5 Ways to keep guests engaged throughout a pandemic

Following the announcement of the United Kingdom going into a 3-week lockdown applying to all non-essential businesses, and the first thing that a lot of businesses asked themselves is ‘how am I going to communicate with my customers whist we’re on lockdown?’

It is important to do this because it will keep your guests engaged with your brand and will remember that you’re there even though you’re not currently open to the public.

Here at FuseMetrix we have put together 5 of the best practices for communicating with clients whilst being closed during lockdown below for you to put into practice yourself to keep you on the minds of your clients.

Frequent E-mail communication:

As a leisure business, although you are currently closed throughout this period you must ensure that you are sending e-mail communication through to your existing guests, this is essential if you’re to make sure that that after this period comes to an end, and leisure businesses can reopen again, that you are the first business in your guest’s heads, especially when people are going to be keen to resume their leisure activities if they have had a long break from them, the last thing you want is to go silent and then for guests to forget about you. 

When this period is over and the lockdown is lifted, you can complete the journey with a lead up on your reopening date when the time comes. These e-mail’s may be as little as updates on what you have been doing on site during the closure or what you may be looking to plan for future events for guests to get involved in, however it get them reading and reminding them you are here, and may help to drive traffic to your website.

Ask your guests for feedback/testimonials

Whist you are closed it is worth either an SMS communication or e-mail to your guests asking for testimonials or feedback, the response rate is likely to be low, but it could provide useful content for your website or social media and quality feedback for the business that could lead you to making changes when re-opening.

This will help distinguish you over competitors because they may not have done this, and if can use these on your website and social media and they are recent, then this is going to give your customers the reassurance that you are providing an exceptional service.

Live Q&A with social media followers through your company account

Why not give a live Q&A on your social media, this will not only allow your customers to answer any questions about your business that they might have, but reminds people you are still there and keeps the brand alive in their heads as a strong business.  It also allows your wider network of contacts, who may be in the same situation as yourself, to get involved and learn from you how you are overcoming issues that may help them.

The main use of the Q&A will be guest engagement, as nearly everyone is going to be at home it means that those who are not at work are going to be on social media and means there will be more traffic to engage with.

Don’t be afraid to offer support to others throughout a pandemic

If you are a business owner, then you should have a network of people on platforms such as LinkedIn or followers on your business social media profiles. This is a difficult time for a lot of other people and people sometimes want to have the support from others in the same situation as you.

If your business specialise in business to business, then you could potentially call some of your clients to see how they are getting on, this isn’t really a time to sell however other business owners might feel alone at the moment and they may appreciate a phone call from you to see how they are getting on and if they are needing any advice then this may lead to future revenue.

Play interaction games with your guests

This is best done over social media rather than e-mail as people are more likely to interact now because social media is going to be busier. This could be anything from posting questions to doing a poll, the aim of this is to keep people engaged on your page.

The main thing to remember now is that everyone is in the same boat, nobody has ever experienced this, and we are doing our best to see it through. All people want is for business to be personable and to communicate.



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