5 Ways to Keep your Business Safe During the Pandemic

Whether you run a car dealership or a repair shop, at some point you and your staff are going to have to have some contact with your clients. During this pandemic, it’s even more important to make sure that you’re taking all available precautions to make sure that your staff and customers are safe, happy, and healthy. To assist with that, we’ve put together a quick and easy list of things you can do to make sure you’re doing all you can to ensure everyone’s safety.

Whether it's COVID or the common cold that you're trying to avoid, hand sanitizer is always a good thing to have on hand. The CDC recommends using hand sanitizer of at least 60% alcohol when washing your hands is not readily available. Help follow these guidelines by placing bottles of hand sanitizer around your business in places like at the front door, reception counter, the parts and service counter, next to the bathroom doors, and on sales agents' desks. Use bulk hand sanitizer bottles in high-traffic areas or to refill smaller bottles.

Make it clear to your employees and clients which cars on your lot have been properly sanitized. You can do this easily by putting a “Sanitized Vehicle” sticker on the windshield. When a mechanic is getting into a car, or when someone is going to take a car for a test drive, be sure to use various forms of plastic protection items to cover things like the steering wheel, the gear shift, and the seats. We also recommend that you follow the CDC’s guidelines on how to disinfect non-emergency vehicles.

Having a night drop box is an easy way to allow your clients to drop their cars off for service without having to come in contact with each other. When using a key drop box or key drop slot, you just need to provide drop box envelopes to your clients where they can write down their information and then insert their car key into the envelope. Then all they have to do is leave the car there on the lot for your team to access it first thing in the morning.

It’s recommended that we all keep at least 6ft of distance between us when we have to interact in-person right now. To help remind people of that, make sure that your dealership or repair shop has the right signage displayed in public areas as well as employee-only areas. This can be in the form of wall signs, floor decals, or some combination of the two.

In certain instances, it’s not possible for us to work 6ft apart from each other. In cases like that, a clear plastic partition is a great option. It will help keep both your staff and customers safe when in close quarters. These are great for on sales agents’ desks, the reception desk, or even in an employee break room.

These are just some of the things that you can do to help keep your business running smoothly and safely during these uncertain times. For even more in-depth and detailed information, we highly recommend that you check out the guide from the National Automobile Dealers Association regarding safe dealership practices during a pandemic.