The importance of clear, concise communication on Coronavirus (COVID-19)

If you’re worried about the impacts of coronavirus on your health, family, friends and business, then you’re not alone.

This is an unprecedented situation and for many people, including business owners, community clubs and organisations, the path forward is unclear.

What is clear for business owners and local club and organisation committees, is the need to ensure your employees, customers and constituents are clearly communicated with when it comes to Coronavirus-required changes.

If your business is shutting down face-to-face meetings, moving to work-from-home arrangements, cancelling all related gatherings or even operating as normal, you need to ensure the message is made clear to all who interact with you and your business.

As a service-based business, when communicating with customers, clients, employees and the general public, your communication should be clear and concise.

You want to ensure that you are clearly communicating any changes your business is making with respect to its operation and communication.

Five points you might like to consider when putting together any communication from your professional services business with relation to the coronavirus include:

  1. Don’t give health advice without linking to a source of authority (EG: Victorian government’s Department of Health and Human Services Coronavirus information page). Unless you are an expert in the field, do not provide information without referring to a trusted, expert source.
  2. Do give clear instructions. What do you want your customers and/or employers to do?
  3. Do provide a clear explanation of your alternative communication arrangements. If face-to-face is out of the question, explain how your customers and clients can get in touch with you. Get in touch with anyone who had a scheduled appointment at your place of business and let them know how the meeting will be conducted.
  4. Do issue your communications via a range of channels and ensure it gets to everyone who needs to see it.
  5. Don’t make promises you can’t keep. The reality of this situation is that the situation is rapidly changing. Don’t put deadlines on when things will go “back to normal”.

If you need any help drafting, preparing or issuing any communications with clients, customers, employees or the general public, don’t hesitate to get in touch with Matthew Galea from Content Hype.