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Have you ever noticed people hanging around your business premises? This can be disconcerting, but it could also negatively impact your business in a handful of ways. Teens, homeless people, gangs, and other groups can often loiter, and there are many risks to this, not to mention the discomfort that it can cause you, your staff, and any customers or anyone else visiting the business. It is worth looking at the ways loitering can harm your business so that you know the importance of taking anti loitering steps that will be effective. Keep reading to learn about how loitering can harm your business.
Makes People Uncomfortable
The most obvious way that loitering affects business is that it makes people feel uncomfortable. Customers may feel unsafe if they have to walk past a group of homeless people or threatening-looking teenagers, which could stop them from visiting the business and cost you money. Additionally, your staff may not feel safe when they come to work and leave, and this could have a big impact on staff performance and morale.
Lowers Public Image
Similarly, you will find that loitering can impact your public image by lowering the building curb appearance. You do not want to be known as that business where the homeless people loiter out the front, and you need to maintain building appearance to bring people into your business. This means that loitering can create public relations issues, and you will want to find ways to prevent loitering.
Security Concerns
There are security concerns when you have a group of people hanging around the business that do not have permission and have no plans of making a purchase. You will worry about theft, property damage, and other crimes that might be committed on or near your property, which is obviously a huge concern and can take up a lot of your mental energy.
How To Prevent Loitering
It is clear that loitering can impact your business in more ways than one, but what can you do to prevent loitering? There are steps that you can take that should help you to avoid a confrontation. First, you can improve lighting so that it is harder for people to conceal themselves and post warnings about loitering.
You can also use CCTV cameras as a deterrent and involve police officers, but the loitering law is vague, and you might find that people start to loiter again the next day. This is why the most effective long-term solution is to use a Mosquito device, which emits a high-frequency noise that is highly annoying and will cause the group to disperse and stop anti-social behaviour – it is a perfectly safe solution.
Loitering can be a serious issue for businesses because it can deter customers, make staff feel uneasy, and impact your brand image. It can also cause valid security concerns, but the good news is that there are always steps that you can take to resolve the situation without a confrontation.