The reemergence review is a short review/guideline that many brick-and-mortar stores can use to help guide them through the end of the pandemic and the transition from being closed or under state restrictions to being completely open. It will help businesses review, reevaluate, and refresh their companies by working through 4 steps: Public Image, Internal Process Review, Budget Review, and a Refresh Opportunity. Let’s begin by breaking down what public image is.

Public Image

            Public image has never been more important to a business. This can include and is not limited to your: website, social media accounts, web accounts, ads in local papers, and storefront appeal. When all of these are used together, they account for your public image. Public image can help to establish brand recognition, which allows people to know who you are in the community and get your name out there and talked about.

1.     Website

           A website is a very key piece of the public image today. If you do not have a website, you are considered behind everyone else in this tech age. Many people consider a Facebook page a good replacement for a website, and I will say it is better than nothing, but it certainly does not replace the need for a real website. A Facebook page has a lot of competition, so it continues to get harder and harder for a business to break through a person’s Facebook page to be seen. Also, a real website allows the firm to customize the experience and maintain brand cohesiveness instead of having to follow Facebook’s platform. Lastly, a website allows for greater lead generation and the ability to capture emails, which is still the number one prospect tool for sales or marketing divisions. Having both a Facebook page AND a website is the best way to present yourself to the public eye. As far as your website goes, some important factors are; keeping your website up to date, make sure that it is easy to use and has a certain simple flow to it, making sure it includes important information about your business (things like location, hours, contact info, about info, menus, products, services). Another great thing to keep in mind for your website is to continuously update and remodel your website. Nowadays, a website is essentially your business’s public persona, when a customer views your website, they should be able to tell what you do within a few seconds.

2.     Social Media

Social media accounts come next and can be just as useful as your website. Social media allows you to stay “hip” and allows you to keep your customers updated on information, offers, updates, and happenings going on in your business. It presents a sort of personalization to a company that people enjoy being able to connect to while also allowing customers to connect to you and reach out through multiple platforms. A key factor here is to make sure that you are covering the social media platforms that your target customers use. Once you get that down, it then comes down to consistency and content. Don’t sacrifice content quality for higher consistency, but also don’t be lacking posts or you will never grow your platforms. There is a fine line that is difficult to walk, but when done correctly can improve your reach on the local community!

3.     Web Accounts

I consider web accounts different than websites or social media, and these consist of things such as your Google my business, yelp profile, newsletters, Google ads, Google analytics, and any other accounts consumers can view to find information on your company. Making sure that these accounts are up to date and indicate you are open and when is very important right now. These accounts allow potential customers to get important information at a glance. These platforms also give people a chance to give you reviews, which can be a great way to get your name out there more and secure more reliable “word of mouth” marketing. Some of the other accounts that are important here are for internal use, but they help track the analytics and data that comes with the other accounts, which is very useful when emerging into these markets as it allows you to keep track and tweak, change, update, push things that are doing well and maybe retract some things that aren’t doing as well and change them.

4.     Ads

Ads come next, and these are relatively self-explanatory. They permit you to reach out to new customers or to people that may not know about you yet. Even just getting your name or logo in front of them can be a game-changer because that is reinforcing brand recognition. Some basic locations for ads are your local newspaper, a magazine, a coupon book, Google, YouTube, LinkedIn, or Facebook. If you don’t know what to go with, most of the companies that run these types of ad spots can help you figure out how and what to do and who their main demographic is, which you can then use to make sure those demographics line up with your target audience. You can also do a lot of research on these topics because it is so relevant there is tons of information out there. You can also approach a company that helps support marketing efforts (like us!) to help you out, they can do it for you or steer you in the right direction. Ads are important to spread your name and get people to notice you in your community. This can all be accomplished with a relatively low budget, or if you want you can spend thousands on it. It comes down to your plan, goals, and budget. The best part about it though is they can all be customized to your preferences.

5.     Storefront

Lastly is the storefront. Storefront appeal is like the cover of a book, if it looks inviting and interesting and shows the viewer a preview of the atmosphere inside, then they will be more intrigued to come in. So, make sure your outside pops, be sure to include any deal advertisements in the window. Does it showcase your brand? Be sure you stand out from the stores around you. Have your outside be appealing enough that if a new customer sees your store, they find it interesting enough to stumble into. Do you need a fresh coat of paint? Do you need a new sign? Do you need to clean up the outside? These are all important things to ask yourself when evaluating the outside of your store.

