In this new normal of social distancing and mandated storefront closures, small businesses need to remain relevant and engaged with customers now more than ever.
Last week we along with Trevor Newberry of Newberry Consulting, Luan Nguyen of Wheelhouse Academy, Tiffany Martin of Ignite Cycle and Lemar Storey of Life Touch Massage discussed this in the Retaining Your Business: Maximizing Your Customer Relationships During Disaster webinar – a part of REV’s Biz Growth Resiliency series.
Of course, any new normal comes with challenges—and that includes technical difficulties.
The video of this webinar isn’t available for us to upload here, but we’re working on getting that fixed. In the meantime, we still wanted to give small business owners some useful tips. Here are two of the panelists’ top tips for maintaining a relationship with customers even if your doors are currently closed.
Tiffany Martin of Ignite Cycle:
Know your brand. Make decisions based on that. Whether or not you know it, your brand has a personality – your customers come to expect certain things from your brand and have an understanding of its identity.
Create something original. Don’t contribute to market oversaturation. Your startup wouldn’t have worked if you moved into an oversaturated market, so why would you expect it to now?
Keep it simple. At a time when we’re all scrambling and trying to figure out a reasonable, well-branded, (ideally) revenue-generating pivot, it’s easy to throw a bunch of ideas against the wall and see what sticks. Take a step back, and think about how that would play out if things were “normal.”
Lemar Storey of Life Touch Massage:
Maintain contact. Keep up with your clients preferably email, but if not, on social media. Also, collect emails for future content.
Be creative to generate income. Find ways to monetize that list of clients by selling your knowledge via e-book, YouTube, Udemy, Teachable, etc.
Collaborate. Get with others in your field to create virtual content for your clients.
REV has been engaged with our partners to ensure we are being as collaborative and clear as possible in messaging to our community the resources available to Birmingham entrepreneurs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Related News
-
Fundrage: Creating positive change in real time
Filed Under: Business-Proving, Front Page
All too often we catch ourselves reading the news wanting to help, but not knowing where to begin. That’s why Maria Underwood created Fundrage, a social impact platform that connects users to nonprofits they can support based on the exact news article that they’re reading. Keep reading to find out more about how this app is playing a huge role in creating positive change in real time!
-
The 20th Street Refresh is coming to an end - but there's still more to come!
Filed Under: Downtown Birmingham, Front Page, Potential-Proving, Uncategorized, Yaysayers
This Friday, May 20th, we will be having a (20th) Street Party (which you can read more about here) to celebrate the end of our Birmingham Green Refresh! While this certainly calls for a celebration, the party doesn’t stop there. We will still be adding some finishing touches to the street after the (20th) Street Party. These additional touches will help make Birmingham’s main street more vibrant, interactive, and efficient! Additions will include smart trash cans, free libraries, street performers, and more!
-
Downtown Birmingham has so much to offer!
Filed Under: Downtown Birmingham, Front Page, Uncategorized
We’ve talked about sports, but downtown has so much more to offer! Downtown Birmingham has so many experiences in store for you, which can also turn into life-long memories. And lucky for you, we’ve created a tool to make all that exploring so much easier!