With our 24^th birthday around the corner, we’re reflecting on the retail and hospitality brands we’ve supported with our award-winning IT help desk over the years and everything we’ve learnt.

Our purpose is to remove barriers for our customers, empowering them to provide the ultimate customer experience. These barriers often manifest as technical failures, process breakdowns, or capacity-related issues within their IT systems. When such issues arise, we take end-to-end ownership of the problem, swiftly working towards a successful resolution through effective troubleshooting and proactive management of key resolver groups.

We work collaboratively with our customers to achieve this through the provision of selective and fully outsourced IT services. Here’s what we’ve learnt:

Understanding the Customer

At the core of our approach lies a deep understanding of our customers and their unique challenges. We recognise that every business is different, and their IT needs and pain points vary.

By building strong relationships with our customers, we gain insights into their specific requirements, goals, and customer experience aspirations. This knowledge serves as the foundation upon which we have built our customised support solutions.

Empowering Proactive Management

To deliver the ultimate customer experience, we carry out proactive management. Instead of waiting for issues to occur, we actively monitor and analyse our customers' IT systems, identifying potential vulnerabilities and areas of improvement. By leveraging advanced monitoring tools and technologies, we can detect and address potential problems before they impact the customer's operations. This proactive approach minimises downtime, enhances system performance, and boosts overall customer satisfaction.

Swift Troubleshooting and Resolution

When issues do arise, our skilled and dedicated helpdesk team are highly available, with just 0.54% abandoned calls and 12.18 seconds average answer time in April. We prioritise rapid response and efficient troubleshooting, working diligently to diagnose and rectify problems. Our second- and third-line support teams are experts in a wide range of IT systems and technologies, addressing issues comprehensively and delivering effective solutions promptly.

End-to-End Ownership

True customer satisfaction comes when we reduce pressure on internal IT teams. This means taking complete responsibility for the problem, from the initial point of contact to its successful resolution.

We understand that our customers depend on us to provide a seamless and stress-free experience, and we are committed to delivering on that expectation.

Collaboration and Communication

Successful IT support is built on effective collaboration and communication. We foster a culture of open communication with our customers, keeping them informed at every step of the process. From regular progress updates to transparent reporting, we ensure that our customers are always in the loop. Additionally, we collaborate closely with internal and external resolver groups, leveraging their expertise to resolve complex issues efficiently.

Continuous Improvement

As technology evolves, so do the challenges faced by businesses. We remain at the forefront of industry trends and advancements, continuously refining our processes and enhancing our capabilities. We invest in ongoing training and development for our team members with our in-house Learning and Development team, ensuring we stay up to date with the latest tech and best practices. By constantly improving our skills and knowledge, we’ve been able to consistently provide the ultimate customer experience.

Our commitment to delivering exceptional customer experience has been unwavering over the last 24 years. Through proactive management, swift troubleshooting, end-to-end ownership, and effective collaboration, our skilled teams have empowered our customers to overcome technical barriers and excel in their operations. As we celebrate this year’s birthday, we are incredibly proud of our team’s dedication to providing exceptional IT support, enabling our clients to deliver unparalleled customer experiences. Together, we will continue to shape the future of customer-centric IT solutions.

The post Delivering the Ultimate Customer Experience: How We Do It appeared first on Retail Assist.

Retail Assist’s award-winning IT service desk offers flexible helpdesk support to keep businesses trading. Working 24x7 365 days a year and supporting customers in 11 countries across thousands of global locations, our service offering has the industry seal of approval: winning IT Service Provider of the Year at the ITSMF Professional Service Management Awards. In our latest annual benchmarking, we’ve made an infographic detailing our key statistics from 2022.

We’re proud to highlight our headline stats:

• 2,855 sites supported
• 7,870 tills supported
• 23.79s average speed of answer
• 8,334 calls supported each month with only a 2.78% abandon rate
• 96.21% of service level agreements are achieved each month

SLAs

A key statistic identified from our annual results was the outstanding performance in relation to our service level agreements. Agreed with every customer, it is our aim to end every call to our Help Desk with a positive result, the problem solved, and a happy customer. For example, achieving 96.21% service level agreements each month.

