From Monday the 29th of June we will be restarting face to face meetings with clients but with a few restrictions and caveats in order to observe the social distance regulations and general best practice here are the headlines and the details are below;
- Appointments will be held in our office only, there won’t be any home visits.
- Appointments will be AM only, and only one per day so that we can ensure the meeting space is thoroughly sanitised between meetings.
- We ask you to observe social distancing and hygiene requests on site.
The Details
You can schedule your appointment online at our General Booking page.
On arrival at the building feel free to park wherever you wish in the car park as the building is quiet but please respect the disabled and electric vehicle bays.
Our office building, as you may know, has a reception area and restaurant those are currently closed and we do not know when they will reopen. The front doors of the building are currently locked so on arrival you will need to call us on 0191 406 6453 and we will come and let you in. (There is a shelter but if it’s raining feel free to call from the car.)
On arrival, the landlord has set out a hand sanitising station, and they ask that you sanitise on arrival. (It’s a foot pump operation)
Unfortunately because we are not in control of that station and can’t verify the quality of the sanitiser we ask you to do it again in our office 3 seconds later! Sorry!
When you enter our office rather rudely we will insist on going first so that we can maintain that social distance, please close the door using the handle which will have been sanitised before you arrive.
If you have been here before you will realise that the room has been re-arranged so that when you sit on the sofa nearest the door and we sit on the one opposite in a seated position we are 3 meters apart and standing it is 2 meters.
Refreshments will still be available and your adviser will sanitise their hands before preparing, the big difference is that they will be provided in disposable containers, paper cups for tea and coffee, cans bottles fro water and soft drinks though you may, of course, have a paper cup for those too if you wish, and we ask that you drop them in the bin yourself as you exit.
The landlord has asked that everyone leave by the rear door so that they may create a one-way system to avoid social distancing issues in the doorways. (Marked with a circle on the image below).
If you would like face masks worn during your appointment then please just drop an email ahead of time and we will observe this if you do the same. Unless requested we won’t automatically wear one as a huge part of an advisers role is listening and talking and masks make both of those things harder.
And finally all of the above might be subject to change as the situation evolves but we will let you know ahead of time.