Are your fulfillment services experiencing impacts from COVID-19? Here’s how to properly inform your stakeholders.
The COVID19 outbreak has impacted millions of lives throughout the world, although beyond the health and safety impacts, the outbreak has also significantly impacted businesses worldwide.
You might find that your campaign’s shipping timeline is affected by the outbreak. As with any fulfillment delay, early and transparent communication is key. You should let your clients know as soon as possible if you think the COVID-19 outbreak is going to affect their fulfillment timings.
Here are some strategies to get you started.
How to communicate delays caused by COVID-19
Be upfront with potential shipping delays. Building trust is at the heart of it all. Make sure you are transparent.
Explain how the current outbreak of COVID-19 is affecting your business.
Not everyone is aware that the outbreak is a public health crisis worldwide and that it has a significant impact on daily operations in factories and logistics sectors everywhere.
Detail the delay.
Customers ultimately want to know when they’re getting their goods. Be sure that the new timeline you share is realistic.
Update your FAQs.
If applicable, post any new information about how the COVID-19 outbreak is affecting your fulfillment schedules.
Give them a way to contact you.
Provide an email address or other contact information so any stakeholder can follow up if need be.
Be empathetic and compassionate.
You many not be fully aware of how your delays may impact them or their clients, so understand their concerns and work to help alleviate the impact.
What not to do
Neglect to explain the current situation.
Staying silent is the worst thing you can do with any unplanned fulfillment issue.
Poor communication.
Claim the situation is “out of your hands” is not a crowd-pleaser! It might be hard to predict what’s going to happen over the next few weeks, but you should be staying up to date on the issues affecting fulfillment.
Fail to show that you are competent and knowledgeable.
Failure to provide an upcoming schedule or potential solution will definitely have a negative impact.
Be non-committal about your fulfillment requirements.
Your customers chose you because they trust you. This is the time to show them that their trust is not misplaced.
Write your update poorly.
Don’t send out a dry, terse update. Craft your update carefully. Take your time to give them the attention and consideration they deserve.
Forgo details.
Explain the situation and give context. Clients will appreciate elaboration on the circumstances around the delay.
It doesn’t matter if the change to your fulfillment schedule is big or small: Under any circumstances, changes to your fulfillment schedule should warrant an update. This particularly holds true for a big event like the COVID-19 outbreak. Customer service, communication and transparency are key to your business’s long term success. The outbreak is unpredictable and difficult for everyone, and this is the time to show your customers that you won’t let them down.