Understanding the customer

We have created an environment within our service delivery teams which truly understands customers’ requirements. We employ analysts who have worked in the front line of retail/hospitality, and therefore understand the environments in which our customers operate, and encourage them to improve upon the specialist support provided to our customers, through intensive on-site training at some of the UK’s leading retail and hospitality brands. Actively spending time on the front-line at customer sites, the team have worked above and beyond their daily roles to deliver a more engaging service experience, by gaining a deeper understanding of how the business works. Retail Assist is an external part of the customers’ own teams, developing closer business relationships that allow the analysts to deliver a service that fits the customers’ exact needs.

Benefits of outsourcing

Outsourced retail IT services such as our 24 x 7 Help Desk offer a flexible alternative to in-house teams, and a more cost effective solution. A good Help Desk should match its support service to its customers’ trading hours. To make this possible, many businesses supplement in-house teams with outsourced resources, which offer more hours of supports and a breadth of skills that comes from using a shared service. This means that we deal with issues as and when they arise, helping drive internal processes and provide efficient restoration of service. Playing a ‘behind the scenes’ role, our Help Desk save time whilst increasing profit by delivering greater systems uptime at the point-of-service. We have the support capacity to do this with a scalable service.

Multiple language support

Hello, Bonjour, Guten Tag, Hola, Ciao, Hallo, Szia, Olá, cześć . . .

Did you know, our international Help Desk services are offered in 9 European languages, roughly double the amount of core languages offered by industry standards.

Our customers with international stores appreciate the value added by our call analysts resolving IT issues in native technical language – better relationships are developed, and a superior level of customer service is experienced by the end user. We’re proud to understand not only the customer’s technical environment, but also the cultural diversity of supporting stores in different countries. In line with our incident reduction mentality, being able to solve incidents quickly delivers greater uptime at the point of service for the customer, which saves both time and money. We have systems in place that direct customers’ calls to the highest skilled analyst. This works the same for our territory/language specialists.

Want to know more about how we could benefit your business? We currently work with leading global retail, hospitality and leisure brands, but also support logistics, and councils. Get in touch here.

The post Our IT Help Desk: Top 5 Stats appeared first on Retail Assist.

As we delve into another economically challenging year, it can be overwhelming knowing how to progress. So, is now the time to invest in your IT systems?

Whether you’re considering cost-saving initiatives, dealing with high load on servers, need network or data infrastructure resiliency for business expansion or if you’re wanting to futureproof your digital strategy, digital transformation might have been a term that’s been thrown around the IT department.

So, what’s the fuss with digital transformation and how can it increase both profit and efficiency across your entire business in a particularly tough market?

Drive Business Strategy

Digital transformation and business strategy go hand in hand. Any attempt to decrease operating expenses and inefficiencies requires technology to be put at the heart of the business. Taking a single strategic approach to technological decisions, makes it so much easier to achieve any future growth ambitions, letting your operations grow with you.

Putting digital transformation at the core of every department in your business can be challenging, however it can promote a digital culture shift which is critical for businesses who want to sustain growth well into the future. This encourages upskilling and digital learning across all departments, taking full advantage of the benefits of new, slicker processes and tools.

Streamline IT Functions

The key to efficiency in IT is consolidation. So many businesses struggle with disparate applications and systems, some of which carry out similar processes and take up space. Creating a centralised and integrated approach and moving to the cloud can help streamline IT processes and increase agility. As digital transformation encompasses every department in a business, streamlining systems can increase efficiency and innovation across all units, setting the pathway for future growth.

Modernise Processes

A major system you invested in ten years ago probably doesn’t suit your size, working practices, or your objectives today. Your employees need modern tools to suit today’s working practices and your customers expect an on-demand service with easy access and a memorable experience. Not only is it impacting productivity, but if the system goes unsupported, it becomes a security risk.

If your old tools are slowing down processes, are manual and lack the integrations and agility of more modern tools, it’s time to switch it up. Moving to cloud platforms offers a cost-efficient way to launch new services and applications, reducing capital expenditures and minimising the costs associated with maintaining on-premise hardware and software.

