Social Distancing and Your Business

The topic of “Social Distancing” is an important practice to implement during the outbreak of COVID-19. But what is social distancing? What does this mean for your business? 

Social distancing is making a conscious effort to keep your distance from others at all times: in the workplace, outside, and in the grocery store. Social distancing is one of the most effective ways of reducing the spread of the virus. A number of steps can be taken to practice social distancing that will still allow your business to continue running.

Best Practices for Social Distancing and your Business

If your workplace is remaining open

If you are considered an essential business and your workplace is staying open, you need to ensure that your employees feel comfortable and safe. There are two main precautions to take in a workplace that is still operating; reducing human contact and increasing sanitation.

Social distancing is something to keep in mind from the second you enter the workplace to when you leave. Educating your employees about social distancing is incredibly important as it takes every employee to practice social distancing for it to be successful. With multiple news outlets reporting on this, it’s hard to find trustworthy and reliable best practices; some useful websites that will give you insightful information about best hygiene practices, as well as updates on the COVID-19 situation, are the CDC, WHO, and The Government of Canada. 

Implementing a more robust sanitization process will keep your employees safe. This includes disinfecting “high touch” areas, such as doors, keyboards, handles, kitchens, and washrooms. Implementing practices such as having employees eating at their desks instead of congregating in the kitchen are important to help mitigate the risk. Reminders and teachings on handwashing for employees and other safe hygiene practices like hand sanitizing stations near any doorway will go a long way for your business. Any person to person direct contact should be eliminated, this includes handshakes and hugs and should be replaced with a simple wave. 

Restaurant delivery service sanitation must be handled with the utmost of care. This includes the employees’ safety, continually washing hands before and after delivery, as well and sanitizing hands before and after direct contact of delivery. Sanitizing and cleaning the vehicles thoroughly every day is crucial to ensuring that there are no contact points where the food could be contaminated. Look into what surfaces the virus sticks to, some examples are cardboard, and granite surfaces – and provide extra sanitation for those items. 

Important to this process is also communicating your business’ safety precautions to your customers through direct mail, email, signage, and website notices. This will help your customers feel safe when interacting with your business and its employees.

If You Are Working From Home

Collaborating with co-workers can be difficult without face to face interactions. This is why many employers do not allow employees to work from home. Resources that are needed to work from home might also be in short supply, inhibiting everyone to work from home. It’s hard to draw the line of what is fair and what isn’t. However, everyone needs to play their part in the pandemic. Allowing anyone who is able to work from home to do so will reduce the risk of interaction and spread of the virus.

Technology giants are doing their part to help your business continue. An example is Google, allowing free premium access to some of its advanced features including Google Hangouts, for all G Suite and G Suite Education customers. Google Hangouts provide a good meeting space along with G Suite which can allow others to see your work in real-time. It will be just like you are working together from a different cubicle! 

Virtual meetings are essential when working from home – it is a direct way to easily collaborate with other coworkers while ensuring that everyone is on the same page and understanding the task at hand. Emails can be difficult to communicate through and to get your message across properly. Some great tools for video conferencing include Zoom; a free tool that will allow virtual meetings, Google Hangouts; available on Gmail accounts, even FaceTime on iPhones will allow you to collaborate face to face, without having to be in person.

How to Market your Business while practicing Social Distancing

If your business is still operating during COVID-19, your marketing plan might require a slight change. Marketing is incredibly important during this time to allow consumers to know that your business is in fact open and that you are taking necessary precautions to keep your employees and consumers safe. A balance of these two messages will let consumers know that you are still in business but that their safety and the safety of your employees is also top of mind. 

To let consumers know your business is open, flyer delivery is essential to let your customers know you are open for business. Canada Post is taking safety precautions to ensure that every delivery goes out safely – therefore an amazing way you can get your word out, but still keeping social distancing as a top priority.

But what should your flyer have on it? Some things that consumers will be looking out for and happy to see on a flyer are messages revolving around virtual interaction, and delivery. 

If you are a financial business, you could offer virtual or phone appointments. Consumers that are not working will now have more time on their hands, a perfect time to get taxes done, and important financial services that they require, but otherwise don’t normally have a lot of time for. 

If you are a restaurant you could offer a deal on delivery, either free delivery or free delivery over a certain amount. Since shutting dining and restaurant fronts, home delivery is the main and not to mention the safest method of service. Consumers will be looking for the optimal price and delivery deals.

If you require flyer delivery, contact DRMG today! We will get you set up with a marketing consultant who will be able to provide the best knowledge on what your ad should include to create awareness and promote your business. 

Businesses must also quickly adapt to online marketing tools. With basically zero face to face interactions, this is the time to log into the company Facebook and LinkedIn accounts and begin to give your business an online presence. Starting an Instagram and Twitter account is also something to add to your marketing plan depending on the demographic that you want to attract. These are great platforms for daily messages to your customers to keep your business relevant and to spread the word that you are open. These platforms are also wonderful to keep your customers’ spirits up, messages with the intonation that we are all in this together will help with company morale and community spirit. Ensuring that you are portraying the same message throughout all platforms will help you build your brand awareness. Look into paying for ads, boosting posts, and seeing what the costs are to market and advertise online on each platform. However, paying for ads on Google, Facebook, etc. and understanding how to optimize your business and on which channels can always be a challenge, contact DRMG to see what digital solutions we have to help you grow your online presence! 

DRMG is hoping that you and your business are staying safe and healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic. The country must work together to stop the spread of infection, by social distancing and safe hygiene. If you are a business that is considered essential and staying open during this time, continuing to market your business is critical for survival. Tweak your marketing message to work with social distancing and make it known that you are still in business and there for consumers. Contact DRMG today to learn about how you can market safely to your customers AND what you should be putting on your ads.