The Immediate Next Step For Your Website
Stop what you are doing — there is an immediate change you need to make to your website, and every day that it isn’t done is a day you’re hurting your business. Surprisingly, I am not talking about ramping up your ecommerce operation (while that is also of extreme importance, it is a more in-depth project).
The simple yet imperative addition your digital presence needs is a page dedicated to the current safety protocols your company is following. Unless you own and operate a chemical lab or paintball field, your business likely didn’t need a safety protocols page two months ago, but now, if you have a physical store of any kind (as more and more states start to allow for businesses to open), you sure as hell need one. But first, let’s discuss actually practicing what you will soon be preaching.
Trust is Everything
Building a trusting relationship with your consumers has always been important. A large majority of the brand persona development and messaging I do for my clients is centered on elevating that very trust. But trust takes on an entirely new meaning when someone’s health is at stake.
Let’s take the true tale of two coffee shops. I consider myself a coffee enthusiast. I brew at home via an array of different methods, test out every third wave coffee shop in cities I take trips to, and have a set of local favorites that I patronize religiously. From the very start of the pandemic, my neighborhood coffee shop in Madison, WI, Grace Coffee, took the health of its patrons seriously. It didn’t match their millennial-chic vibe in the slightest, but at the start of February there were Lysol wipes, hand sanitizer bottles, and additional cleaning supplies prominently displayed. The owners of the coffee shop took turns cleaning while the others would service the line of customers waiting for food and caffeine. As the threat of the virus grew, so did their in-store precautions. Eventually, like many other restaurants, they switched to takeout and delivery only. As an immunocompromised person, simply having my order brought to me isn’t enough to make me feel safe. But when I ordered six black cold brew coffees to help with the two-day-long drive to where my fiancée and I would temporarily be sheltering in Texas, one of the owners showed up at my apartment door wearing a face mask, gloves, and gave me the space to approach her to take the coffee, rather than invading my space.
Pablo, one of the two Bernese Mountain Dogs that can be found lounging at one of Grace’s two locations, has been keeping guard of the cafes while the owners manage the delivery and pickup orders.
This may seem like a given to some, but the reality is that it is not. When we arrived in Texas I found a slight silver lining in an ostensibly terrible global situation in knowing that I would be able to enjoy espresso from my favorite San Antonio spots. Within a week of getting settled I worked up the nerve to hop in the car, put on my mask, and head to one of my top spots to grab an order to-go. Buoyed by the interaction with Grace Coffee in Madison, I felt relatively confident that things would go down the same way here. To my dismay, and subsequent panic, it did not. As I looked inside the coffee shop (this took place further into the outbreak at a point when community spread had long been confirmed in San Antonio) I saw multiple employees making drinks without wearing gloves or a mask. I felt my stomach tighten with anxiety. Minutes later a man walked out of the coffee shop, also without any sort of protective gear, and ignored the note that had accompanied my order for him to leave the coffee in the passenger seat. Even as I tried to politely signal to him to go to the passenger-side door, which I had already opened for him, he walked straight up to the window by my face and asked me to lower it. He put his head close to the opening and talked to me while he passed over the order. I was shocked and struck with fear. Compounding the surprise was this coffee shop’s clear and well-written messaging that they would adhere to protective and proactive protocols.
Now, you may feel I overreacted. Perhaps to some this wouldn’t be as flagrant of a violation as I felt it to be. But my reality as someone in a high risk group for potentially life-threatening COVID-19 complications requires that I do everything I can to avoid situations just like this.
I have chosen not to include the name of the coffee shop as I spoke to someone on their corporate team who let me know that this is not the company’s standard and that the situation would be looked into. And that is okay. All of this is new and of course companies are going to have missteps. But this interaction really hurt the relationship I had built over years and years with this San Antonio coffee shop.
Be Blatant
The story above illustrates the importance of follow-through on safety precautions, which, at this point, needs to be guaranteed. If your company isn’t doing everything it can to protect both its employees and customers then fixing that should be your first priority.
But for the many businesses like Grace Coffee that are taking the responsible steps to care for their consumers, there is still a missing piece to the trust-building process now that we are in the midst of a pandemic. And guess what? Adding that piece to your arsenal is as easy as adding a page to your website.
A safety protocols page will let anyone deciding where to allocate the limited money they feel comfortable spending during these uncertain times — potential customers who are risking exposure to the outside world when isolation is the norm, and this will let them know that your business takes the responsibility of serving them seriously. And yes, be blatant. Subtlety and nuance has its place in brand messaging, but this is not it. Clearly outline what you are doing to safeguard your team and your visitors, as well as anything your business is doing to maintain extra clean facilities and shop space. List it out. Add illustrations if you can. Make it so painfully obvious that you are stopping at nothing to ensure safety that your customer will be able to close their eyes and picture the experience of shopping with you during the pandemic.