The cloud provides access to the latest technologies and tools, helping you to stay ahead of the competition and future-proof your operations. This gives you the ability to scale operations quickly and effectively, enabling you to respond to changes in the market and drive growth.

With a variety of economic pressures to distract you, it's essential to maintain a reliable and efficient IT infrastructure to support your business operations and customer experience. But managing technology in-house can be time-consuming and costly.

With Retail Assist's technical services, you can focus on running your business while leaving the management of your tech to the pros. Find out more here.

The post Scale-up! Why Digital Transformation Is Crucial for Growth appeared first on Retail Assist.

Business transformation is driven by technology, a change that has been embraced in the last year. For some, that has meant sourcing externally to drive this adjustment, helping to increase productivity whilst teams focus on innovation. Here's what PA Consulting has reported on habit changes when it comes to IT outsourcing in UK businesses:

• 1/3 of UK businesses are planning to outsource more of their IT in the next two years
• 59% of manufacturing and 46% of financial services businesses outsource their IT
• 35% of UK businesses currently outsource their cyber security services
• The energy and utility sectors outsource their IT services the most at 62%
• 66% of which are satisfied with their current providers

So why are 69% of UK businesses outsourcing their IT services?

Cost reduction

We've saved our customers around 30% of their original IT costs by working as an extension of their existing team. Outsourcing means you can work with a reduced team and still receive high quality IT support. We run a 24/7 IT Help Desk so if your hours have extended to help recoup the cost of closures throughout COVID, there's no need to overstretch your teams.

Scalability

Opening again with lifting restrictions across the world and the potential of different countries in your estate experiencing more national lockdowns are all reasons to maintain flexibility. With a fluctuating market, it can be a challenge to stop and start up again in a cost-effective and efficient manner when using your own teams, so businesses are starting to look at options for better scalability as they ride the wave.

Focus on core business

51% of businesses use outsourcing to improve focus on the company’s core activities. Letting your teams focus on what matters most to your organisation and leaving the day-to-day development and management of IT services to us, means teams are freed up to drive strategy and plan for the bigger picture.

Improve service quality

Outsourcing IT services to an experienced managed service provider allows you to be proactive in your response. Our IT experts are trained to plan in advance for emergencies, foreseeing products end of life, upgrades and patch management, meaning emergencies are kept to a minimum. We've also got 22 years experience, so you'll benefit from our expert knowledge and lessons learnt, providing seamless support.

If you're looking for trusty support and quick turnarounds in today's turbulent market, click here to get in touch.

The post Why Do 2/3 of UK Businesses Outsource Their IT? appeared first on Retail Assist.

Clicked on a bad link? Does the sender look familiar but been directed to a dodgy website? Both standard examples of phishing attacks, luring you in by getting you to open a seemingly legitimate email or URL and leaving your company’s entire network exposed to hackers. 

What are the biggest security risks to businesses?

Unfortunately, criminals have got smarter and it's getting harder for employees and businesses to recognise a serious threat to digital security. Phishing attacks disguised as scam emails or phone calls are designed to personally target victims, often pretending to be from an organisation who has suffered a breach themselves.

These attacks are never isolated incidents, criminals send them out in their millions and regrettably, some are successful. Phishing attacks are accountable for 90% of all security breaches for businesses. The risk is higher in organisations who have not trained their staff in best practice, making your own employees a potential threat to your business.

Any attack on security poses a threat to your business' network security and data, but phishing attacks are the most difficult to fight because they use social engineering to target your own employees. This means that your systems can be as secure as Fort Knox, but if your employees haven't been trained and tested appropriately, they're your biggest risk.

What kind of threat do these risks pose?

A phishing threat is most likely to take place following a data breach, but they also cause data breaches. The type of scam messages will usually ask for some level of personal details on a subtle manner or will install malware on devices once a URL is clicked. For such meaningless action the consequences are huge.

