As an increasing number of Americans are asked to shelter in place, franchises need to create new ways to reach their customers.
The COVID-19 outbreak and the resulting economic crisis have all but crippled businesses in virtually every industry. Certain segments of the franchise industry have been hit especially hard, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a business in any category that isn’t facing dramatic losses.
Early in the crisis, it seemed a temporary pause in consumer spending would be a painful but brief challenge for businesses to endure, but as shelter-in-place orders continue to roll out in cities and states across the country, with no clear end-date in sight, the odds that many businesses can simply wait out this crisis out is rapidly diminishing.
Businesses are going to have to pivot.
Consumer spending is tightening, but it’s not going to disappear completely. As a franchisor, your responsibility is to start thinking about how you can adapt your model to capture a piece of that spending. As more cities issue shelter-in-place orders, that means reaching customers at their homes.
We’re already seeing this in the foodservice industry, in which previously dine-in-only restaurants have started offering takeout and delivery service. I expect we’ll see additional adjustments from restaurants within the coming weeks, the most lucrative of which will likely be copied throughout the industry.
For other industries, the pivoting may not come so naturally. Delivery and takeout were already well-established business models before dine-in restaurants were forced to adopt them. But what does a business with no obvious, established off-site model turn to right now?
I can tell you what my franchise, Workout Anytime, is doing to stay afloat while customers are staying home.
Even in markets where local officials have not required citizens to shelter in place, the vast majority of gyms across the country are closed. So, since our members can’t come to our gyms, we’re doing everything we can to bring our gyms to them.
Fortunately for my industry, shelter-in-place orders mean consumers are eager for any opportunity for physical activity, and they are concerned about the health consequences of staying at home for weeks or months on end. So it is our responsibility and our opportunity to help people meet their fitness goals at home.
Our strategy at Workout Anytime is to provide a robust program of rigorous virtual workouts for our members.
Before the coronavirus outbreak, we were already developing a mobile app that provides dozens of workout plans and hundreds of exercises our members can do at home with no equipment. When the crisis hit, we accelerated the development and delivery of that app and quickly moved to create additional home workout resources, including our new “Workout of the Day” live-streams, in which one of our Master Trainers leads clients through a different workout each day via streaming video that are then archived so members can go back and repeat the workouts they like. We are also launching a video-on-demand program that will offer members these unique home workouts they can access on their own schedule.
This suite of programming gives our clients an abundance of resources to stay active and meet their fitness goals from home. Crucially, it also gives them every reason to maintain their memberships even while they can’t visit our gyms in person. And finally, as we all know that staying fit and exercising helps boost a persons’ immune system, we’re providing a platform that we feel will help keep them safe.
Maintaining your customer base is essential. Even if revenue streams slow, as they likely will be for most businesses, it’s essential that you keep your customers on your side throughout this crisis so that they’ll return to you when the storm dies down. If you can’t figure out a way to step up and fill a need for your customers now, someone else will. And who do you think is going to keep those customers when the economy recovers?
"...it’s essential that you keep your customers on your side throughout this crisis so that they’ll return to you when the storm dies down."
The good news is that the internet allows virtually every business to reach customers remotely. Going online may put your business out of its comfort zone, but it may also open up new opportunities and revenue streams that will last long after this crisis ends.
All franchisors owe it to themselves, they owe it to their customers and they owe it to their franchisees to start thinking creatively and extend their businesses in new directions. There are opportunities to succeed during this crisis, but they won’t simply present themselves; you’ve got to create them. This is sink-or-swim time. Franchisors who remain still are going to sink. It’s up to you to figure out how you and your franchisees are going to swim.
Mark de Gorter is the Chief Operating Officer at Workout Anytime. For more information about Workout Anytime, click here.