This is what social distancing does to the customer journey
Results of the 1.5 metre monitor
Because of the coronavirus, safety has become one of the most important pillars of most organisations in a very short space of time. Failing to offer a ‘corona-safe’ environment does not only bring health risks with it; indirectly, you also run the risk of damage to your brand and reputation.
Research into how safe consumers feel when visiting shops shows that as shop visits increase, more and more people start to feel unsafe. Almost everyone who felt unsafe in a shop says this is because other customers are not following the corona rules (91%, against 54% in the previous measurement). Other important reasons are the absence of one-way routing and too many customers in the shop. And that is despite the fact that the majority of Dutch people (66%) find the rules clear, because they are clearly indicated, visible everywhere and easy to follow.
The general feeling is that people are not considerate of one another. Most people find the rules clear, well described and clearly indicated. How they are applied, however, is experienced as highly variable. Some responses from respondents in the research: “There is a tangle of rules that are applied differently everywhere” and “In one shop you get information on arrival, hand gel, wipes, clean baskets, and in the next shop nothing at all”.
We also see a persistently large number of Dutch people buying online. A third of Dutch people have started buying more products online because of the coronavirus. For glasses and lenses, shoes and clothing, people still prefer to go to the physical shop.
Together with research agency Ruigrok NetPanel, VIM Group set up the 1.5 metre monitor to measure how safe people feel when visiting shops during the corona crisis on a regular basis. The results of this monitor are updated every four weeks.
