While we understand an operator’s pride and commitment to excellence, we would be inclined to give the following advice to anyone disappointed with the outcome of their last visit:  1) Don’t sweat the score and 2) Don’t waste the opportunity.

There is no such thing as a perfect visit in retail.  Turnover happens.  Weather happens.  Human errors happen. Even the best operators let a thing or two fall through the cracks, occasionally.  Getting a less-than-perfect score is not, in and of itself, a grave concern nor particularly unexpected.  The best ball players in the world don’t throw the perfect pitch 100% of the time, neither do the best retail operators.

Team calibration plays a certain role in this and so does managing expectations.  Let us remember that the very purpose of a retail audit is not in fact to score, but to improve the store’s sales and bottom line.  Didn’t get a perfect score?  Were the store’s presentation, merchandising and service standards perfect in every way?   Perfection is a journey, not a destination.

So what’s the opportunity?  For a district manager, the opportunity is to hold his/her stores to the highest standards.  Anything less is unfair to the brand, the franchisee and the customers.  For a franchisee, the opportunity is to uphold and execute on those standards.   So don’t sweat a low score.  A low score can happen on any journey to greatness.  Focus on the opportunity, the end goal and a chance to do better next time.

At its core, the action plan is a vehicle for improvement.  Success in retail hinges largely on execution. The action plan is, by design, execution.  The action plan is an opportunity to apply corrective actions to problem areas.  It designates an individual responsible for rectifying each problem and a target date.  It allows district managers and store staff to work collaboratively, view each other’s notes and add their own.  It allows for corrections to happen without incurring large time and labour overheads.

Building efficiencies into the action plan generation and follow-up is critical to the success of the field audit program and the return on investment of such a program.  Given the importance we place on the action plan, it should come as no surprise that, for every store visit,  the organization saves $73 when using Compliantia with much of the savings attributable to action plan efficiencies.

The action plan is the continuation of the visit, the key to getting resolution and closure and a prime area for generating time and labour savings and greater return on investment.  If each  problem area is an ailment, the action plan is the cure.  Don’t leave the store without one!

As a service to the retail industry, Compliantia created and moderates two LinkedIn groups, specifically aimed at retail professionals.

We take our membership very seriously and vet all requests to ensure every member is a retail operations professional. Our focus is on quality, not quantity. We look for respected and experienced thought-leaders in the retail marketplace. Spammers need not apply.

We take content very seriously. Feel free to ask questions and help others with their questions. Commercial content is allowed provided it is relevant to a retail operations audience and lends itself to group discussions. Spam and personal attacks are not allowed and result in the immediate removal from the group.

Retail Audits and Store Walks: This group is about retail operations professionals helping one another. It’s about compliance with operations and merchandising standards. It’s about health and safety, loss prevention and driving retail performance, sales and customer satisfaction in a multi-unit retail environment.

District Managers, Regional Managers & Operations Professionals : This group is about retail operations professionals helping one another. We work with District Managers every day and understand the breadth and depth of skills needed. A district manager is a financial advisor, a coach, a consultant, a trainer and at times a disciplinarian. A district manager needs to communicate, educate, inspire, assist, verify and enforce. A district manager is the liaison between the stores and head office, the voice of head office at the stores and the voice of the stores at head office. It is a pivotal role, the backbone of the operations apparatus. This group is about district managers and what district managers do.

What is the purpose of calibration?

There are two facets and purposes for calibration: calibrating the form and calibrating the team.

Calibrating the form entails selecting, grouping and ordering what goes on the form.  This is often spearheaded by the operations team with input from other departments (merchandising, marketing, human resources, loss prevention, etc…).    Form items should be sufficiently clear and detailed while avoiding repetition.  The form should provide a good coverage of all areas of interest to the business and be laid out in such a manner as to optimize the district manager’s time doing the visit.  While a lot of this can be done at head office, there is simply no substitute for “hands-on” time in the field.  Giving a select group of district managers access to the form, even if unfinished, allows head office to fine tune and calibrate the form with real-world feedback.  It is often at this stage that unclear copy, repetitive standards or inadequate ordering are noted and addressed.

