Groundbreaking!
This article is about how businesses in the retail sector can benefit from acknowledging and supporting a section of their customer base. I'm talking about people with invisible chronic illnesses. Those people who look completely fine on the outside but are quietly wilting and/or evaporating on the inside. I am one of these people.
Today, I ventured into a super large supermarket to redeem some gift cards given to me by this particular company for my charity raffle. It should have been a very quick trip. I knew what I wanted, had the vouchers on me, and thought I'd be back in my car homeward-bound within 15 minutes. How wrong I was.
There were issues with the gift card and so I could not redeem them, that is not what I am concentrating on in this article though. The problems I encountered were:
- Very harsh, over-use of fluorescent lighting throughout the store. Most chronic illnesses include the symptom of sensitivity to light and so this factor may well be putting people off visiting your store. I appreciate that home delivery is an option but....think how much more stuff you could sell to these people that they don't need if they actually came into the store! I've been told that I find fluorescent light tiring because my brain is using energy to filter some of the harshness away due to my sensitivity. The lighting also makes me feel dizzy, nauseous and off-balance. So, dim it a little bit? Please?
- Lack of an available seat. I was stood at the cashier desk for around 20 minutes and, my mum who was with me said she was literally watching the life drain out of me. Orthostatic intolerance is a horrible symptom for many people with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E) and many other chronic illnesses, as well as being an illness in its own right. I wrote a blog about it a few years ago - take a look Overwhelming need to get horizontal. Standing for longer than around 3 minutes is a nightmare for me. My spine feels like it wants to droop and my head feels like it is fighting gravity. Today, my brain just stopped working. I couldn't think straight and needed to go and rest in the coffee shop before leaving the store.
Today's experience has given me an idea. If this doesn't already exist in the retail industry please feel free to steal my idea! I don't care, I just want to be a champion pushing businesses to support people with chronic/invisible illnesses.
Take a look at the (pretty naff) drawing at the top of this article. My idea is to add a fold-away seat to every customer service point. One that doesn't stick out and impede other customers or encourage healthy people to sit and chat. The 'seat' would comprise of a sturdy square (wood or hard plastic) with rounded edges. This would be attached to the desk by strong brackets and springs, allowing someone to unfold the seat to sit down. It could possibly be held in place with some kind of arm/restraint against the desk so that, over time, when the brackets loosen, the chair doesn't fall down when not being used. The back of the chair would be the desk. Does that make sense? You could promote that you have added that feature to highlight that you care about people with chronic illnesses - see what I did there?!
I gave this talk to CILIP, a professional library organisation CILIP talk. During this talk, I encouraged libraries to promote 'spoons'. At my suggestion, the library at Winchester University adopted the idea of 'Can we help you with your spoons today?' and it was a success. People with invisible illnesses will know what a spoon symbol means. Many people with invisible illnesses like that they look 'normal' and may be reluctant to disclose how poorly they feel. An easily accessible seat would be the perfect answer. I also wrote this blog last year, it is on a similar theme but is aimed at banks and businesses blog
So grasp the opportunity to get ahead of your competitors and claw back some of the people who have been discouraged from venturing into your store!