UK travel retail staffing and training specialist Ethos Farm has launched a transparent face covering which aims to bring back smiles and lip reading to frontline employee and customer experiences.
MyClearMask enables the wearer to smile and communicate with the natural human facial expressions of pre-pandemic times. According to Ethos Farm, it has the potential to “revolutionise ‘new normal’ customer experiences”.
Ethos Farm CEO Sally Alington said: “We are truly excited to announce that MyClearMask has launched this week, a gamechanger for customer and employee experiences.
“Having trialled a prototype myself towards the end of 2020 in public settings such as onboard long-haul flights, in airports, shopping centres, on public transport, supermarkets and restaurant settings, I was blown away by the impact of this product.”
“Smiling is one of the simplest and easiest ways to break down barriers and start any customer or employee engagement off on the right foot” – Ethos Farm CEO Sally Alington
The masks are reusable for up to one year. They require sanitising after each use and are recyclable, with £0.09 (US$0.13) from each sale supporting the Ashantree reforestation programme in Ghana (i.e. one tree planted for every two masks sold).
Alington also pointed out the product’s “softer benefits”. “Firstly if you are a glasses-wearer you can finally enjoy steam-free lenses and for those of us who like to wear lipstick, this is definitely back on the agenda with MyClearMask.”
The MyClearMask launch, Alington said, was motivated by several factors, including a very personal one.
“As someone with a father who is profoundly deaf, I have seen how the past twelve months have impacted those with a hearing impairment,” she said. “My father lost a huge amount of his independence since the COVID-19 pandemic as he simply cannot understand communications with someone wearing a cloth or disposable mask. This has made essential shopping and opportunities to engage with other people near impossible.
“With that as a primary focus, the team at Ethos Farm has also been looking to find a way to bring smiles back to front-line customer experiences,” Alington added.
“Smiling is one of the simplest and easiest ways to break down barriers and start any customer or employee engagement off on the right foot. MyClearMask enables the wearer to do exactly that, and the application of this product is huge.”
Ethos Farm believes the mask is ideal for travel retail, bearing in mind the demand for elevated experiences across customer touchpoints and the diversity of customer audience, including multi-national and multi-cultural guests.
“Clearly the opportunity to provide the best possible service to guests with hidden disabilities and those who require special assistance is key,” Alington added.
She said MyClearMask could benefit any industry with frontline customer service employees. “Retail, hospitality, front of house reception services, schools and universities would all be very different experiences if we could see people’s faces, share smiles and follow words as people are speaking”, she added.