Calibrating the team is a type of audit-related training that ensures all standards are evaluated using a consistent and fair scale.  While the judgment of a district manager is tremendously important to the success of the audit program, consistency in the rating and grading are equally important.  Calibrating the team entails training operations personnel to have a shared understanding of the operating standards and how to rate and handle deviance.   Calibrating the team also means demonstrating where the definition of the standard ends and where the district’s manager’s need  to make a judgment call begins.   Dealing with people is not always as black and white as checking off a box on an electronic form.  The operations team needs to know how to handle sometime sensitive and confidential personnel issues for example.

What are some of the benefits of calibration?

In the old days (before real-time electronic tools like Compliantia existed), finalizing the form often meant printing a large and costly batch.  Changing the form would be disruptive and expensive as another batch had to be printed and distributed.  While this is no longer true with Compliantia (changes can be applied in real-time and at no cost), calibration still ensures the form is finalized by the time the program or operating period begins.  A calibrated form reduces confusion and facilitates the dissemination of operating standards as well as adoption.

Calibration also ensures standards are rated fairly and consistently.  Consistency breeds trust with the overall score and lends itself to aggregate reporting, comparisons across users, regions and time frames.

What are some best  practices for calibration?

1. Start with a small group of users and stores.  The idea is to get feedback early and often before you deploy to a larger group.
2. Test-drive the form in the field!  A form may look fine at head office but may prove to have some severe shortcomings when you actually conduct a store visit.  An inefficient form may cause the district manager to have to step back or repeatedly jump around the store to complete the visit.
3. Narrowcast.  A Compliantia form can be narrowcasted (restricted) to certain stores and/or individuals.  Don’t bet the farm on an unproven form, run a small pilot and calibrate it until you are satisfied with the outcome.

The modern world runs on structured data.  Structured data lets us know what works, where and when.  It gives unequivocal standard metrics that let us compare apples to apples.  Structured data offers guidelines that are easy to follow.  It is a standard contract between the brand, the district manager and the franchisee that documents, in no  unequivocal terms, what is expected.  Structured data goes further: it allows us to spot trends and opportunities.  It allows us to run reports that aggregate and rank performance according to standard, consistent and fair metrics.  Computer systems and databases have enabled us to have and use structured data in this manner and I think few tasked with managing a multi-unit retail operation would abandon structured data.

For all its virtues, structured data mostly tells us what the problem is, not necessarily what the solution should be.  This is where experience comes in.  This blog has often argued that the experience of a district manager is absolutely critical to the success of a franchise-based retail operation.    A heuristic approach leverages the district manager’s experience and understanding of each store and takes a less formal approach to problem discovery and solving.  It requires the district manager and franchisee to have an honest, open and collaborative two-way conversation.  Heuristics shine when the path to the corrective action is unclear and/or heavily dependent on the franchisee’s specific situation.  Again, few people would argue against the benefits of heuristics.

For all the benefits of heuristics,  heuristics alone can be dangerous.  Heuristics are hard to scale, hard to measure and hard to manage.  How are your stores actually performing?  Are all district managers performing at the same level?  Are your stores consistently getting the help they need?  Where are you strong, weak or trending down?  Can you even tell?  Without structured data to guide the heuristics and provide some assurances of minimum standards compliance, a retail business is putting its reputation at stake and has no way of ensuring the consistent execution of retail standards across the chain.  Which brings us back to where we started.  We believe performance is achieved using systems AND people, metrics AND collaboration, structured data AND heuristics.

1. Clarity.  Define and describe standards clearly and unequivocally.   This point seems obvious but is often overlooked by overly succinct, sometime cryptic, copy used to define operational standards.  The description of the standard should be long enough to clearly and unequivocally describe what constitutes success, state the objective and identify the facets/components that make up the standard.

2. Context.  Put the standard in context.  Explain why it’s needed and why it’s important.  Explaining “why” a standard is important helps raise awareness at store level and may in and of itself, increase compliance.

3. Illustration.  A picture is worth a thousand words, illustrate your standards!  Most people are visual.  Why you should be as clear as possible in describing the standard, the use of a “best-practice” picture, attached to each standard, goes a long way towards visualizing the end goal and achieving standards.

