Dry spells in business are quite rare. They usually arrive in the form of economic shocks and recessions. Economic shocks are short-lived and recessions are much longer. On the other hand, you could be in the midst of a pandemic whereby customers are simply being more cautious than ever before. It seems like we could be in all three for the foreseeable future. However, the good sign is, customers are slowly releasing the clamps on their purses and wallets. Ecommerce is still continuing, albeit with some trepidation. To truly inspire confidence in your customers, you should let them know that during this dry spell, you are still maintaining a high standard of service. This will encourage more consumers to see you as a bedrock of commerce.

A global notification

Consumers will be wary of parting with their money, now that everyone is in lockdown. They can’t go out to earn a living, so they will be cautiously moving forward with their spending habits. However, if you send a global email to all your customers, letting them know that you are adapting to the situation, they will keep your name in mind. Now is not the time to send out a promotional email, nor a survey, but you should send out a notification email. How do you write such a message?

• Square with them. Let the customers know you are aware that the lockdown will be emotionally and physically tough for some.
• Start off by sharing details of emergency responders and support services such as charities and government departments.
• Getting to the heart of the email, you will need to explain to them how your pricing is going to change and why. 
• Make the email a bit more personal by using the customer’s profile to advertise key products they have bought before and display what’s new on offer.

Staying honest

Great customer service during such a difficult time is going to be the savior of your business. While postal and delivery services are still operating, customers will be buying and returning items. The returning of items will be crucial if you’re a micro or small business. It’s easy to use a drop shipping company for deliveries but returns should come directly back to you. Using virtual physical addresses, you can utilize their PO Box service so customers have an address to which they can return their products. Many drop shipping companies will be working on half staff as some are ill or don’t feel safe coming in to work. Hence why you should pick up the slack and deal with all returns by yourself.

Get your face out there

Nowadays, customers expect business owners to be on social media and be running their accounts by themselves. So get your face out there, film a short video using your mobile and let customers know what your plans are for dealing with the lockdown/pandemic situation.

When customers stop spending, businesses are hit with a sudden dry spell. But you can get the ball rolling again if you inspire confidence in customers, showing them that you are still up and running and you invite their business.