Plus One wanted to take this opportunity to reach out to you regarding the coronavirus. We’ve seen a lot of outreach from the industry and we have also fielded several questions from clients regarding communication. While we are in unchartered waters, we want to share a few tips:

Be prepared. Make sure your organization’s business continuity plans are up-to-date.

Be clear and transparent. Clearly post your offices policies, whether they are changes in hours or office availability, impacts on customer service calls, etc. Your communication should be sent as broadly as possible via all of your channels – your customer email lists, your website, outgoing phone messages, social media, etc.

Be altruistic (if at all possible). This is the time for communities to band together. You’ve all seen the Keep Americans Connected pledge instituted by the FCC. Thanks to so many of you for taking the pledge.

Be virtual to the extent you can. If you have the ability for customers to pay online, encourage this option – remind customers it’s there and how to do it. If you haven’t yet, take this opportunity to move your customers to online or automatic bill pay, rather than drop box, mail or in-person payment.

Be communicative internally. Make sure everyone in the organization is fully aware of all of the above so that a) your employees are not left wondering what will happen, and b) they accurately can convey the company’s positions whether they are in customer service, out in the field, etc. To do this you may want to send internal emails or FAQs; or you may need to draft a script or talking points for any customer-facing employees.

Be informed. There are so many news sources that we can’t list them (and we’re sure you’ve seen them anyway). We’ll just cite a few:

Be safe. It’s a difficult time and we hope you are all staying focused on your health and safety.

We are here to help. Please contact us if you have any questions.

Best,

Tanya Sullivan, CEO
703-772-2235
Plus One