4. Access. Make standards accessible and widely available!  Standards are useless unless they are disseminated and reviewed frequently by store, operations and head office personnel alike.  An old dusty standards binder does not help you achieve compliance; a living and actionable store audit does.

5. Participation.  Get store managers and assistant managers to participate in the review of the visit.  Get their input and feedback.  Most operators are keen to drive their business forward, their participation is absolutely critical to the success of their business and the brand.

6. Action Plan.  Use the action plan as a vehicle for improvement.  Retail is all about execution.  An electronic checklist and action plan are means to an end.   The action plan is an opportunity to apply corrective actions to problem areas.  Generating the action plan should be a) automated and b) weaved into the workflow of the district manager’s visit.   If each  problem area is an ailment, the action plan is the cure.  Don’t leave the store without one! More on the action plan…

7. Continuous Learning.  Treat each and every visit as an opportunity to dispense “continuous training”. Learning and training, particularly textbook learning,  can be abstract, a store visit isn’t.  A store visit is measurable, actionable, field training and a unique opportunity for store and district management to observe, correct and train.

8. People and Tools.  Realize you need both great people and great tools.  Rely on software tools to do what software does best: record, calculate and aggregate.    Rely on people, in this case your operations group, to do what people do best: provide judgment and insights based on experience.

9. “Be cruel, to be kind” (Hamlet, Act 3; Scene 4, William Shakespeare).  The district manager walks a fine line.  If he is too harsh, he risks jeopardizing the relationship and the lines of communication with the store which is essential to its success.  If he is too lenient, he risks overlooking factors that will limit the long term success of the store.  This balance is notoriously difficult to achieve.  When in doubt, remember the aforementioned quote.  In order to be kind to the store, to look out for its long term success, the district manager may need to be “cruel”,  set high expectations and hold the store to the highest standards of execution.

10. Repeat.  Standards change.  Turnover happens.  In retail, compliance is an ephemeral end-goal.  It is never “achieved” nor set in stone.  Review your standards at least once a year,  look for trends, repeat unacceptables and be prepared to repeat the cycle of visits, corrective actions and continuous learning all over again.

Related post: How to Build A Field Audit Checklist

Think about metadata. Metadata is data about data, that is to say, information about the store visit.  Customers who use Excel or Word-based forms typically expect used-entered fields such as store number,  completed by, date,  etc… Metadata is largely automated with Compliantia.  The store pick-list is built specifically for each user, the date is selected using a calendar widget and the district manager is derived from the login.

Group items into sections. Whenever possible, sections should be laid out to match the natural flow of a visit (a district manager physically walking the store).  Start with the exterior (the parking lot if applicable, the window in a mall location) and work your way in, around the store and into the back of the store.

Think about “non applicable”. Certain sections or items are not applicable to all locations.  For example “Washrooms” is generally not applicable to mall locations and not all locations have drive-thrus.  Compliantia allows you to disable entire sections and items at certain stores according to the store type.

Make sure your form has adequate coverage. While individual situations vary, you should address some or all of the following areas, each represented as a section:

1. Store exterior
2. Presentation and Merchandising
3. Products and Preparation
4. Service and Speed of Service
5. Personnel and Training
6. Equipment
7. Security, Cash Handling and Loss Prevention
8. Drive-thru (if applicable)
9. Promotions
10. Back of the Store and Inventory
11. Washrooms

Avoid large sections. Instead of creating a small number of large sections, consider creating a larger number of small sections.  This helps with data-entry on smart phones and also renders the reporting more granular and meaningful.

Set the score carefully.  Assign points according to the relative importance of each criterion.  While it is easy to think of everything as important (and if a criterion is not important, it should not go on the form), some items are often more important than others, even critical to the continued success of the business.  Health and safety issues come to mind.  Assign points and make use of the “Critical” flag accordingly.  A critical item sets the value of the entire section to zero, regardless of other items, if found non-compliant during the visit.  Don’t worry about keeping track of the total score.  Compliantia automatically calculates the visit score and a score by section for you as the visit takes place.

