. It's easy to feel overwhelmed, where to start reaching out to your customers. Let's break it down. Your plan to connect with your customers during a crisis should include this communication path. First, create your brief transparent message to your customers. Once it's created, post it on your website, send it to your e-mail list and post it to social media. After that, update existing web listings such as Google My Business. And finally, update your storefront with a proper signage. Let's talk about how to create your brief transparent message to your customers. What should your communication cover? You'll want to communicate what safety measures you're taking, how you're protecting your employees, updated store hours, menus, curbside pickup offerings, or closings. Be specific and brief. Remember, your customers are probably also getting hundreds of other similar e-mails, so only cover the facts that your customers need to know. Will there be shipping delays? A Limited menu once your message is complete. The good news is that it's easy to post this everywhere. And you should be posting it everywhere. For example, post it on your website. You can take that copy text and paste it right on the homepage, or you can link it to an FAQ style page. You'll also want to send this to your e-mail list. If you have an existing means of e-mailing your customers, great. If not, do not purchase a mail list. There is strong consumer protection against this. And if you aren't sure if your customers have opted in to hear from you via e-mail, you will need to clarify this first. If you don't have an existing service, you can use one such as Mailchimp. There's also Constant Contact and Sendinblue. These are all reputable companies. If you use a point of sale system, many of them offer direct e-mail services. For example, Square is a very popular point of sale system for small businesses. Right here on their homepage, on their main dashboard from the web, you can sign up for Square Marketing in which you can direct mail your customers. You should only communicate via e-mail once as it should contain all the information your customers need to know. And finally, it should contain an invitation on how they can follow you on social media themselves for future updates. And speaking of social media, you should be posting your message on social media. After your initial message, don't feel like the entire contents of that communication should go out in one batch. Customers will feel comforted seeing you regularly on social media. So after posting about your initial update, you can spread out your message on a daily basis. And while this is not the time to be an opportunist, people are craving some joy. So absolutely share if your company is finding a way to give back to the community. It's also fine to have an offer that will genuinely assist them at this time. If you're on Facebook, you should also make sure that you're monitoring Facebook Messenger, which is a popular way that customers can speak to you directly with questions. Let's talk about updating web listings such as Google's My Business. Customers will do a Google or web search to see if you're open or what you're offering. So you'll need to update your My Business information, which is a free service from Google. Have you ever noticed that certain companies have their business hours listed on the right-hand side of a Google search? Let's head to google.com/business. If you sign up, you can put in updated hours, mark yourself temporarily closed, or your new way of doing business, such as curbside pickup with a product list or smaller menu. During a crisis, you can expect the bigger web companies like this will have tools available for you to make it easy to update your information. For example here on the top of this page. Finally, if you have a storefront, adding signs will help your customers that visit the physical store. In fact, you can add some depth and humanity to your social media posts by taking a photo of your store with the sign. The US Chamber of Commerce has this customizable flyer you can print out and hang in your window or door. You can take the steps that you're taking and place check marks, or write your own message to add it to the flyer, print it out and hang it up. This is based on US regulations, but if you're outside the US, check to see what's available for you. With this path, you can be confident that your customers will be informed and feel connected.