As bars, restaurants, and retail shops everywhere closed their doors to the public and braced for the Covid-19 pandemic, new ways of operating emerged – some familiar and some slightly strange and novel. With almost anything you could want or need just a few clicks away, it’s understandable why some may see little need to venture outside the home for food, entertainment, or even exercise. While there are still many questions left unanswered and we all try to navigate the unknown, one thing is certain – our lives and the world as we once knew it have changed drastically, and some of these changes will be here to stay.
It’s no surprise that some companies have found their groove in this strange new reality we live in and are thriving when it comes to e-commerce. However, one challenge retail and commercial spaces will inevitably struggle with is enticing nervous patrons to come back into their brick and mortar shops to eat, drink, shop, and socialize.
Although, Bluesound Professional’s Vice President and General Manager, Graeme Harrison suggests: “One answer is by creating delightful and immersive experiences that are difficult to replicate at home.”
Indeed, there is nothing like the sights and sounds experienced during an intimate cup of coffee with friends at a café or while out to dinner with a loved one, or the feeling of excitement you get when you enter your favourite boutique.
According to London-based consumer psychologist Kate Nightingale: “Some people are ‘need-for-touch’ only when buying, while others are ‘high autotelics’, exhibiting a much greater need to experience haptic sensations – things but also their surroundings, for whom now much of their pleasure is of course forbidden. For them, but all of us to a degree, sensorial experiences will become much more important post-Covid-19.” [i]
However, there is now the added difficulty of doing this safely when it comes to both customers and employees. Business owners need to be hyper-aware, now more than ever, of how they choose to operate in terms of the health and safety of their staff. Here are just some of the ways that Bluesound Professional products step up to the plate:
- Bluesound Professional products are equipped with voice control. Although voice control isn’t always ideal in noisy environments, it doesn’t require touch, making them a sensible and safe option, now and well into the future.
- The CP100 wall panel is easy and safe to wipe down regularly to keep sterile. Most other controls from other manufacturers have knobs and buttons and at least grooves and indentations for displays – all places that bacteria can linger. This is a unique advantage of Bluesound Professional.
- Control of Bluesound Professional products can be achieved using BYOD (bring your own device). As we move away from the idea of sharing our phones, tablets and laptops, this is a sensible solution as these devices should only have the owner’s bacteria on them. This option can be locked down with security, ensuring both that a business owner can only allow certain employees control of the system, and that he or she can lock even this control out again, when things return to normal. This is another distinct advantage of Bluesound Professional.
Although
these products provide solutions to the immediate issues that have arisen in
the face of Covid-19, they will continue to be practical even in a
post-pandemic world. While some companies have had to
quickly adapt and innovate new technologies to suit their customer’s needs,
Bluesound Professional has been ready for this change in behaviour all along. Forward-thinking and continuously striving to
stay abreast of industry trends, Bluesound Professional offers many different
and innovative options to help business owners and integrators navigate these
new challenges.
[i] https://www.forbes.com/sites/katiebaron/2020/04/01/business-as-unusual-brand-strategies-for-navigating-covid-19s-new-abnormal/#5ba1fdc02f53
