When COVID-19 started to infiltrate the U.S, we were faced with the same questions so many businesses were forced to address: How do we keep our team and our customers safe? And how do we continue operating to meet demand? The answer that was never in our playbook was to change our whole business model. And we had to do it quickly.
We scrambled to launch a reservation-only system in order to limit foot traffic and ensure safeguards at our estate sales. We had no more than 10 shoppers at a time inside and this was well before the six-foot social distancing guidelines went public.
It went against all of the norms which dictated that the more customers a business could drum up, the better that business would perform. In fact, we took great pride in our huge crowds as the hallmark of a great franchise. Nevertheless, this was something we had to adopt in order to operate safely, and we were stunned to see it make our business and our bottom line even better.
Our customers enjoyed a more personal shopping experience and less time waiting to enter an estate sale. In return, our owners saw average sales increase too.
