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STRATEGIES AND IDEAS

SERVICE BUSINESSES AND PROVIDERS

Enhancing client comfort levels will be especially critical for close contact service providers who must also be adept at scheduling, complying with stepped-up PPE and health safety rules, and training staff.

Enhance your customer’s comfort level.

Make liberal use of signs, decals, placards, counter displays, etc. to communicate to customers the health and safety measures you are taking to keep employees and customers safe.
This can tie into an escalated district-wide awareness campaign promoting what businesses are doing to best ensure a clean, safe, and comfortable environment and experience.

Continue to ramp-up your online presence.

A heightened online presence will continue to be important throughout all phases of your own COVID-19 recovery effort – and beyond.
Looking at how to implement e-commerce? There are many low-cost e-commerce sites readily available including Square, Weebly, Wix, etc. Be sure to check out e-commerce trainings from local Small Business Development Centers and other technical assistance providers.

Devise a plan for limiting access.

Develop a plan to limit access to your business to maintain social distancing spacing and gatherings of 10 people or less, or per state or municipal guidelines in force.
For some close contact providers, initial reopening plans may require that business entries remained locked during business hours, with clients required to wait outside or in their vehicle until allowed entry by staff.
Like other social distancing measures, consider maintaining practices even after regulatory requirements lapse to enhance your customers’ comfort level.

Study and gear up.

Close contact service providers must take time to review health safety requirements and guidelines regulating operations during the initial opening phase, and take action quickly to:
- Make modifications, like adjusting floor plan and seating layouts
- Stock-up on Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), cleaning and sanitization supplies
- Train staff
- Take other actions and make modifications that might be required by state or local governments, health departments and other regulatory agencies
The recently released Reopen Alabama Responsibly – Phase One plan is one example that sets forth specific operational procedures and requirements for barber shops, hair salons, nail salons and other close contact services, along with jewelry stores, childcare services, medical and health services and others. We expect each state will follow suit and issue their own plan, and further guidance and oversight may be issued by local governments and health agencies.
Be alert, study, train staff, stock-up on supplies and and make plans and modifications to comply or, better yet, go above and beyond minimal requirements to enhance your clients’ comfort level.

Communicate action to your clients.

Take time to communicate changes you’re making to best ensure the health, safety and comfort of employees and clients.
- Use images to illustrate changes and help set expectations
- Detail changes in hours, scheduling, operations and procedures
- Invite clients to contact you to ask questions and personally discuss any concerns

Become an expert at scheduling.

Get organized now and, especially for close contact service providers, give special consideration to scheduling that allows time for necessary cleaning and sanitization between appointments.
Consider alternatives for clients to schedule appointments online or using an app, and for alerting customers waiting outside or in vehicles for their appointment. This will be especially important for some service providers who will be required to keep entrances locked – even while the business is open – and for clients who will not be allowed to wait inside the facility.

Pamper your clients - safely.

Consider options for pre-packaged food items and sealed, individual-sized beverage containers, and provide sanitizing wipes for clients to wipe down item packaging prior to consumption.
- A Franklin, TN salon is greeting clients with a disposable paper gift bag containing sealed items, including a disposable face mask, gloves and cutting cape.

Monitor and adjust hours and shifts.

An increasing number of work-at-home employees, along with anticipated increase in the number of workers working new or different staggered shifts, could translate to an increased demand for evening and weekend appointments.
Social distancing guidelines, while in force and beyond, could also translate to a need to implement staggered shifts at your own business and to adjust and or extend business hours, accordingly.
Consider options for easing office employees working from home back into the workplace (i.e. staggered shifts and flex scheduling) to help alleviate fears of exposure.

Offer virtual appointments.

Many service providers have already, out of necessity during the initial onset of the pandemic, begun to adapt technology to virtually serve their clients. The convenience and at-home comfort enjoyed by clients, and the advantages afforded businesses to conduct and transact business outside their confines, suggest trends moving to increased use of virtual appointments and services delivery will continue.

Integrate online services in your business model.

Much like service providers who have benefitted from virtual appointment and service delivery options, other businesses are learning to use online resources to offer and promote educational programs, yoga and fitness classes, personal trainer courses, and similar services. Consider how, moving forward, these same platforms might serve to offer:
- Services on a subscription basis
- Interim appointments and check-ins for clients visiting your facility on a less frequent basis
- Guidance and advice from the “local expert” as part of an ongoing training series or marketing strategy

Offer curbside and concierge services.

Like many restaurants, more and more service providers began adapting curbside and concierge-style service delivery methods as part of their model to maintain operations during shelter in place and safer at home periods. A title company in Tennessee, for example, used online tools and meeting apps to process and ready all documents for final signatures executed at a drive-up, curbside closing. Consider how these and similar-style service and delivery options might apply to your business model.

Offer and promote contactless payment options.

Contactless payment methods, like ApplePay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay and others, offer another means of limiting contact and enhancing your customers’ comfort level.
Where contactless options are not available, merchants should strongly consider waiving the requirement for a signature on credit and debit card transactions.

Respond to budget-conscious clients.

It’s no secret that many pocketbooks and household budgets have been hit hard by the pandemic. It’s likely that many consumers may be inclined to delay costly procedures or refrain from using non-essential services. Consider options for:
- In-house payment plans or offering credit options from a third-party for higher-cost procedures
- Subscription plans for ongoing services
- Possibilities for offering downsized budget-conscious plans or crash courses

Take care of your employees.

Provide appropriate Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) and training for your employees. Be sure to enact sound employee wellness policies as well, such as requiring a temperature check prior to beginning each work shift.
Invest in a contactless thermometer to administer employee temperature checks.

Assess staffing levels and engage your employees.

Assess staffing requirements, and salary and wage levels for frontline staff; and continuously involve employees in the planning and implementation of reopening and recovery strategies. They can be your best advocates!

Consider long-term work-at-home options.

Office-based businesses are realizing how effective and productive home-based employees can be — and they don’t pay for that employee’s office space. That translates to more work from home, or from the coffee shop, or urban parklet, or co-work space, which means more people are less tied to a specific building or a district. Some office tenants may find they have more space than they need, prompting them to:
- Explore options for a move to a smaller space or for subleasing a portion of their space
- Pursue opportunities to expand operations and workforce within the space created by employees now working at home

Stay in the information loop.

Be alert to state and local updates, and plug-in and work collaboratively with fellow businesses and local business organizations (i.e. Main Street, Chamber of Commerce, etc.) and networking groups.