A phishing attack compromises your business' IT security. The destructive impact includes reputational damage, losing customers, share price falling, fines and potentially leaked information and intellectual property theft, not to mention the general disruption felt by everyone across the business.

What can be done to mitigate these attacks?

Thankfully, there's a wealth of strategies available to reduce your business' exposure and vulnerability to cyber-attacks, lowering the risk instantly:

• End point management: ensures all devices are visible, controlled, consistent and secure.
• Patch management: ensures all known weaknesses are protected and vulnerabilities reduced.
• Cyber security risk assessments: carried out regularly and in addition to the previous two strategies which can be automated, you could mitigate the risk of not detecting a security breach before it's too late.

Whilst looking at services for technological management and protection is a priority, you should also be considering training for your employees. These can take form as phishing simulation and training campaigns, targeting employees and revealing your level of risk. The benefits are not only heightened sensitivity to IT security risks, but they also help to create a culture where employees feel comfortable in reporting potential risks.

Outsourcing these functions to a services provider like Retail Assist means you can focus on what you do best whilst we deploy our specialist expertise. This extra support benefits your internal IT teams and protects their workloads, whilst creating a supportive environment that encourages employees to learn and increase their awareness of potential cyber security risks.

Why choose Retail Assist?

Our IT security model provides a combination of human and sophisticated search intelligence that enables us to prevent cyber security threats. We do this by identifying, analysing and proactively monitoring your organisation’s compromised or stolen data. We provide end-point management and IT security risk assessments to prevent attacks across all your systems and devices from any potential threat.

Our cyber security services team will introduce annual IT security training with all the engaging content and quizzes provided as well as regular phishing simulation and training campaigns. This will keep your data systems safe from any potential insider threats.

Don’t leave it until it’s too late! Contact us today to schedule your IT security risk assessment and find out how our cyber security services can help.

The post Cyber Security and the risks to your business appeared first on Retail Assist.

We’re so thrilled to announce that Tina Hand, our Head of Systems Support, has been confirmed as a finalist at the national Women in Tech Excellence Awards. Run by Computing, the fourth annual Women in Tech Excellence Awards will take place virtually.

Last year, Tina won the ‘Empowering Potential Leader’ at the East Midlands Leadership Awards and this she’s listed as a finalist for ‘IT Leader of the Year’. In less than three years that she’s worked here, she’s re-developed our Help Desk structure to create new roles, which allowed for better progression opportunities, and also implemented a pay progression scheme for the Help Desk team, whilst constantly driving and achieving consistently high SLAs for our customers.

Tina said: “I’m so pleased to be a finalist for the Women in Tech Excellence Awards. As anyone who’s worked with me will know, I’m not keen on talking about myself so it’s amazing to be nominated by the Retail Assist team. Whilst my role is focused on strategy and service delivery, culture is so important to me and I had a very clear vision in how I wanted our Help Desk culture to be for the people working on it. My people are my main motivation and I like to ensure that my team are supported, developed and encouraged to grow, especially whilst we’re all currently working from home. I’d like to thank everyone for all of their support and will keep my fingers crossed for the 1st December!”

After receiving over 800 nominations, the Women in Tech Excellence judges put together a shortlist of the top performers in the tech industry. Joining Tina as finalists include representatives from companies such as Arsenal Football Club and HSBC, with the winners being announced on Tuesday 1st December at a virtual ceremony.

Dan Smith, our CEO, said: “We’ve always said that our team is our greatest asset and we’re immensely proud not only of the work that Tina delivers every day, but also that she has been recognised nationally for her talent as an IT leader. Tina is passionate, focused and always calm under pressure: she’s a complete asset to our company and to our customers, and she’s already a winner in our eyes.”

A statement from the Women in Tech Excellence Awards said: “Although we are facing huge challenges in our personal and professional lives as we cope with the impact of Covid-19, Computing is committed to continuing to champion greater diversity in the technology industry for the long term. Our Women in Tech Excellence Awards (formerly Women in IT Excellence Awards) are important as they recognise top-performing women from across the technology space and provide inspiration for younger women looking to build a career in our industry. Now in its fourth year, we have taken the decision to rename the awards to bring them closer to our hugely successful Women in Tech Festival, which last year brought hundreds of people together to discuss diversity, celebrate success and network with the best and brightest minds in the industry.”

