Informing Customers of Business Closure By Letter
If you are a business owner and your business gets into difficulty for whatever reason or there are other mitigating circumstances why you’re going to close down the business, you’ll probably have many things you’ll need to deal with.
However, it’s important to remember that it will have been your customers who have been responsible for the success your business has achieved over the lifespan of its existence and without the loyalty shown by them in the first instance, you wouldn’t have had a business in the first place.
Therefore, it’s important that you show respect to your customers and inform them that you are closing down as it’s quite likely that they’ll have come to rely upon you for the products or services you have been providing them with and, perhaps, many of your customers have been with you for such a long time and have come to rely upon your company heavily.
So, it is important that you repay their loyalty by at least having the courtesy to write to them to inform them that you’ll no longer be trading beyond a specified date.
When to Write it
You should write to all of your customers as soon as you know for certain that you’ll no longer be trading and have a specific date of closure. You should try to give your customers as much advanced notice about this as is possible so that they have time to try to source an alternative supplier and to give them a specific date when your company will cease trading and, if appropriate, a date after which they’ll no longer be able to order or purchase any product or service from you.Depending on the circumstances of the closure, it will be your judgement as to how much detail you intend to go into as to the reasons for the closure and the letters may have to be tailored to each specific customer if there are any outstanding monies owed by them to you or vice versa in which case, you might also need to seek legal advice in the event that your closure is perhaps due to financial problems your company is experiencing or in the case of your business going into receivership, administration or even facing bankruptcy.
However, for the purpose of this article, the following is an example of the type of letter you should write if the closure is reasonably straightforward. It can be relatively brief but should include any relevant dates of closure and you should also express your gratitude for their custom over the period they have been with you.
Example of Letter
Dear Mr Johnson,Regretfully, I must inform you that ABC Fixings will cease trading after March 31, 2008. This decision has been taken predominantly due to increased competition from overseas where lower production costs have meant that we are no longer able to remain competitive on price, yet remain a viable business at the same time.
However, we do intend to honour all of the existing orders which have been placed over the past month and if you are awaiting delivery of a particular order, you will still receive it within the next 14 days.
Our customer service centre will remain fully operational until 5.30pm on our last day of business which will be on March 31, 2008 so if you have any enquiries about your order or require any further information or assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us on the above telephone number.
On behalf of ABC Fixings, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued loyalty in choosing us as your preferred supplier for the past ten years. Without your support, our success would not have been possible but under the current global business climate, we have been left with no option but to close down after March 31, 2008.
Thank you once again for the loyal and continuous support you have shown us over the years we have been trading.
Yours sincerely,Mr Graham Darby
Operations Manager
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