OVERNIGHT IN HARVEY NICHOLS

A Fly On The Wall – The Harvey Nichols Night Fit.

The incredible hard work, project management and organisational skills of our team were recorded first hand by our photographer, Jason, on an overnight challenge in Harvey Nichols – swapping three brands in one night.

It was Tuesday October 1st and I was about to embark on my first night fit at Harvey Nichols in Knightsbridge, London. I was sitting in reception, bags packed waiting for the team to gather their stuff together. They mentioned earlier in the day that they needed to get on the road as soon as possible.

Once we were on the M1, chat about work was constant, work phones were going off every 2 minutes – my hard-working colleagues were taking it in turns to answer calls throughout the trip down, it was crazy! We arrived in central London bang in the middle of rush hour and it was 8pm before we arrived at Harvey Nichols.

'This was going to be an impressive challenge and we were buzzing to get started'

Setting up the Go-Pros in the right position proved more difficult than I first thought. Electricity plugs were hidden and I needed to charge the Go-Pros throughout or I wouldn’t get more than 2 hours recording time before they were flat. After about half an hour of digging, climbing and trying to locate some extension cables I got them all set up and the record button pressed.

'We'll do whatever it takes to go above and beyond'

Meanwhile, project and account managers were getting their hands dirty, they were helping move existing units, wrapping product, dashing around organising various things and somehow I got dragged into it – I thought I was just the photographer?! I joke though, that's how we work at Impact, no one is afraid to chip in and help the team when we need to. We're always happy to help and we'll do whatever it takes to go above and beyond and get the job done well.

Ensuring customers and staff feel safe enough to come back into store has been the immediate priority but now that many shops are open and operating safely, it’s time to think more about customer experience. How can we bring delight and joy back into shopping

Customers want to feel connected to the brands they love, so we’ve taken all our experience in the health, beauty and cosmetics sector to consider how brands and retailers operating in this space can give customers everything they crave. We can create a retail strategy for an in store experience that reflects your brand. Our retail design team will take every element of the ‘new normal’ and shape it to match your look and feel.

If you’d like to talk about how to bring back the enjoyment to every aspect of shopper experience (even the queues!) please do get in touch.

Being in Harvey Nichols when it’s closed is a strange experience. Midway through the night, it was time to head out for some food and drink supplies – I was just so glad to get out and get some fresh air even though it was raining outside. Once refuelled everyone got back to it.

Checking the Go-Pros every so often was essential as it would have been my worst nightmare if it got to sunrise and they hadn’t recorded or stopped for some reason. As each installation was completed I began to take final photos. There were sleepy eyes and tired bodies everywhere but it was a job well done.

'What was achieved was remarkable and a complete team effort by everybody involved'

I’ll never forget hearing the security guards laughing to each other when we walked in at the beginning of the night, they thought our plans were unachievable but team Impact did it, three sites taken out and three installed in one single evening.

Being on my first night fit was draining both physically and mentally and I wasn’t even doing the actual labour. What was achieved was remarkable and a complete team effort by everybody involved. I never appreciated what actually went into one of these but I do now and my respect goes out to everyone who does this on a regular basis.