The post The Final(ist) Countdown! Tina Hand, Head of Systems Support is a Finalist at National Awards appeared first on Retail Assist.

It’s unsurprising that retail sales in 2020 haven’t quite met what was forecast at the start of the year. So, it was positive to see that after non-essential retail stores were allowed to open again in June, that retail sales in July have seen a promising increase.

The Retail Gazette reported that retail sales across the UK grew and also experienced a second consecutive month of growth in July. According to the latest Retail Sales Monitor from BRC and KPMG, sales increased by 3.2 per cent last month compared to an increase of 0.5 per cent in July last year.

There were also other encouraging signs that retail is growing, too. On a like-for-like basis, UK retail sales increased 4.3 per cent compared to July 2019, when they had increased 0.3 per cent from the preceding year.

So, with consumers embracing retail purchases and with life slowly returning to some normality, it hopefully shows positive signs for the rest of the year ahead. With the end of the year already in sight, are your stores ready for peak trading?

Whether you’re currently fully operational or whether you’re gradually re-opening stores, Black Friday and the Christmas trading season is not far away. We've developed our Back to Business Checklist that prepares your stores for not only returning to trade now, but checks that they're ready for peak trading, too.

We worked with some of the leading brands in retail and hospitality to design this simple checklist that helps your store and site staff to make the necessary checks that will ensure their store operations are fully optimised.

Our Back to Business Checklist covers:

• POS Hardware
• Backup
• Staff
• POS Activity Check
• Contacting the IT Help Desk

Award-Winning Store Support

Our IT Help Desk operates 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, meaning no matter what your opening hours, help is only a phone call away.

If your teams come across a problem whilst using the Back to Business Checklist, have they got the IT support to help them resolve the issues? With our Help Desk's IT specialists, you're in safe hands (in fact, we think they're the best in the business - check out our awards here!). Acting as a central point of contact for all IT issues, we take complete ownership of any problems encountered in-store, including managing third party relationships so that your store teams don't have to, so that whatever happens, we can keep you trading when you need to rely on it most.

Do you need an IT Help Desk you can rely on? Click here to find out more.

The post It’s Good News! Retail Sales See Growth – But Are Your Shops Ready? appeared first on Retail Assist.

When we made predictions for 2020, none of us could have quite foreseen the disruption that COVID-19 was about to bring. Whilst there have been some positive developments and lockdown measures lifting recently, there has also been the implementation of local lockdowns and government advice changing to reflect the evolution of this virus’ impact on our society.

It can be hard to know when “normality” might return and, as we move into the second half of the year, it’s important to proactively address any issues that your business might face, whether that’s right now or in the future. With our tech experts and decades of IT experience, here’s how we can help.

Reduce Your IT Costs

Outsourcing your IT to us can bring cost savings of up to 30%. Our award-winning team (which you can read more about here) act as an extension of your existing team and whether that’s through project support, tech support or even through our Help Desk, we can scale our offering to meet your requirements.

In fact, Nottingham City Council approached us over lockdown to help them to reach out to local independent businesses as they started to re-open following lockdown restrictions easing. Our team contacted hundreds of these businesses to help inform them of key funding available to help them to do so.

Robert Dixon, Head of Business Growth for Nottingham City Council, said: “Supporting our city’s economy during this pandemic has been a key priority for Nottingham City Council, and it was the right decision to work with Retail Assist to be absolutely sure local businesses were able to access the right support as quickly as possible. We needed our independent businesses and small high street businesses – which are such a huge part of Nottingham’s character – to be able to re-open safely and get central government support to maintain their presence on our high streets.

“If an extra 200 businesses accessed support, including grants, and that helped them to re-open safely, that’s a massive boost for our local economy. With more and more businesses re-opening in our city centre, it also provides reassurance to local people that they can come back into Nottingham safely.”

