COVID-19 has highlighted the delicate balance between protecting staff, visitors, and guests by minimizing risk and ensuring operations remain efficient.
Companies that fail to prioritize visitor safety may be sued for alleged failure to protect workers and visitors from coronavirus. A report by Bloomberg markets states;
“Hospitals, restaurants, stores, nursing homes, and hotels may face claims that they didn’t take adequate steps to protect people.
Shareholders can sue if companies fail to act effectively in response to the epidemic.”
As the pandemic continues on and restrictions almost guaranteed to stay in place for the foreseeable future, it’s important businesses look at different ways they can manage the safety of their visitors and staff.
Managing the occupancy threshold
Businesses across the globe at the start of the pandemic began allocating members of staff to stand at entrances and exits, manually counting people in and out of the building.
A great short term solution, unfortunately, it’s subject to human error, which during a time of international health crisis, isn’t something that a business can afford to subject itself to.
Smart technologies such as occupancy sensors, smart people counters, and venue density reports exist to alleviate this burden.
This technology allows staff to return to their normal job and resist the decrease in productivity amongst the workforce.
A good example of this is software overlay for sensors – the software extracts the data from sensors inside the camera that anonymously count the number of people coming in and out of the building.
Highlighting your venue safety
As mentioned above venue safety is at the forefront of everyone’s minds when entering confined spaces, such as stores, cafes, and restaurants.
The ability to showcase the safety of your venue is a powerful tool in today’s current climate, it demonstrates that a business is taking active measures to ensure the safety of its visitors/guests.
There are numerous ways that this can be done in a way that stands out to footfall traffic and even online searchers.
Using technologies such as the people counting software mentioned above, through the use of an API this data could then be extracted onto a dashboard.
This information could then be displayed on a companies website or on a digital kiosk so customers and visitors can see how busy the venue they wish to visit is.
Ensure social distancing and venue cleanliness
Social distancing is here to stay and companies and individuals all need to play their part in ensuring public safety.
The key component for social distancing is volume control, if you can’t manage the total number of people in your venue then you can’t enforce the 2m government guidelines.
Smart counters or smart tracking technology will play a pivotal role in helping businesses adhere to social distancing rules and to control the volume of customers in their venues.
Smart tally counters and social responsibility technology allow businesses to use the software on their mobile or other portable devices to count customers in and out of stores.
The data is then fed into a dashboard that can be shared with members of the wider team; giving everyone a clear understanding of the venue’s overall safety status and letting them know – through a red, amber, green (RAG) rating.
The software also prompts previous visitors to leave a review and give a star rating on the venue’s cleanliness and social distancing, allowing businesses to make decisions based on customer feedback.
Collecting real-time information on customer footfall and venue density will be imperative for businesses to achieve social distancing.
Not only will it help them ensure a safe environment, but it will also give employees and customers the reassurance they need to begin frequently visiting venues again