Very soon Americans will be freed from the mandatory stay at home order. This means that they will be returning to work and returning to physical businesses. While this is a fantastic step forward, this is not the time to let down our guard. The virus is still out there, people are still sick and dying, and businesses are going to need to do their part to keep their customers safe. Before any of your customers return; consider checking all employees for fever before allowing them into work. This will keep both your customers and other employees safe.

What should you do to keep customers as safe as possible?

Follow the guidelines

• The best first step to take is to make sure you stay updated with any recommendations from the government and the CDC.
  
• Make sure that both employees and customers are following the safety and health guidelines that OSHA has released for workplaces.
  
• Business owners should consider setting forth temporary healthy measures; ask customers to wear face masks and gloves whenever possible.

Cut down customer count

• Many businesses that were able to stay open during the quarantine put a limit to how many customers were allowed into the business at any time. They will continue this practice for some time, and it is an effective way to prevent concentrated congregations of people.
  

Sanitize, sanitize, sanitize

• An obvious way to help your customers stay say is to make hand sanitizers readily available.
  
• Make sanitizer available next to all registers; especially self-checkout
  
• Consider putting up stations at the entrance and exit so everyone who enters the business has easy access to sanitizing products.
  
• If your business has shopping carts and/or baskets, provide sanitizing wipes to wipe down handles.
  
• If you’re a restaurant, coffee shop, or café you should have hand sanitizer available at every table, along with sanitary wipes.
  
• If you’re a clothing store, make sure to have sanitizing products available in dressing rooms.
  
• Gas stations absolutely need to put hand sanitizer or sanitizing towels outside by the gas pumps. So many people touch them and they are COVERED with germs.
  
• Keeping your business clean is essential to making sure everyone stays healthy.
• Wiping down surfaces regularly with disinfectant is the best way to keep the chance of contamination as low as possible.
  

Protect the ones who need it most

• Some essential businesses set aside certain time frames where only the vulnerable were allowed to enter the store.
  
• This is a great tactic to help those customers who need to be the most cautious.
  
• Protect your vulnerable customers and give them an hour or two during the day where they will not have to worry as much about potentially contracting the virus.
  

Streamline your services

• The fewer employees who handle products before they get to your customers the better.
  
• There’s much less of a chance of anyone contaminating a product if only 1 or 2 employees handle it rather than 3, 4, or 5.
  

CoViD-19 tracking

• Several databases provide data regarding coronavirus cases.
  Google, FaceBook, Johns Hopkins, etc. all have free resources providing nationwide and worldwide virus case tracking.
  
• Many state governments have also put out more detailed tracking maps for both counties and cities.
  
• Keep customer and employee records
  
• Whenever possible, keep track of who has been exposed or been diagnosed with coronavirus and then come into your business
  

At the end of the day, no customers = no business. Treat your customers with the utmost respect and go the extra mile to protect their health and ensure their safety while patronizing your business. Create a WOW experience for all customers to make sure that they return to your business.