Learn By Example
H-E-B, a Texas grocery store chain with a rabid following that matches the loyalty people feel towards our hometown NBA team (Go Spurs Go!), has handled the evolving crisis close to perfectly from the very start. They have even been recognized on a national level for doing a significantly better job of preparing for the virus than our own government.
They have adjusted their offerings to keep their staff and customers safe, well before the continuous roll out of restrictions and guidelines have encouraged businesses to. They walk the walk. And beyond that? They talk the talk. A detailed COVID-specific FAQ page lists every question someone could ask, with answers that don’t beat around the bush or distract with vague promises. They cover possible technical difficulties with their mobile ordering app, a staple of procuring produce these days, go into the details of what doorstep delivery entails, including changes like the removal of receipt signing, and they discuss what they are doing to keep their stores safe, with links out to even more up-to-date information via their press release page.
H-E-B has even updated their homepage search engine snippet to include COVID-19.
Interacting with H-E-B over the past weeks has been the safest I have felt in dealing with a business during the pandemic. And it has changed my purchasing habits. Before I tested out H-E-B’s process I was relying on Whole Foods through Amazon Prime. After just one curbside pickup with H-E-B, Whole Foods became a thing of the past (that isn’t even taking into account the very disturbing stories about Amazon’s lack of safety practices and general apathy towards keeping their employees safe).
H-E-B is a clear example of how to demonstrate thoughtfulness and security via a safety protocols page and of how to deliver on that promise, ensuring repeat business through and beyond the first wave of the pandemic.
Must-Haves For Your Safety Protocols Page
Expand on this list as much as you see fit and remove what doesn’t apply to your specific operation, but here are some starting points for what to include on that oh-so-important page.
How do your business’ protective measures and re-opening policies line up with your state’s guidelines? Are you enacting stricter policies than what is mandated? How will you adapt as regulations tighten and loosen with the waves of the virus?
What is management doing to protect staff from COVID-19? What are the protocols for if someone feels sick? What sick leave options do they have if they are feeling unwell or test positive?
In what ways can customers now interact with the shop? Do you offer curb-side or delivery? If so, what should the customer expect in each of those interactions? Will your team bring the goods to the back of their vehicle and assume the trunk is unlocked?
If people are allowed inside of your store, what do they need to know about what that experience will be like? Do they need to wear a mask in order to come in? Will there be markings on the floor to show how far apart people need to stand? Have you reduced the maximum capacity of your shop to allow for people to distance themselves from other shoppers?
This page will look different depending on what kind of business you operate. If your business has a storefront that people use to browse your wares, then the above is pretty applicable. But even businesses that don’t generally feature eager customers wandering around, for example a lawyer’s office, would benefit from a safety protocols page. Not only will face-to-face interaction likely occur at some point in the future once restrictions wane but anxiety remains high, but letting people know that you are thinking about these measures goes a long way.
What About Digitally Native Brands and SaaS Firms?
Great. Another email just hit your inbox from another brand that only sells digital products. They want you to know that their CEO is quite aware of all of the pain and suffering that COVID-19 is causing, but rest assured, their small team is taking extra care to wash hands, sanitize door knobs, and avoid common spaces in an office that you, nor any of their customers, will ever place foot in.
There is a point in which you are adding unnecessary noise to your customer’s overstimulated brain. I draw the line for email based COVID-19 safety protocol updates at digitally native brands and SaaS companies. If your product physically can’t carry the virus because it is something akin to a groundbreaking way to organize business contacts directly in your browser (or any other business within a stone’s throw of this), then you shouldn’t give a safety protocols update via email. Can you add a page to your website for those who are interested? Absolutely. It may even strengthen your brand’s reputation as you are demonstrating responsibility for your team and global awareness. But please, spare your followers another email they will scoff at and archive.
Workers at NOMAD’s factory now working on face masks rather than phone accessories. Image from NOMAD’s website.
Now, if your firm is contributing to the fight against COVID-19 in a tangible way and want to share that with your consumers, then please do. NOMAD, a direct-to-consumer phone case and accessories company based in Santa Barbara, California, sent an email just a few weeks into the pandemic letting NOMAD product owners know that they will be shifting a good deal of their manufacturing capabilities to making masks for healthcare workers.
Time To Get That Page Up
There are a lot of changes coming for your business, but let’s take this one step at a time and knock out the easier items that can be executed on quickly. Take an afternoon and put together the Safety Protocols page then get it launched. Don’t exaggerate what you are doing. Be truthful and keep it up-to-date with improvements as you learn what works and what doesn’t.