The importance of proper acoustic design of fit-outs cannot be underestimated. Once a fit-out is completed it can be very difficult and/or expensive to correct acoustic defects. Factors that determine whether a fit-out has good acoustic design or not includes the level of acoustic separation and privacy that is achieved, whether there is a good level of speech intelligibility that allows staff, clients and/or patrons to communicate easily, whether the build-up of unpleasant background noise (such as that frequently encountered in shopping centre food courts) is controlled and whether sounds that could annoy or distract are minimised. Good acoustic design contributes towards improving productivity of staff and encourages patrons to spend more time in a venue, which has the potential to translate into additional sales and profit.