On October 30, 2011, thousands of East coast schools and businesses closed their doors due to the massive power outages caused by Hurricane Irene. Nearly 3 million people lost power.

Today, exactly one year later, the East coast was hit again – this time by Hurricane Sandy, the annual “super storm” which has thus far left:

2.4 million in New Jersey

2 million New Yorkers

1.2 million Pennsylvanians

600,000 in Connecticut

WITHOUT POWER.

The residual effects of extended power loss can be devastating for small-to-medium sized businesses, especially if most of their leads are driven by SEO and funneled through a company website. Here are some steps you can take to ensure your business doesn’t lose business every year to Mother Nature’s (seemingly arbitrary) wrath: 1. Homepage Messages

After widespread weather power outages, it’s important to communicate your company’s current state of affairs and expected progress plainly and concisely on the homepage of your website. Your current and potential clients will appreciate this level of attentiveness, as it will save them time and effort while simultaneously preserving your leads. Win-win.

2. Business Line Redirections

In the midst of a weather disaster, many businesses can lose their phone lines for days. To ensure you’re capturing every lead (and providing great customer service to boot), have your business lines redirected to the appropriate cell phone numbers. Yes, we understand that most of your resources are at the office, but customers will certainly appreciate your effort to put them in touch with a real person when they need one – and customers never forget.

3. Automated Email Responses

When coupled with the two aforementioned strategies, having an automated email response system can really help cover your bases. For example, while it may be frustrating for customers to receive a generic message in response to a question, the situation is made infinitely less stressful when that message contains information on how to contact a live person.

In preparation for Hurricane Sandy, the SEO Engineers at Spectrum have streamlined these, and other, processes for their East coast clients. Their efforts have helped business owners’ deal with the impact of the crises by saving them time, money and potential customers.

See how Spectrum can help you. Visit us online.