LEISURE AND RETAIL FACILITIES
“BeMS are now
all encompassing and can make the integration
of new lighting, heating and security systems seamless, whether in a new build or retrofitting into older store stock.”
THE FM INFLUENCE
Customers want more than just a transactional interaction, whether they are browsing online or purchasing instore, and it is this desire that is revolutionising the shopping experience. What role can facilities managers play in this process, asks Ben Tiffany, M&E Director at Sigma.
It’s no surprise to hear the retail sector is in a state of transformation. Headline-hitting news about the demise of the high-street and the disappearance of so many well- known brand names in recent years tells us all we need to know about how important change is to this industry.
Customer experience as we define it today is a relatively new concept in retail. This is important because it is now customers, not senior executives, who are dictating what’s important in retail.
To not evolve or to ignore what customers today want from their retailers and shopping experience is having devastating consequences and, critically, this is why the role of facilities management is so important.
In this new realm of retailing, the aesthetic factors matter within your physical store portfolio. From ambient lighting and state of the art sound systems, to ease of access, layout and even the temperature of your store, it all matters to savvy shoppers and can be the deciding factor between one brand and its competitor.
It may seem a stretch of the imagination but given its broad remit across property portfolios, internal M&E including critical elements for customer experience
40 | TOMORROW’S FM
such as lighting and technological capability, enabling wholesale internal redesign through design, décor, fixtures and fittings, and a whole host of other areas, the argument to involve FM early in conversations about portfolio transformation starts to stack up.
With the powerful combination of new technology and a shift towards more sustainable practices, now more than ever is the time for facilities managers to show that their role is as strategic as it is tactical.
Paramount of course, is the need to keep each and every store within a brand’s portfolio up and running and this is no more essential than in the food sector. Systems and processes must be implemented and adhered to so that stock quality is maintained and where there is an issue, there must be technology in place to help identify the source of the problem and access to the resources needed to fix it before it becomes not only costly, but a detriment to customer experience.
In a social media-driven society, problems with customer experience are quickly and often negatively shared with little thought to the work that may be going on behind the scenes to fix them. Websites being unavailable, instore
twitter.com/TomorrowsFM
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