Given the rapid spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19) we wanted to reassure you about the steps we’ve been taking to ensure we stay open for business and how we’re looking after the welfare of our team at Smiffy’s, and protecting our customers.
As a family business, we take the welfare of all of our staff very seriously. R H Smith continues to adhere to and follow all the latest UK Government advice about Coronavirus (COVID-19). We are currently practicing home-working for many of our sales and administration team. We are following government advice on self-isolation, pro-actively sending to work from home (for those in at risk groups) and offering the opportunity for those that wish to do so, to work from home.
Our business is well prepared to cope with the various possible effects of the virus due to continual investment in our IT and telephone infrastructure over the years. This means our sales and administration teams have the flexibility to work from home without compromise to data security (GDPR), by connecting our phone systems to staff remotely. We will continue to provide the Smiffy’s customer service experience with no compromise to security or quality, We are confident we can cover calls and queries across all departments during this crisis period, whether working from the offices or home.
Our fantastic Warehouse team can’t work from home - so it is business as usual, as far as possible. Additional measures are in place to minimise contact between all teams and locations. With immediate effect, all Shipments from Neuss, Germany, are suspended. All future orders and shipments to Europe will continue to be dispatched out of the UK facility until further notice.
Additional rigorous sanitation measures have been undertaken at all office and warehouse locations (including UK, Netherlands, Germany, Australia and China) to ensure the environments are cleaned thoroughly and frequently, and that all team members are following government advice on necessary hygiene protocols, practicing safe working and social distancing and regular hand washing. We have also introduced infra-red thermometers as a part of all our office and site risk assessment routine.
See here for further information on how our nominated carriers are protecting staff and customers and for local delivery updates:
UPS: https://www.ups.com/gb/en/service-alerts.page?id=alert1
TNT: https://www.tnt.com/express/en_gb/site/alerts.html
Royal Mail: https://www.royalmail.com/coronavirus?iid=HP_M1_CORONAVIRUS
This is a challenging time for so many people globally, and we take the health and wellbeing of our staff and customers, very seriously. But also that of the wider global community. We are all in this together! Please keep in touch, even just for a friendly chat, in these increasingly strange times.
Please keep safe!
Signed
The Peckett Family and the team at Smiffys
See also