Businesses are making an effort to comply with epidemiological measures at points of sale, according to a survey on how much people feel safe when going to the shops, visiting restaurants and bars and in their everyday outdoor activities.

The survey was carried out in 15 countries in Europe and Africa between October 25 and November 13. It was organised by the Mystery Shopping Providers Association (MSPA) Europe/Africa, of which the Croatian agency Heraklea is a member.

Heraklea hired mystery shoppers who made 116 visits to restaurants, bars, banks, supermarkets, retail shops, pharmacies, petrol stations and other points of sale in Croatia, the mystery shopping agency said in a statement on Tuesday.

Its mystery shoppers checked compliance with internationally recognised epidemiological measures aimed at preventing the transmission and spread of the Covid-19 disease, including sanitisation, signage, physical distancing, staff protective equipment and customer mask wearing.

The survey found that insufficient compliance with the necessary hygienic measures has an unavoidable impact on health and the economy as 9% of customers said that they did not feel safe at the place they visited, which means that one in ten customers was potentially lost, the statement said.

The survey also found that 8.5 out of 10 customers would recommend the place they visited to others.

“This is seemingly a good result, but some businesses failed to make a good impression, while we are dealing with a continued threat from the virus,” Heraklea said.

It said that despite good scores in some areas, over 30% of staff failed to observe physical distancing rules, and half of locations failed to ensure proper customer distancing.

“Customers and staff frequently ignored safety measures, so businesses need to consider what to do to enforce the epidemiological measures where they can, because signage is not always enough,” the statement said.

The survey also showed that both staff and customers should change their behaviour.

In Croatia, it is necessary to increase the physical distance between staff and customers, and it is important that businesses themselves ensure this to increase customer confidence and sales, protect future revenues and mitigate the risk of infection, Heraklea said.