What should your company website COVID-19 notice communicate?
Due to COVID-19, the change in business practices has been swift. Many customers are worrying about what’s going on with the service providers they rely on. During a crisis, communication is key. Company websites should have up-to-date, reliable information. Today, sites should include a COVID-19 advisory notice that is informative, accurate, and where appropriate, empathetic.
Crisis communications teams in many of the larger brands are putting out COVID-19 business statements, like these:- AT&T
- Comcast
- Delta
Medium and smaller financial advisor firms may also be thinking about how they should communicate to their customers in these trying times. To assist you with what to put in your company website COVID-19 notice, I want to share some things to consider covering:
- The impact on your customers
- How your employees are being protected through social distancing
- How your customer service will be affected
- Any changes to location in your service
- What services your firm is still providing and how you are providing them
- What forms of customer communication you are using
- A minimum time the action will be taken for
From a practical, best practice point of view, it’s sometimes best if notices are not only on website home or news pages, but across every page of the site, and located just above or below the masthead as with Delta.
Customers appreciate businesses that are thorough. So, let’s not forget social media. Post a link to your COVID-19 notice and subsequent updates to any social media accounts your business is using, such as Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter to name a few. Plus, keep your Google My Business profile up to date with operational status, business hours, and location changes.
I hope you find this information useful. I’ll be following website advisory notice trends, and update with additional guidance for website COVID-19 business communications.