Case study: How these 5 global brands used digital signage to keep their customers safe during COVID-19

Last year, many customer-facing businesses were tasked with pivoting their business model to an online-first eCommerce approach.

Now, as we slowly emerge out of the global pandemic, you’re tasked with turning the customer-facing side of your business into a safe environment for everyone who enters your doors.

Digital signage has long proved a successful channel for attracting customers, increasing brand awareness, and encouraging purchases. But today, global brands are using digital signage for a secondary purpose: keeping customers safe during COVID-19.

To help you do the same, we’ve taken examples of how these global brands are using digital screens to win the war against coronavirus and protect everyone entering their doors.

The use of digital signage in keeping customers safe

Before we look at the brands making a difference, let’s quickly recap the different ways digital signage can help your store with social distancing and hygiene measures:

1. Reminders – providing customers with information on your COVID-19 policies.
2. Social distancing – providing one-way wayfinding.
3. Interaction – enabling touch-free payments and customer interactions.
4. Thanks – providing customers with a message of thanks for their support and understanding.
5. Queues – managing queues while engaging customers and reducing perceived wait time.
6. Numbers – calculating the number of customers in your store.

Relevant reading: How digital signage can help social distancing

Now, let’s look at some of these in practice.

Examples of brands using digital signage to keep customers safe during COVID-19

All brands have had to grapple with keeping customers safe while maintaining an enjoyable customer experience. The following brands have used digital signage to increase safety effectively and efficiently.

1) Burger King’s enhanced drive-thru experience

Late last year, Burger King (alongside Tim Hortons and Popeyes) announced the implementation of 10,000+ digital screens in drive-thrus across Northern America.

Drive-thrus are inherently safer for customers to use during COVID-19 because they allow for full social distancing and eliminate nearly all physical contact. However, they aren’t entirely risk-free. Physical contact still occurs at the payment stage, and long queues or limited menus often drive customers to the door.

To overcome these problems, Burger King is using digital signage to modernize the drive-thru experience and improve customer safety during COVID-19.

More than 40,000 digital screens are being installed, complete with technology that enables:

• Predictive menus that tailor food choices for guests, allowing them to find and order their meals quickly.
• Integrated loyalty programs that encourage customers to use the drive-thru rather than go in-store.
• Contact-less payment that further reduces physical contact.

Not only does this technology improve the customer experience while reducing physical proximity, but it’s also expected to make the drive-thru even quicker. This will reduce queues, making customers more likely to drive-thru than walk-in.

2) H&M’s people counting signage

Kersten Retail Techniek, one of Benelux’s largest retail installers, is helping brands such as H&M to maintain social distancing measures, using people counting digital signage.

This new form of digital signage technology works with a camera at a store’s point of entry, calculating the number of customers entering and exiting. When the store reaches maximum capacity, the digital signage switches from welcoming people inside to a queue management system.

While customers are waiting to enter the store, the digital signage provides helpful information such as estimated waiting times and information on social distancing and hygiene measures. The screens display information to reduce the perceived waiting time, such as promotional videos and branded content.

H&M’s people count signage also acts as a reassuring signal for customers, telling them they take social distancing measures seriously.

3) Lush’s handwashing invitation

Fresh, cruelty-free cosmetics retailer, Lush, went one step further in using digital signage to keep customers safe during COVID-19 – they used their screens to keep passers-buy safe too.

Lush transformed its storefront digital signage to invite passers-by to come in and wash their hands for free. They even displayed a step-by-step guide on how to wash hands properly.

By using digital signage to share this message, Lush is able to attract the attention of shoppers at relevant times. When the store is closed or busy, Lush can change the screen to display other marketing or safety messages.

4) Anytime Fitness’ digital hand sanitizing kiosks

Anytime Fitness is a global fitness franchise with gyms across the world. So, it’s imperative that in helping its customers stay fit, it helps them stay safe from COVID-19 and healthy at the same time. This is particularly challenging in a gym environment, where people are sweating, breathing more heavily, touching different surfaces, and being in closer proximity to other users.

In addition to digital signage screens throughout the gym that remind customers how to keep safe during COVID-19, Anytime Fitness installed digital hand sanitizing kiosks in high-traffic areas.

The digital kiosks help people to keep physically safe by inviting them to sanitize their hands. While doing so, the kiosk uses the increased dwell time to display important messages about hygiene, social distancing, and other COVID-safe measures. Anytime Fitness also uses live video monitoring to display timely updates on the screen about the measures to be followed or avoided.

For example, if the weights section is experiencing a high volume of traffic, gym users can be diverted to different equipment.

5) Austin airport

In Texas, Austin airport welcomes people from around the world, making it a high-risk area for passing on the virus.

To increase customer and staff safety, Texas airport has installed new digital signage in gate areas and in the visitors’ center. The screens are used to provide eye-catching and engaging public health messages, covering physical distancing, face coverings, and personal hygiene.

Austin airport is also encouraging customers to use their own digital screens, too, to minimize social contact during the boarding process. Customers are being encouraged to use mobile boarding passes and check-in from their home laptops before setting off for the airport and when proceeding through security.

Conclusion

Digital signage is a powerful communication tool because it grabs attention, engages viewers, and shares various information depending on the situation, physical positioning, and audience.

Digital signage is an ideal tool for increasing customer safety during COVID-19 because you can share important information alongside content that engages your audience and improves their experience and customer journey.

Hopefully, these examples give you ideas to implement into your business and premises, but if you need more help or information on implementing digital signage for your business, get in touch.