Preparing For Business After COVID 19
COVID 19 has done a great deal to disrupt our economy and overturn our lives and our businesses. With many businesses reopening, there might be some light at the end of the tunnel but we are not in the clear yet. There are many problems that business owners will face in the next couple months, from anxious customers to decreased profitability and work efficiency. During times like these it is important to unite and work towards mutual solutions for both our fellow business owners as well as our loyal customers.
It is a great feeling to get back to work and take control of our businesses once again. For the first time in a couple of months we can finally start to work on our livelihood again and get back to the companies that we love. Nothing will ever be the same after COVID 19. Businesses will have to shift both their marketing technics and workplace procedures. It is incredibly important to create protective safety measures for your customers; from transforming the customer flow of your location to putting up signs and displaying your new cleaning policy. Even the little things go a long way to show your customers that you care about their safety, which should be one of your main concerns. Here are some of the most popular practices that businesses are employing across California to make a difference.
Directional Shopping
One of the best things that business owners can do is to increase the amount of space between customers who are in your store. A great way to do this is through influencing their walking path. This can be done through one way walkways as well as enter only and exit only doors if you have multiple entrances and exits to your business. Doing so can greatly reduce the distance between customers as well as forcing customers to walk directly past one another. Some great ways to indicate these changes is through simple arrows on the ground or signage. All of these solutions also come at practically no cost to you and your business.
No Touch Solutions
Along with creating more space between customers it is important to reduce how much they touch the same objects. This not only helps to reduce the spread of COVID but it also helps your staff by creating less things that need to be constantly cleaned. Many businesses are coming up with creative solutions to avoid cross contamination, for example there are some restaurants who have replaced their menus with simple QR Code that can be scanned on your phone to display the full menu. Your business may not have menus but chances are that there are touch points that can be reduced with the assistance of technology.
Sanitization Stations
As we all know hand sanitizers are hard to come by these days. However if you can get your hands on them it is a great way to offer an extra level of safety to your customers. It is ideal to offer hand sanitizer to every customer that comes into your store but if that volume of hand sanitizer is too large to get a hold of consider posting it outside of an area where customers will need to touch many different objects such as a bathroom or the changing rooms. This will help customers to further protect themselves from any potential contamination.
Maximum Occupancy Limits
Your store might have a maximum occupancy limit enforced already but if it does not, consider it as a potential way to protect customers. To quote from The Long Beach Health & Human Services “As a general rule, the number of people allowed into a facility at one time should be fifty percent (50%) of allowed occupancy”. This will allow more space between your customers as well as less frequency of customers touching the same objects. In addition if your business needs to have anything cleaned between every use, such as golf carts or seating areas, this will give your employees more time to clean off the surfaces.
Temperature Check
This solution might not be ideal for every business but it is good to consider for higher contact activities. The best way to conduct these tests quickly and efficiently is with a laser temperature tester. If your business is considering ramping up your health monitoring this can be a great way to take things to the next level without overly inconveniencing your customers. A great way to conduct these tests is outside your entrance where an employee can check customers into your location.
Face Shields & Protective Equipment at Cash Registers
Another great way to protect your employees and customers is by installing plastic shields at your check out registers. This will be a large contact point between customers and employees. Having a simple plastic screen could go a long way to protecting everyone involved with your business. This is particularly useful to protect your employees who will have to deal with many customers throughout the day.
Signage
All of these policies do not do much if you do not have any way of conveying how your business has changed. Creating adequate signage helps to relay your business policies and answer customers questions. The City of Long Beach has provided a list of print it yourself posters that can help for most situations. If you are looking to go above and beyond check out some of our signage printing options. We can help to create signs for your business that are larger than the standard 8½” by 11’’ format.
All of these different practices can help to increase safety for everyone in your business. At the end of the day each business is facing different hurdles and challenges as we all reopen after COVID. The best thing that we can do is be there for each other and help recover from this economic collapse. Hopefully things will come back to normal quickly and safely. Taking steps to fight this virus in our businesses can help the overall struggle that we are all feeling.