Extend the Team

Sometimes it can feel like your IT team are just fighting fires, without the capacity to plan ahead. Why not outsource to our Help Desk? Our team can support your users with any tech issues they might have, leaving you and your team to focus on more important, strategic matters at hand, so you can do more with fewer people, especially if key members of staff are on furlough.

Simon Brealy, Global Service Delivery Manager at Ted Baker, said: “Our service desk were looking after many hundreds of office based employees alongside looking after our retail partners. Since partnering with Retail Assist, we’ve been able to develop what (the service delivery within) Ted’s IT delivers; rather than focusing on 1st and 2nd line tickets coming in across our European estate, they’re now 100% dealt with by Retail Assist.

“Because of the standard Retail Assist has delivered to us, my service delivery teams have been able to focus much more on proactively supporting the business and focusing more on the project deliveries, which has in turn had a much more positive impact on the wider business.”

Using Downtime

This current trading period is often a quieter part of the year, but are your systems ready for peak trading? Use this time to evaluate if projects can be implemented; our project support team are on hand to oversee everything from cloud migrations to software implementation, with our Help Desk also running projects to support whatever IT needs your business faces.

Not sure if you’re ready? Our store experts have put together our COVID-19 return to trading checklist:

Remote Working

Many businesses have had to move their operations so that their staff can work remotely (ourselves included!). Over lockdown, we’ve helped hundreds of our end users to be able to work remotely, supporting virtual office locations across the country. You can read our #WFHDiaries here.

With the reality that we can’t be 100% sure when offices will be “back to normal”, it’s vital that your digital office environments are a seamless operation for both your staff and your customers. Our friendly desktop support team are here to support your users with whatever issues they might face at home.

Want to know more about how we can help your business through COVID-19? Drop us a line here.

The post Whatever IT Challenges You’re Facing, Let Us Help appeared first on Retail Assist.

There’s a meme going around the Internet at the moment that says: ‘At least no-one was right in 2015 when they were asked “where do you see yourself in 5 years’ time?”’ Whilst it’s a good example of some situational dry humour, making light of the strange, ‘unprecedented’ time that we all find ourselves in, it’s a sound reminder that we can never know exactly what’s going to happen over the next few years ahead.

Whilst we can make educated guesses or review previous years, deciding on budgets and planning future business strategy can be difficult as none of us can accurately see into the future. However, throw away the crystal ball and step away from the horoscopes – here’s our top 3 reasons why outsourcing your IT can future-proof your business.

1. Reduce your IT costs by 30%

How does saving 30% of your IT costs sound? Many businesses in many different sectors have been hit financially during Q2, when COVID-19 and the safety measures around it were put in place. Moving into the second half of the year, businesses looking to recoup funds and de-risk further, should look no further than outsourcing their managed IT services.

At Retail Assist, we work as an extension of your existing team, meaning that you can work with a reduced team or even hand over your IT operations for us to run, so that you can still receive high quality IT support whilst reaping cost savings. We run a 24/7 IT Help Desk (in fact, it’s won quite a few awards… have a look here) but you can also tap into our team of PRINCE-2 qualified project managers, receive desktop support services (perfect for head offices that are working from home) and enjoy a whole host of other managed IT services that can ensure your operations aren’t affected wherever and whenever people are working.

2. Free up your IT team

It's no secret that the importance of digital commerce and the role technology plays in supporting the customer journey has never been more crucial to business success. However, if your CIO, Head of IT and other IT managers are having to focus on the day-to-day development and management of services, rather than planning for the bigger picture, outsourcing your IT can free up their time to focus on the stuff that matters.

Simon Brealy, Global Service Delivery Manager at Ted Baker, explained just that: “Our service desk were looking after many hundreds of office based employees alongside looking after our retail partners. Since partnering with Retail Assist, we’ve been able to develop what (the service delivery within) Ted’s IT delivers; rather than focusing on 1st and 2nd line tickets coming in across our European estate, they’re now 100% dealt with by Retail Assist.

“Because of the standard Retail Assist has delivered to us, my service delivery teams have been able to focus much more on proactively supporting the business and focusing more on the project deliveries, which has in turn had a much more positive impact on the wider business.”