With this pandemic coming to an end soon, it allows you to make sure all these avenues are up to date or gives you a chance to try something that you haven’t before. Another important bit to add to this section is making sure if you are open, is to stress and make it very obvious that you are open inside. Many businesses now are hit and miss with being open and if they are, some are hard to tell because they are running half compacity or different hours. Make it clear on your storefront, website, social media if and when you are open.

Internal Process Review

The pandemic gives you an opportunity to take a look at the processes that are going on internally in your company. While the public image is managed internally it is portrayed externally. Internal processes are what drive your company along to its goals and keep things in an organized manner so you can keep track of your things. A key aspect to take a look at here is potentially creating a leaner business model or investing now in something that can save you time and money in the future. Some things that encompass this are your point of sale, is your point of sale up to date? Is it easy to keep track of purchases for bookkeeping? Is it simple for your customer to use?

Another great point to evaluate is your inventory management. Is the process you use to track inventory organized? You don’t want to have to worry about organizing and managing what you use to manage your products and services. So having a quality way to keep track of your stuff is very important. Other aspects of the internal process, that if run efficiently can save you headache and time, are payroll and shift scheduling. With both the payroll and shift scheduler, keeping those up to date and using the latest technology can cut stress and worry of those down by a lot thus allowing you to focus on the business and less about the minuet scheduling and tracking of the day-to-day.

Some other elements here include: The flow of your store pushing people to buy certain items? Or perhaps a restaurant needs to look at the floorplan and make it abide by state regulations. Now that things are opening up is there a floor plan you want to try out that would streamline customer and employee workflow? Internal process review is about finding the spots in your day-to-day actions that allow you to save time, save resources, save money, or save manpower. Even though it’s tough to hear that could mean investing in something now while things are slower to have things run more efficiently in the future.

Learn about how feedback loops can help improve internal processes here.

Budget Review

On the topic of investing, the next phase of the review is a budget review. Money is the number one factor that determines a successful business from an unsuccessful one. Taking the time to review your financials is very important. Making sure you can create revenue with the way you are running is essential. A good first look at your budget should be your break-even point, knowing the revenue you need to break even allows you to plan for the future. Whether you break even or not, every company wants to make or save more money where they can. Some ways to do that could be investing in new tech, by spending money now you could save money and time in the future. You could look into switching to a cheaper supplier. Maybe you have two employees doing a job that could be done by one. Or maybe you need help to create and manage your public image. Whatever it may be, the acts of saving a few dollars here and there, and spending money now to save money in the long run, will help to create your business efficient and strong in the long run. Although right now many businesses are struggling and making tough decisions, taking a long in-depth review of your budget can help make sure that you are on track to stay in business and hopefully thrive.

Refresh Opportunity

            The refresh opportunity is a chance to take a fresh approach to your business and enables you to add more of that creativity that made you start your business in the first place. With less chaos inside of stores, it gives you a chance to try something new for your business, something that you have always wanted to take a look into and test it out and see how it goes. Maybe you have been wanting to add something to your menu, or maybe you wanted to rebrand your entire business, maybe you want to remodel your entry or the sign out front of your business. Whatever it may be, anything creative or new and exciting you can think of and wanted to try, you have the opportunity to do that. When things open up full force, you’ll have new and exciting attractions to your store that people will want to check out. A restaurant by my house just did this, they rebranded and changed the menu and the style of the storefront, and I have never seen this place have so much business all the time.

Last Step

The last thing to do is evaluate everything you do/want to do in the past 4 stages and put it all together. Then acting upon it to improve your business in ways that will save you money, make you more organized, make you more money, and help you grow strong in your industry.

This plan/review is something that many companies can use while they have this time of low traffic and a lull in day-to-day processes. Although the pandemic is obviously not positive for many reasons, it gives a chance for business owners to take a look at these key aspects and essentially try something that they have been meaning to or lean their process down to run smooth and efficient, or just a healthy review. This plan is something that any owner or employee can evaluate internally for their own company. Most of which is very cost-efficient or has no cost at all. Other times, some businesses need help with where to start or what to implement, or how to implement it. Business owners, like artists, sometimes tend to get too close to their work. A fresh pair of eyes can help to resolve things that someone with too much emotion tied to the business can easily overlook. This is where AllReitz Group can provide assistance. By letting us come in and assist you, you can still handle day-to-day processes while we tackle review and revisions, while still maintaining low overhead cost for you. If you are not sure where to start give us a call, send us an email, check out our website, or leave a comment below.