Firstly can I say that my hopes and prayers are that you are all well and stay safe throughout this pandemic – and that goes out to all your families and staff too.

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We are all having to think up different ways to get through each day, both at home and work and everything feels very strange.

As currently all restaurants, hotels, bars, pubs, leisure centres and attractions are shut – even with the support packages from the Government – financially it is a very tough time – nothing like we have ever experienced before.

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The early days have been full of panic and a feeling of helplessness as to what we can actually DO! At home (certainly for me) this has manifested itself with excessive cupboard and draw tidying.  I have gained a feeling of righteousness by actually doing some needlework to repair some clothes rather than throw them away – and I haven’t picked up a needle for – well – years!

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So this is the point – we are going to have to do thing we haven’t done before – or for a very long time and we are being forced to think about things differently.

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I doubt any business recovery plan ever anticipated this!

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So – what can you do?  Here are some ideas and if I can help in any way just get in touch

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1. Friends Schemes: in order to have some income over the coming months, now is the time to be promoting yours on social media.  If you don’t already have one, you need to think about what benefits you will offer friends/members such as ticket discounts, priority booking, private views or visits etc.  The group should also have a constitution and you can find some good ones online – such as this https://parkscommunity.org.uk/starting-a-friends-group/sample-constitution-for-a-friends-group/

2. Vouchers:  This will pass and when you reopen you will want to encourage as many visitors as possible – promote vouchers that can be emailed to the recipient – people are having birthdays in isolation and friends cannot pop round with a present – vouchers emailed are an ideal way of giving a gift while observing the isolation rules.

3. Group Coach Travel: Whilst coach trips are cancelled now, they will have been reinstated by 2021 and you need to be communicating with group travel organisers, coach operators and travel agents now as they will be looking at 2021 and 2022.  Get your 2021 packages for groups ready – focus on what groups actually want instead of sending the same information as Free Independent Travellers.  Whilst you are closed, think about changes you could make when you reopen that would make a visit easier and better for coaches.

4. Advertising and Marketing  Advertising is both essential and expensive – therefore it must be effective.  During this ‘down time’ set up some tests and monitoring for your advertisements and communications to test their effectiveness – here are some good hints and tips http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/advertising/techniques-to-measure-advertising-effectiveness/48670 .  It should be ritual to evaluate campaigns after they happen – here are some more hints and tips on how to do that https://www.allbusiness.com/metrics-for-measuring-ad-campaign-effectiveness-1415-1.html . So by the time everyone is back in the physical office you can have some new procedures to put in place to make your budget go further and make every penny work for you.

5. Keep in Touch: Just like I’m doing here – continue to communicate with your customers through email and social media – check they are ok; tell them what you are doing during the down time; tell them about plans for next year.  We are at the beginning of the isolation period right now so its hard to get our heads around future planning.  Now we are just concentrating on getting through each moment, but in the coming weeks when there is light at the end of the tunnel – thoughts will turn to getting back to normal and planning will be in everyone’s mind – so get ahead of the game.

6. Plan the Welcome Back: One anticipated positive effect is that all your customers will value more highly things they have missed – they will have missed being able to go out to meet friends for a meal, they will have missed family day visits to attractions.  Make it clear in your marketing messages that you have missed them  - plan a big welcome back.

7. Public Relations:  Hopefully when all this is over, we will all value each other more and value our freedom and the beautiful places around us to visit.  Consider free visits to NHS staff and other emergency services, supermarket worker, delivery drivers etc who have kept us all going.

 

If you would like a conversation in the coming weeks as to how you can prepare to hit the ground running when you can open your doors again  just drop me an email diana@destinationtoolkit.com

Stay safe everyone

Much love

Diana