Are you doing all that you can to earn your customers’ trust to help protect them from COVID-19 and ensure they come back?
Many customers will leave your c-store immediately if they see you ignoring safety measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 — including employees or customers not wearing masks or wearing them incorrectly, no one following social distancing guidelines, and finding your store dirty or in disarray.
Pull the Plug on Customer Service Failures Now with These Easy Convenience Store Safety Tips:
- Safeguard Customers with the Right Signs.
If you require customers to wear masks in your c-store, place signs on the doors to alert incoming customers. Your signs can simply state, “Masks are Required” or “Masks are Required by State Law (or Local Ordinance).” Be sure to check your local and state mandates before posting signs. You can find free printable face mask signs on the internet, including some creative signs that are sure to grab attention, like these free signs.
Don’t miss: Ensure all your employees wear face masks to encourage customers to wear them, too.
- Make Safety Adherence Easy with These Hints.
Provide disposable masks and hand sanitizer in the front of your c-store, says Tom Meehan, Chief Strategy Officer for CONTROLTEK, a company that sells personal protective equipment. Meehan adds that providing these items free to customers will make them feel more confident about shopping at your convenience store.
Strategy: Place free disposable masks on a table near the store entrance, so customers don’t have to interact with an employee to get one. Consider providing masks that are individually wrapped in plastic or have your c-store logo printed on them for a little promotional flair. Ask employees to point out your free masks to unmasked customers in a pleasant manner (not aggressively).
Best bet: Keep hand sanitizer dispensers in your c-store that customers operate by a foot pump. Prices range from $45 to $300+, depending on your needs. Benefits include:
- Customers don’t have to touch anything with their hands.
- The dispensers don’t need electricity, so they don’t need to be near an electrical outlet.
- Employees can easily move them to different locations in your store when needed.
- Gear Up on Ways to Enforce Your Mask Requirement.
Determine how you will encourage mask use, including educating employees on nicely asking customers to use your free disposable masks. Tip: Check with your local police department for guidance on safety tips for handling customers who become combative or argumentative. Follow your local authority’s advice on how to keep your employees and other customers safe before an adverse event occurs.
- Highlight Your Cleaning Practices.
Now, more than ever, customers want to be certain your store is clean. Instead of cleaning when your store is closed or business is slow, clean when your store is open. Customers will then see your dedication to store cleanliness and feel confident that maintaining c-store safety is important to you.
- Take Control of Social Distancing Guidelines with These Strategies.
- Install see-through physical barriers to separate employees and customers during checkout.
- Help employees and customers maintain social distancing by rearranging workspaces so employees can stay at least 6 feet away from customers, whenever possible — while still providing good c-store customer service.
- Encourage customers waiting in line to stay at least 6 feet away from employees and other customers.
- Put up social distancing signs or place stickers on the floor as reminders of where customers should stand.
- Train your employees to observe social distancing behaviors and kindly remind customers to please move back if they stand too close to others.
- Don’t Make Customers Reuse Pens.
Keep pens with your company name, website address, and phone number at the check-out in a jar or other open container. Encourage customers who must sign for purchases, or just need an extra pen, to use one of your promotional pens and take the pens with them. That way, customers won’t have to worry about picking up germs by sharing the same pen with others. Plus — You’ll get free advertising.
Do this: You can order pens from online vendors who will print your store name, logo, website address, phone number, or other information on the pens.
Helpful: You can also place a small sign in front of your pen container, such as, “Use One, Take One,” so customers know you don’t want the pens back.
Bonus Tip: Post Petrosoft’s FREE COVID-19 Safety Posters throughout your c-store or gas station to encourage your employees and customers to actively fight COVID-19 spread. Download your free, ready-to-print 8.5 x 11 posters today!
Looking Ahead: To encourage and support your employees and community in their decision to get vaccinated against COVID-19, download these FREE COVID-19 Vaccine Posters to use throughout your c-store.
Don’t miss: A pandemic is one of many crises that can devastate your convenience store. Don’t wait for disaster to strike — brush up on these Top 8 Guidelines now to include in your disaster emergency plan. Check them out here.
