If you are a business owner then there’s a very good chance that you try a range of different ways to attract more customers, increase your sales and make your business look inclusive. Have you ever wondered whether or not your business has physical barriers that prevent customers with disabilities from accessing your premises or getting through to your customer service team? With the level of people who are in need of help, it should be a consideration of yours to ensure that your business is as inclusive as possible for customers.
Your business needs to be accessible to people of all abilities, and when you do this, you don’t just expand your customer base. It makes really good economic sense to be the type of business that thinks of everybody. For example, making sure that your store has hearing loops so that people can switch to the right T zone is important. Being able to run your customer service line with a bilingual answering service is also going to be more inclusive to those who speak other languages. Ensuring that everybody, no matter their ability, has access to your space or to your customer service team is going to make your business more appealing. But how can you do that? Let’s take a look below.
- It’s all about that first impression: When customers approach your business for the first time, you don’t want their first impression to be that you are not inclusive. Physical barriers in a restaurant or a store, such as those that offer mobility challenges or parents with strollers who can’t get down the aisle, are going to immediately put people off. If you have people who are hard of hearing, unable to connect to a service in your business where they can hear better, that’s going to be a problem. If you want to eliminate this issue, then you need to install ramps at entryways, use automatic doors and widen the aisles. If your business is based on the phone, then ensuring that there are bilingual options is important.
- Clear the clutter: It’s important that your physical business has a clutter free space for people to move in and out of. The last thing you want to do is alienate those with strollers or those in wheelchairs, or even those who are unable to walk without aid. Having pathways and workspaces free from clutter allows people to feel they are included in the space.
- You need to be seen, clear and easy to read: Signage is a must for navigating your business space.You want to be able to accommodate the individuals who are blind or have low vision, so high contrast signage with a large font size can help.In addition to helping people with vision issues, you should make sure that you have legible signs that are beneficial for anyone unfamiliar. If you have the space and the budget, then make sure that you have things in more than one language, especially if the locally popular spoken languages are in another – not just English.
- Make washrooms accessible: This one should be for your employees as much as it is for your customers. Accessible washrooms are a fundamental aspect of any businesses inclusivity. You should make sure that the doors are at least 85 centimetres wide and there should be grab bars on the side and back of the toilet. Does it provide support for users? You can ensure that every toilet in your business is accessible from the moment you start your hiring process.
- Any print materials should be accessible: Are you sending leaflets to people’s homes or are you printing out Flyers for your latest sale? If so then the materials that you print on should be accessible to menus, business cards and signs can also be printed in Braille or even larger print. If you make that your norm rather than looking at it as something special for additional guests, you’ll find that people will flock back to your business because they’ll know that you are the business that cares.
- Think about your lighting efforts: When it comes to ensuring accessibility, lighting plays an important role. Poor lighting impacts those with poor vision, so you need to consider whether or not you have enough of a budget for brighter lights. Swapping to LED light bulbs, for example, isn’t an expensive fix, but it’s one that can make a big difference to everybody around you. You should consider using adjustable clips on lights or providing portable lighting options for any employees or customers that may need additional illumination.
- Ramp up: If you have a physical business, then using ramps to help those with wheelchairs, scooters or strollers can make a big difference. You should also ensure that you have a step or a ramp to reach high surfaces like counters, shelves or display cases. If you think about any customers with mobility impairments comfortably accessing your services, then you’ll be able to offer the right support to everybody and not just make it a special case.
- Offer point of sale flexibility: Another way to make your business more customer inclusive is to ensure you have multiple ways to pay some customers like the option of paying with debit card instead of credit card, cash instead of pay in 4. Small adjustments like ensuring that your payment options are flexible can make a big difference.
- Train your employees: If you want your business to be more inclusive, then sensitivity training is a must. Education is one of the best ways that you can foster inclusivity in your business, so if you offer sensitivity training to your team, you will ensure that everybody understands how to assist people with any kind of disability. Sensitivity training also helps to prevent any unconscious bias which is very important as a customer facing business.
The goal is to offer positive experiences for your customers, so start with these tips and move forward from there.
