Ep. 24 Become a COVID Comeback

Become a COVID Comeback

How do you comeback from COVID? With businesses opening backup Torie Mathis and her cohost Sean talk compare the marketing and opening procedures of two very different businesses. One definitely hit the mark while the other left their customers high and dry.

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION –

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SAF 24

[00:00:00] Torie: Not Starbucks I can’t go and have a coffee. 

[00:00:02] Sean: But how are people supposed to know that kind of stuff? Unless you, you let them know.

[00:00:15] Torie: Hey, Hey, welcome to Smart AF I’m your host Torie Mathis. We’ve got a great show for you today. So let’s get started. So where we’re at in the economy’s been pretty open. Like most businesses have opened up some with some restrictions, but for the most part, most businesses have been open quite some time.

And what I noticed is that there was most businesses really didn’t do anything to like reach back out to people in order to make sure that they came back. And I think that that’s something that I’m not seeing a lot of people talk about, but I think that it’s really important. 

[00:00:56] Sean: Yeah. I think there’s a lot of an assumption that either business are not open or, you know, whatever the case may be.

It th they, they honestly, they don’t, they don’t know what to expect and we can go fast food wise. You can pretty much sit inside any restaurant nowadays, except for steak and shake. 

[00:01:16] Torie: Not Starbucks, 

[00:01:19] Sean: but how, how are people supposed to know that kind of stuff? Unless you, you left. So 

[00:01:24] Torie: wherever your at like, you may be at different areas of this.

I think everybody’s kind of indifferent stage. And like, we never know, like if the sages are going to come back, but no matter where you’re at, I think it’s really important to be able to reach back out to your customers whether you’re open or you’re not. And I have two examples written down. Of two businesses that did very, very different. And these are businesses that we have done business with and how they both reacted to opening back up. So one of them is our gym, which is a corporate chain. The other one is the carwash that we had a subscription to. Is that a chain or is that, do you think that’s single owned?

[00:02:04] Sean: I think it might be a chain, but individually owned. 

[00:02:07] Torie: And I understand when, when a place is a chain, they might have some type of. Corporate strategy or people that are coming up with things for them. So kind of some of these corporate places, I think it’s, it’s a good way to look at what they’re doing and then how you can model this in your own small.

So when our gym opened back up, they actually did. They reached out quite a bit and I was actually surprised at how much they did. They sent out a couple of emails, which obviously like gyms do have your email, but I take a class at the gym that I go to several times a week. And the manager of the classes she actually called.

She was very nice. She asked how we were doing, she asked, you know, what was going on, hope that we were safe, kind of told about what she had gone through a little bit and like how they were bringing back people and wanted to know if we were ready to come back and let and kind of went over any questions that we have.

It was an incredibly personal open back up that I realized a lot of clients might not be able to do. Like if you were a restaurant or something like that, you probably couldn’t do that. But if you’re a service-based business like even like a lawyer or an accountant or any of these like you have the time, you could probably reach out and call your clients and the relationship and like the bond that I think you have with them if you are able to do that, I was really impressed with, with.

[00:03:31] Sean: If it wasn’t for that phone call, may still not even know that the gym was open, at least not for a little while. 

[00:03:39] Torie: It definitely made it a little bit easier for the choice of whether or not we were coming back and, and though. The corporation doesn’t really give a crap about you. It was nice that the manager actually called and, and was able to reach out.

So that was one instance that we had with a business that we actually had a subscription with. And then the other one that was very much different was the carwash. We had been a client of the carwash for quite a while we pay monthly, so we can go wash our car whenever we want. With the weather here, it’s, you know, something that we definitely need and something that we definitely use.

However, when everything started opening back up and the carwash opened back up. They did not call. They did not email. They didn’t write us a letter. They didn’t send us a flyer. They didn’t offer something like, Hey, you know, we’re back take 25% off nothing. 

[00:04:31] Sean: And they never did anything from the beginning. You know, even just from a normal touching base. I had no idea how to get ahold of them other than trying to call the carwash and that doesn’t have anything. I don’t see our account or anything like that as far as what our subscription is or anything. So it was kind of a missed boat altogether so that when everybody gets scared and you’re looking for things to cut, and it was one of the first things that I cut. 

[00:05:01] Torie: The car washes, right? Yeah. And even though everything was touchless and so they probably could have opened up earlier than a lot of other businesses. I think they missed a lot of opportunities by not having any type of plan or having any type of they have to have some way of contacting you or knowing who was there, but they didn’t do anything.

And I think that was a big missed opportunity for them. We could get a few flyers that were sent out probably to a geographic location for some businesses. Excuse me, some restaurants, but I really didn’t see restaurants reach out. Like I think they could. And maybe in some other areas they did, but in our area, I think there was a huge missed opportunity for restaurants, especially that were doing delivery.

