Moving premises without losing customers who cannot find you

Aug 29
3 min read

Updated: 4 days ago

Introduction

A business moves to a better unit two miles away. The move itself goes well, everything is operational within a week, and trade in the following quarter is down noticeably.

Some customers did not know. Others looked up the business, found the old address, and went there. The map listing still shows the previous location, the sign at the old premises came down the day they left, and the website mentions the new address on a page nobody visits. The move was managed as logistics and not as a change every customer needs to be told about. The vans arrived on time and the customers did not.

1. Moving premises without losing customers is a communications exercise

Reframe the project.

Getting the equipment into the new building is the straightforward part. Making sure every customer, supplier, delivery driver and search engine knows where you are is the part that determines the following quarter.

2. Tell customers early and more than once

Repetition is necessary.

Several weeks of notice through every channel you use, repeated as the date approaches and again afterwards. People do not absorb a single announcement, particularly customers who visit occasionally.

3. Update your online listings before you move

The most commonly missed step.

Business listings, map entries, directories, review platforms and social profiles. Customers search for you and navigate to whatever address the map shows, and an outdated listing sends them to an empty building.

4. Put a sign at the old premises

Simple and highly effective.

Where the landlord permits it, a clear sign with the new address and a telephone number for as long as possible. This catches the customers who did not see any of your communications, which is always more than you expect. Customers who visit twice a year see none of your announcements.

5. Arrange redirection of post and calls

Both, not just one.

Postal redirection for a year and a diverted telephone number if the number changes. Losing a telephone number is one of the more damaging things that can happen in a move, so establish early whether it can be retained. A number printed on vehicles, signage and every document is not easily replaced.

6. Make the new location easy to find and to reach

Practical detail that affects trade.

Clear directions, parking information, access arrangements and photographs of the frontage. Customers who could previously find you without thinking now need instructions.

7. Tell suppliers, deliveries and everybody who invoices you

Frequently overlooked.

Suppliers, couriers, utilities, insurers, banks, licensing bodies and anybody holding your registered details. Deliveries arriving at the old address create both a cost and a customer problem.

8. Plan for reduced output during the transition

Realistic expectations.

Productivity falls before, during and after a move, and the period is longer than most owners plan for. Anticipating it prevents panic about a dip that was always going to happen.

9. Use it as a marketing opportunity

Turn the disruption into something.

A new location is a reason to contact everybody, including lapsed customers, and an event or opening offer gives people a reason to visit. Businesses that treat a move as news generally recover faster.

Update the address on everything that carries it: invoices, quotations, email signatures, vehicles, packaging and printed material. These are individually trivial and collectively they are what a customer uses to find you, and stale details continue circulating for years.

Conclusion

Treat the move as a communications project rather than a logistics one.

Tell customers several weeks ahead and repeat it, update online listings and map entries before you move rather than afterwards, put a sign at the old premises for as long as you are permitted, arrange postal redirection and retain your telephone number if you can, provide clear directions and parking information for the new location, notify suppliers and everybody holding your details, plan for a dip in output around the move, use it as a reason to contact lapsed customers, and update the address on every document and vehicle.