Understanding foot traffic within a store is essential. Not only does it help businesses ensure they are meeting COVID-19 regulations, but it also provides insight into how their business operates. Historically, obtaining data related to store occupancy has been challenging and requires manual counting by staff, steering them away from other tasks. Today's technology helps businesses streamline counting and reduce the number of required resources.
What is the Ombori Store Occupancy solution?
Ombori Occupancy Control helps businesses manage store occupancy levels at their locations using people counting and a mix of queue ticketing or pre-booked appointments. It offers real-time monitoring of the number of people entering and leaving a building, or an area within a building, using automated sensors. When the occupancy threshold is reached, additional visitors are denied entrance until the location has the capacity to serve them.
Benefits of Store Occupancy Solutions
Store occupancy software provides solutions to many challenges faced by businesses in today’s competitive marketplace. Here are some of the most common reasons why customers rely on store occupancy solutions:
To Meet COVID-19 Requirements
COVID-19 has had a dramatic impact on how businesses operate. To ensure customer safety, companies have had to reduce the number of patrons permitted on-site, and store occupancy solutions can help guarantee that businesses meet these new guidelines.
To Ensure Regulatory, Insurance, and Legal Compliance
Every business has a maximum store occupancy that it must abide by for regulatory, insurance, or legal purposes. Accurate real-time monitoring of the number of people on the premises allows companies to instantly see whether they comply with occupancy regulations – specifically those related to insurance and fire codes. Even if a location has multiple entrances and exits, the business can always accurately count the number of people within the building.
To Increase Perceived Safety
Notifying customers that a business is leveraging people counting software can help to strengthen their perceived sense of safety. It demonstrates to customers and visitors that the company complies with occupancy regulations and reassures them that the business is taking their health and safety seriously.
To Make Effective Use of Analytics
In addition, such software allows businesses to gather data and identify underlying trends and patterns in customer/visitor behavior. Such analysis goes far beyond pinpointing the most popular days and times. For example, a business can determine how foot traffic is affected by weather or how online sales impact a store’s occupancy.
To Improve Staff Management
Moreover, a business can use analytics to adjust staffing levels to meet actual demand. For example, employers can schedule extra staff during peak business hours. Additionally, the automated counter feature allows managers to assign staff tasks other than counting people as they enter and exit.
To Reduce Queues and Improve Customer Experience
Understanding peak hours and assigning staff accordingly can reduce, if not eliminate, queues within a business, which increases safety, improves customer/visitor throughput, and reduces stress. Furthermore, giving customers and visitors clear and accurate information about occupancy and expected wait times helps to improve their overall experience and decrease their frustration.
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Once a business recognizes the benefits of using an occupancy control solution, it must determine which is best suited for its operations. Here are some of the reasons why customers recommend Ombori Grid:
Ombori Occupancy Control is part of the modular Grid ecosystem. It can be combined with a wide range of other apps and solutions to meet a company’s specific needs. All Grid apps have a common infrastructure, allowing them to share data and work seamlessly together. Apps can be added as needed, allowing businesses to expand their functionality when appropriate.All Ombori Grid apps are fully customizable to individual business requirements and branding. Standard features and options mean the system can be configured to meet the needs of most clients out of the box. If not, Ombori works with the client to develop the additional features or options they need.
Ombori Occupancy Control works for any scale of business. It can be configured for a large enterprise with multiple locations or for a single office.
Ombori Grid offers rapid deployment. Depending on the specific needs of a business, Ombori can install Occupancy Control in under two weeks from start to finish.
All Ombori Grid apps can be monitored and controlled remotely. Business owners or supervisory staff can update content, change triggers, and view real-time data from multiple locations without having to be on the premises.
Simple, intuitive tools allow a business to update and maintain the system with ease. Managers can make routine changes without calling an IT specialist or requesting updates from the vendor.
All Ombori Grid apps are designed and built with security in mind. The Ombori specialist security team has extensive experience working with high-profile enterprises, including banks and major retailers, and are experts in designing secure systems.
Ombori Occupancy Control uses commonly available hardware to minimize both cost and deployment time. It is built on Microsoft Azure IoT, ensuring that it is reliable, secure, and well supported.
Features of All Ombori Occupancy Control Installations
All occupancy control systems offer similar characteristics. Here are some of the more common features:
Real-time Occupancy Monitoring
GDPR Compliance
Data storage and handling are fully compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other data protection legislation.
Dashboard
Users can easily visualize current statistics and historical trends online or via a mobile device. All data is date- and time-stamped.
Data Export
Data can be exported to files or directly to an existing management information system (MIS).
Set Occupancy Levels
Users can determine the occupancy level permitted for each location. The level can be set to vary depending on the day, time, or other criteria.
Occupancy Triggers
Users can define actions that are automatically triggered when a building’s occupancy level reaches a certain level.
Remote Health Checks
Users can enjoy continuous remote monitoring of the status of all connected devices and perform remedial action as needed.
Multi-Entrance Support
Users can monitor all entrances to a building to maintain an accurate occupancy count and ensure stores are meeting mandated occupancy limits.
Multi-Site Support
Businesses with multiple sites can monitor and control all of them centrally.
Site-Specific Settings
Each location can have its own configuration, including different occupancy thresholds, triggers, and content.
Traffic-Light Indicators
Special indicators allow users to quickly assess whether a building is open or closed.
Cloud-Based Storage
All data is stored on the cloud, which gives users remote access at all times.
Digital Twin Model
Users can create a virtual model of their building’s occupancy.
Additional Features Offered by Ombori Grid
Ombori Grid also offers the following features:
Queue Integration
The occupancy system can be integrated with a virtual queuing system. If the premises are full, visitors can add themselves to a virtual queue and receive a notification on their mobile device when it is their turn to enter.
Digital Signage Integration
Occupancy data can be displayed on interactive digital signage both inside and outside the building, allowing businesses to adjust their messaging in response to different customer needs or contexts such as location, time of day, temperature, or weather.
Automatic Entrance Control
Users can link the occupancy system to doors or barriers and create triggers to automatically close a building when it is full and reopen it when occupancy levels drop.
Sensors for Automatic Counting
The occupancy system uses sensors to automatically count people entering or leaving. If a location has multiple entrance points, a business can use automated counting for some doors and manual counting for others.
Connectivity
Users have multiple ways of connecting the system to a network. They can connect to an existing network using WIFI or cables or use a separate connection.
Multi-Language Support
Support is available in multiple languages, and a device can be configured to offer multiple language support.
Audio Support
The occupancy system offers a voice interface. Visitors to the premises can speak to the device and receive audio information in return.
Staff Information
Getting Started with a Store Occupancy Solution
There is no doubt that occupancy store solutions can improve how a business operates. The analytics provided by such systems offer businesses an edge that is necessary to thrive in today’s competitive environment. To get started, please fill out the contact form for additional information.
