5 ways to prepare your business for a hurricane
Design Interventions’ offices are in Wilmington, North Carolina. Hurricane Florence is threatening the coast. This hurricane is predicted to be a strong, large storm. Here are some tips to make sure your company’s website is ready to inform your customers about your business in case you are threatened with a major storm – and how your website can be ready to service your customers when the storm is over.
- If there is anything your customers need to glean from you prior to the storm – make sure your website reflects the best way to purchase the items and the best method to pick them up. Be specific, if there are lines or wait times make sure you note that.
- If you are an insurance agency, make sure your website explains the services available to your clients after the storm is past. Make it easy for your clients to click on phone numbers and websites. Don’t make them struggle to find the information.
- Be sure to back up your computer and if you’re evacuating make sure you take your portable drive with you. If you’re staying put, secure your back up drive in a Ziploc bag and put it in your dishwasher – the dishwasher is watertight – make sure the breaker is turned off.
- After the storm is past – make sure your website reflects your new hours and any changes in services you are offering. Many of the restaurants we do websites for were back open with limited menus – it was a great service to their customers to have that shown on the websites. One of our clients, a catering company was used as an emergency kitchen to feed the first responders, county officials, linemen and emergency shelters. The fact that their business was not only closed but being used for the good of all was very important to share with their clients.
- Once you are back up to 100% make sure your website reflects that you’re open. People are looking for services and if you make it easy to find that information on your website, you will be doing a service to your customers and bringing in business.
Your website design company should be feeding you this information as you’re preparing for the storm. (Note after the storm) At Design Interventions, my team evacuated and was able to update websites throughout the storm. We sent our a newsletter to inform clients that we were available – they very easily could text us with updates and we made sure their sites were updated.
