On March 22, tedmag.com posted a story providing best practices by distributors to keep their employees safe and healthy, and to keep supplying necessary products to their customers. In the past week, the NAED Member Engagement Team has been in contact with a number of distributors and is providing tedmag.com an update on some of those practices.
We want to thank the following distributors for helping other members of the association keep their employees safe by sharing their best practices:
- Loyd’s Electric Supply
- Blazer Electric Supply Company
- Electric Supply and Equipment
- Colonial Electric Supply
- USESI/Yale
Following are some of the comments NAED received from distributors. They got some good ideas from the article tED ran about what to do during these uncertain times.
- Implemented more sanitation throughout branches
- Pulled outside sales staff off the road
- Closed buildings to customers
- Spending more time using training opportunities for employees
- Still bidding some projects
- Having every employee take one vacation day each week
- Serving all will-call and walk-in customers in the parking lot and dock
- Closed all showrooms
- Some went through a series of layoffs and had employee hours or salaries cut, although they want to bring everyone back to normal as soon as possible
Branch Operations
The safest way for customers to place orders and get great service:
- Send the order in ahead of time and have it waiting for pick up or take it out to customer while maintaining control of the cart. Provide phone number, email, text or website to place order.
- What if you didn’t call ahead? You can call or email right now and we will get your order ready as fast as possible. We will bring it out to you or leave it in the Fast Lane Will Call area.
- Don’t want to call? Come on in and we will take care of you the old fashioned and less safe way:
- Please maintain a distance of six feet from everyone else.
- We may be a little slow as we are giving the called-in, will-call orders priority.
- Strongly encourage customers continuing with the old-fashioned way to move to eCommerce, email, text, or phone in ordering for delivery/will call.
- Establish a will call lobby inside your customer common entrance. That should be the ONLY unlocked entrance.
- All other entrance points should be locked with signage redirecting.
- Barrier the counter by positioning table(s) in front of your counter to create distance with additional signage requiring customers to stay beyond.
- No handshakes and maintaining a six feet distance from others at all times. This should apply whether you are at work or not.
Take Increased Measures to Ensure Facility Cleanliness
- Disconnect and disengage public access to water coolers, coffee stations, etc.
- If you have water fountains, turn it off, if possible, and label OUT OF ORDER.
- Restrict non-employee access to restrooms.
- Since hand sanitizer is scarce, consider restricting non-employee access.
- Encourage employees to be on the lookout for supplies and purchase if available.
- Lock up the reserve toilet paper, hand soap, paper towels, and related products.
- Do not share pens, phones or keyboards.
- Carefully wipe down work areas and tools (phones, keyboards, signature pad “pens”) as frequently as possible, at least every ½ hour.
- Relocate signature pad and enter the client’s name at the signature site of “close counter” as opposed to having them sign (if not Fast Lane).
- Discourage returns whenever possible. OT returns must be pre-approved by CDC supervisors. In-person returns use barrier to “quarantine” product zone (at the barrier).
- If clients use carts, wipe down with disinfectant upon return.
- Acquire “surgical” gloves and wear them.
- Discourage cash payments; respectfully request credit cards.
CDC operations:
- Startup Communication:
- Wash hands for at least 20 seconds with soap (sing happy birthday to yourself 2x).
- Use hand sanitizer as well, when possible.
- Clean all workstations and or PIT equipment before using—use wipes that are provided. If wipes are not available, please inform the supervisor. We will provide cleaning solution and paper towels if needed.
- Discard tissues in the appropriate trash containers.
- Avoid handshaking and or touching others as much as possible – “social distancing”.
- Picking team to be restricted to one person per aisle.
- CDCs have increased cleaning schedules at each of the sites, which includes break rooms, restrooms, and workstations cleaned daily.
- Hand sanitizer stations throughout CDCs should be maintained and kept filled.
- In the case of testing positive for Coronavirus, the work area will be disinfected and sanitized by the local cleaning company or leadership personnel.
- Communication to the team is daily, and posters are being placed in strategic areas by restrooms and break rooms.
- We will continue to ask each team member to hold themselves accountable to keep their work area clean, remove any used tissues and such at the end of each shift, and clean the equipment or workstations before leaving. Please be sure to handoff clean environment to teammates.
Transportation – Drivers: Proactive Measures that we are Communicating to this Team:
- Same as above with each day start-up meeting.
- Before starting, clean and wipe down all door handles, steering wheel, dashboard, clipboards, and so on. Anything that they will touch daily gets cleaned before they leave.
- Delivering to customers:
- DO NOT hand any equipment over to a customer to touch—iPhone, hand trucks, and or a pen. Request verbal confirmation for the driver to sign for customers. If a customer refuses verbal confirmation, take a picture of the delivered product, sign as “refused to sign.” Inform Transportation leadership immediately after leaving the customer. No reported cases at this point.
- Avoid social contact with customers, practice social distancing.
- Do not go into a customer’s warehouse, stay close to the truck as much as possible. If contact is needed or need to walk through warehouse or office, wash hands and use hand sanitizer.
- Breaks and lunches – wash hands accordingly (20 second rule) before eating and or putting hands near face.
- End of day – again wipe and clean truck before punching out.