SHOPSMART AUTOS – CUSTOMER INFORMATION – AUGUST 13, 2020
SHOPSMART AUTOS – CUSTOMER INFORMATION – AUGUST 13, 2020 What Safe Shopping Looks Like During the Pandemic (PT. 2) Principle 2: Manage Variability To maximize efficiency and throughput, a store would look like a well-run manufacturing line: Customers would arrive at designated times and shop at a designated pace in order to maintain social distancing. Alas, in real life, customers choose their own arrival times and pace, injecting variability into the system. One way of managing variability is to think of aisles in the store as highways, and interactions between customers as potential collisions. Our goal is to reduce the risk of a collision.Therefore, imagine a rural highway with two lanes. If everyone travels at close to the same speed in each direction, no two cars will pass each other, and two-car collisions will be rare. On the other hand, if half the cars drive slowly and the other half drive as if they are in one of the Fast & Furious movies, cars frequently pass each other, and risks rise dramatically. If you imagine customers walking down the aisles in a supermarket, you’ll see that similar principles apply. Our research shows that if all shoppers travel at a similar pace there will be fewer interactions; if there are a wide variety of paces then shoppers come close to each other much more often. Traffic engineers have long known that variability in speed increases the risk of collision, hence the need for reasonable speed limits, as well as minimum speeds that we see on some roads. For retail stores, there are a variety of methods for reducing pace variability. For example, many U.S. grocery chains have scheduled shopping periods that are exclusively for customers who are 60 years or older. These customers may shop at a similar pace, reducing the number of interactions. Another option is to encourage customers to make appointments: Shoe stores, farmer’s markets, swimming pools, and museums are all using this method to limit customer density and reduce variability. Another popular approach to keep customers from colliding is to implement one-way movement within stores. Our research shows that this can be an effective method for reducing the number of close interactions among customers. When in-store flow is similar to the highway described above, one-way movement produced only one-quarter of the customer close calls than for two-way movement. Managers may also want to design areas for shopping at different paces: one region for fast shopping for staples, another for pre-prepared baskets of goods, and a third for slower browsing. The general idea is to separate customers into groups who move at similar speeds. Principle 3: Use Nudges to Encourage Safe Behavior Among Customers and Employees Again, retail customers are not widgets on an assembly line, and a significant challenge for retailers is to modify customer behavior without diminishing the retail experience. Here, retailers should apply techniques from behavioral science. Rather than displaying text signs (“Please wear a mask”), stores should display posters of mask-wearing local customers and employees giving their thumbs-up. This provides “in-group” models to emphasize shared identity, establish connections, and promote norms among customers. Stores may also provide “nudges” to encourage behavior. For example, instead of arrows and signs to direct flow, build temporary displays and subtle barriers — disguised as promotions — to help customers move in the safest way. In general, the retail environment should be re-designed to make social distancing requirements clear, consistent, a natural extension of normal behavior, and a socially positive experience. These same nudges can also help retailers protect the health and safety of their employees. Now, more than ever, low-paid employees who are usually “hidden” in the store have become essential workers. Stores must provide protective equipment to employees, give them time to frequently disinfect their workspaces, and design retail space so that they maintain social distancing. Retailers should encourage their employees to become involved in designing and implementing social distancing policies. A store could provide both monetary and non-monetary incentives to employees for their ideas of how to improve the customer experience while keeping themselves and their customers safe. Their working conditions have become potentially dangerous, and these employees should be motivated, empowered and given the tools to create innovative solutions to mitigate the impact of Covid-19. Make It A Champion Day!
Brandon Hardison
Champion Strategies
For further Information contact
brandon@shopsmartautos.com
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