Keeping your customers up to date – a checklist

It's worth setting-up a recurring reminder (e.g. every three months) and block out an hour or so at the time to run through this checklist, so you can quickly review and update your customer communications to reflect any changes in your business.

This will make a difference when it comes to minimising customer complaints, and avoiding confusion about opening hours, deliveries or pricing. It could also help to raise awareness of any new products or services you are offering.

Standard information that may need updated

Check if any of the following have changed since you last updated your content:

1. Customer service and support content

• Best channels to contact you on and likely response times
• Your opening hours
• Typical delivery times and costs
• Minimum order values
• Refund and returns processes

2. Products and services

• Any new or amended products or services
• Any unavailable products or service

3. Legal requirements or regulations

• Stay up to date on changes to regulations that impact other areas of your business that might need communicated to customers

• Remember that any changes may vary geographically (e.g. if you serve both Scotland and England), so your customer communications may need to reflect that

Channels and content to check

Your standard information may be scattered in content across your various digital channels. So, after running through the list above, take a moment to check if any of the following need to be updated:

1. Website homepage copy

• Ensure your overview copy applies to your existing service provision
• Flag any major service changes

2. Website terms and conditions and policy pages

• Ensure T&Cs are up to date with any changes
• Update privacy policy if needed (e.g. if you are using any new platforms, or anything relating to customer data has changed)

3. Website and eCommerce product pages and third-party platforms such as Etsy, eBay, Udemy, Gumtree, etc

• Details and prices of all products
• Product range
• Product descriptions
• Stock levels
• Delivery details

4. Email footers

• Update contact details, opening hours and any other information in staff email footers

5. Auto-responses - check content of:

• Holding emails
• Messenger auto-response
• Voicemail messages

6. Social platforms

• Check your pages about info and bios contain the latest information on your service
• Check content and links in any pinned posts post are still relevant
• Include any new services

8. Google Business Profile - update your listing as needed for:

• Opening hours
• Key business description

9. SEO meta descriptions and page titles

• Ensure these represent your current service offering

If you run SEO or PPC campaigns and your business has been through significant change, find out how to update your SEO & PPC.