Or that has any type of specials like that. That weren’t your normal delivery businesses. Cause like everybody expects pizza and maybe Chinese food. And I think we tried to do Chinese food that we went to just do pickup and it was a nightmare. 

[00:05:56] Sean: Yeah, we waited forever and then had to go wait in the car.

[00:06:00] Torie: We had an assigned pickup time. So you place your order. And then there was like 15 minute increments that you had to actually schedule your time to go pick it up. They wanted to make sure everybody was like separate and all that kind of stuff. It was a nightmare. So I don’t think we even tried to do any of that.

But driving around and stuff like Sean was going out quite a bit more than I was. And I was always asking like all our businesses open, what are they doing? Like being somebody that was trying to just stay at home and head down and work. I had no idea what was going on in the local economy or who was doing what.

And I think that people missed out on being able to contact their clients and being able to reach out and reconnect with them and make sure that. The clients knew what was going on 

[00:06:43] Sean: and it just shows the importance of from a, just a normal operating procedure, being able to reach out to your customers and clients and all that kind of stuff so that when things like this do happen you know, hopefully when something like this happens, it’s a little less serious, but let’s think of it in a positive sense, you know?

Veteran’s day coming up and you want to reach out to veterans and let them know that you’re going to serve them for free or take 10% off or whatever the case may be. You have the ability to reach out to them and whether they’re they qualify for that or not, you’re still touching them. And then you’re you’re top of mind and maybe it’s, they can’t go right then and there for what you’re saying. You’re you know, they’re thinking of you and they might go in a week. 

[00:07:27] Torie: And I think that some people have been reaching out on social media, but I think a lot of people are burned out a little bit on social media and there’s just so much coming in with COVID and election. And like all these other things that when you actually are trying to put your message out on social, which don’t get me wrong. I think that there is definitely a place for that. I think email is what really has power here and for some businesses phone calls and that those two things cannot be overlooked in order to keep in touch and keep those relationships. 

[00:07:58] Sean: I think of it this way. If you put it on social media and they’re looking for you, they’ll find it. If you email it to them, you’re looking for them and they’ll see it, that way you, you cover both bases because what I’ll do is. You know, because a lot of people don’t update their Google business information. So you don’t know if they’re open or whatever the case may be. I go straight to their social media, private like Facebook or something.

I look at their business page and then I see that they either haven’t posted for two years. So I don’t even know if they’re open anymore. Or, you know, hopefully they’ve posted, you know, within the last day or so, and they’re talking about something they’re offering and then I can go, okay, there they’re totally open and ready to go. And you know, usually that answers my question. 

[00:08:48] Torie: Yeah. There’s been even been somebody like Starbucks. I didn’t even know that they weren’t having people come into their locations until I think that we drove by and it said it on the door. So there is no matter what area you’re in, there’s probably still some restrictions that you need to let your, your possible your prospects, your possible clients know.

Because I think some people want to get out there and they want to start doing business and they want to go to restaurants or they want to try to kind of reconnect those things. But man, you have some lost opportunities if you’re not reaching out. 

[00:09:21] Sean: Really again, it’s not that hard to do. It’s just something you got to consciously be aware of, at least try to do it.

[00:09:28] Torie: So if you haven’t done it already, I think starting to collect anybody that comes in collecting their email address and not like, Hey, get on my list for a newsletter. Like, that’s not like the way to do it. But getting their email address so that you can send them updates is incredibly important. More now than ever.

[00:09:49] Sean: I mean really now, too. It’s probably sort of the easiest times to capture that email because you just tell them I’ll, you know, we’ll let you know what’s going on. I just need your email address and I’ll be like, great. Here it is. 

[00:10:02] Torie: And you started actually when people were calling, you started saying that right to, Hey, like if 

[00:10:06] Sean: you stay for the museum, cause again, I can only do so much.

And so, you know, if people do. Go and check the social media profile or look closely at the website and see that, you know, we’re either open or not, you know? And they, but they call, I can then tell them, you know, what, I’ve updated everywhere and. If they don’t use social media or anything like that, my only, like, I’m not going to call everybody individually back, but if they go onto the website and they give me their email, like I tell him, you know, do that real quick.

And then you’ll be the first to know when, when the status changes, you know, when we can open back up you’ll know immediately because you’ve given me that email address every single time I’ve said it to like, great. We’ll do it right now. 

[00:10:52] Torie: And do you think people have signed up? 

[00:10:54] Sean: Oh yeah, for sure. 

[00:10:55] Torie: It’s awesome. So you just got to ask for that email, people are willing to give it. It could be a business neighbor. So if you want more tips on how to market your business or how to, you know, become a COVID come back, you go to Toriemathis.com and get free resources. And of course, wherever you’re watching or listening to this, you can subscribe and like, we’d appreciate it.