3. Share the knowledge

Sadly, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic may continue for some time and, with that, comes the potential for further spikes and subsequent lockdowns. If key IT team members are unable to work, for whatever reason, your business could be under threat if they’re the only ones that hold specific skills and knowledge. We are ISO-20000 compliant, meaning that not only are our procedures shared internally, updated and centralised, no matter what the issue is, our tech experts are on hand to pre-empt and solve any issues that might occur. With over 21 years of supporting retail, hospitality, local councils and logistics customers, what our tech experts don’t know isn’t worth knowing.

We pride ourselves on our thorough implementations and quick turnarounds – let us support your IT vision of the future. Click here to get in touch.

The post Ignore the Crystal Ball: Future-Proof Your Business by Outsourcing Your IT appeared first on Retail Assist.

Over lockdown, we’ve all missed various different aspects of our previous ‘normal’ lives. Whether that’s being able to hug friends and family, going to the cinema or even going on holiday, there’s so many activities that we’ll all never take for granted again. However, for many people, another activity on that list is eating and drinking out; going for a meal with your loved ones or meeting your friends for a drink at your local are all important parts of our social lives. And with Britain’s bustling hospitality scene, many businesses are looking forward to welcoming back their patrons, at least at a social distance.

First, it was non-essential retail and now it’s hospitality’s turn: but, from the 4^th July, will customers be planning to return?

Our Survey

We surveyed over 100 people across all adult age groups to reflect on their plans for this weekend – and the results were mixed.

Of those surveyed, only 13% of people said that they had plans to visit a hospitality venue this weekend, with 62% of people giving an outright ‘no’. However, interestingly, 25% of people said that they would return “soon”, showing promising signs that customers were beginning to make plans beyond this weekend. This is perhaps mirrored in visits to non-essential retailers, with 41% of people saying that they had been in-store since 15^th June, only two weeks ago, suggesting that whilst a return to store spaces might be initially slow, consumer confidence should follow similar signs of growing.

So, if people aren’t planning on visiting a venue this weekend, what are their reasons? 42% of those surveyed said that they didn’t feel safe doing so, whereas 23% of customers said that they weren’t necessarily ready to be around other people. Reassuringly, only 9% of people said that they didn’t trust the measures that vendors have put in place. For this particular group, systems such as OMIO Motion help with the movement of people around a space, meaning that staff don’t have to police this themselves and also allowing customers to feel safe in the space that they’re in; with a simple set-up, retailers and hospitality vendors can safely re-open whilst seeing a good financial return in just a few weeks.

As for people who plan to visit venues this weekend, there seems to be a popular choice; of those surveyed, 59% said that they planned on visiting a pub or bar, with 29% of people planning on visiting a restaurant or café: 12% of people said that they planned on visiting both. 

When talking about budgets, responses were quite varied. Some people were either looking to have a few drinks and spend up to £20 (12%), whereas 35% were looking to spend £21-40 with others relishing a return to their favourite vendors, looking to spend over £61 (35%). This variety suggests that whatever the hospitality venue and whatever the offering, vendors can still look to see good returns on customers coming back.

Staying Safe

Whilst it’s exciting to see the small steps in our return to normality, it’s paramount that staff and customers can enjoy visiting their favourite businesses whilst staying safe. OMIO Motion allows retailers and hospitality vendors to control and measure occupancy levels, allowing them to adhere and enforce government guidelines. As the survey suggested, it's also important to reassure customers and visitors that their welfare is being cared for. With a simple set-up, businesses can see a return on investment in just weeks.

If you’re a business, it's also important to ensure that your systems ready, especially after so much downtime. Our return to trading checklist helps your store teams to get everything back up and running, allowing you to put more time into ensuring everyone’s safety whilst making sure that you’re ready to welcome everyone back with open arms.

Not sure how to navigate the new normal? Our tech experts are on hand to help. Click here to get in touch.

The post Eating In or Taking Out? The Results of Our Hospitality Survey appeared first on Retail Assist.