Be specific, descriptive and visual.  Standards should be clear and unequivocal.  Don’t use vague words like “recent” or “good”.  For example instead of saying, “Recent staff meeting held”, consider using,  “Staff meeting held less than 5 calendar days ago”.  If referring to temperatures or lapsed times, give actual numbers. Clearly spell out what the standard is.  If it takes one paragraph to define the standard, use one paragraph.   If you have one, attach a best practice photo to an item to illustrate the standard; a picture is often worth 1,000 words and more likely to make an impression than words alone.  Compliantia allows you to attach “best practice” pictures and supporting documents to any form item and section.

Think about visit frequency. The frequency of district manager visits (at least visits involving the retail audit checklist) seems to vary greatly from one organization to the next.  On one end of the spectrum, some organizations (including some big names in the food service business) tend to conduct as many as one visit every other week.  Other organizations may only conduct one visit per quarter.  Some organizations use a hybrid model.  They use a standard form to capture their core standards (say twice a year) and create a number of smaller forms for visits throughout the year, sometime tying these visits to seasonal programs.  The Compliantia platform allows an organization to create any number of forms, each with its own start and end date.  Compliantia also supports self-audits which can be used as a stop-gap measure until a district manager visit can be performed.

Discuss it with your Operations team. Discuss the form with your district managers, owners and managers.  Solicit their input and feedback.  A retail checklist is as much an audit tool, as it is a training vehicle.  Define the standard, communicate and measure it.  You will meet the standard and achieve your goals.

Related post: Ten Ways To Achieve Compliance

Just like QR codes can uniquely identify products, they can uniquely identify locations.  What if you could use QR codes to simplify and improve customer service? You can.

Compliantia now generates a unique QR code for each store under management.  Scanning this QR code (which can be printed and displayed in-store) takes the user to a mobile-optimized page asking the customer to “Tell us what you think” (complaint, feedback or general info) about this particular location.  The process is both fast and easy for the customer.  Upon pressing “Send”, the customer is thanked for their feedback and a ticket is automatically placed in the pending queue for a customer service representative to review at head office.

Using QR codes and smartphones for customer service in a multi-unit retail environment goes well beyond time savings and process efficiencies.  It is a strategic differentiator that allows a multi-unit retail brand to engage with customers in a very simple and effective manner.

To find out more about Compliantia’s use of QR codes and smart phones, scan the QR code above or visit our product web site.

Concept:

The process of retail auditing (also known as store visits and store walks) can be a daunting, manual task. Some organizations have devised their own process, typically a “checklist” of some sort, usually completed in Microsoft Excel, which can be time-consuming and inefficient. Designed to cut the time and expense of sending a district manager to a store, Compliantia is an “out of the box” retail audit and task management software as a service (SaaS) that runs on the web, smart phones and tablets. The service is designed to help multi-unit retailers and manufacturers achieve store-level compliance with operational standards, guidelines and best practices. The Compliantia solution is used for store walks, visits and evaluations, and helps track and optimize customer service, health & safety and in-store merchandising.

Team:
Canada-based Compliantia was founded in 2009 by President Fabien Tiburce, who began his career in the merchandising department of Canada’s largest supermarket chain, National Grocers. Tiburce has designed custom retail software systems for some of North America’s largest retailers since 1994. Compliantia is a wholly owned subsidiary of Betterdot Systems, Inc., established in 1999.

Market Relevance:
Operational compliance helps protect the brand from inconsistent execution at the store level. It optimizes the effectiveness of in-store merchandising programs by ensuring they are implemented consistently. It offers shoppers a more consistent and predictable experience in the store.

Company employees can use the solution to search and view visits and run real-time reports. In addition, District Managers can use Compliantia to perform web and mobile retail audits, and create and follow-up on action plans. Store Owners and Franchisees can approve visits, view visit history and trends, while System Administrators can manage locations, users and forms online and offline.

Delivery:
Compliantia is a fully hosted and managed cloud-based SaaS solution. Mobile clients are available for the BlackBerry and Android platforms. The Compliantia application can be integrated with a retailer’s store list and organizational hierarchy using a web interface and/or Excel-based import API. Compliantia was engineered for rapid deployment and ease of management, and is designed to be up and running in a matter of hours.

Head Office

• Lower total cost of ownership than Excel™ and paper-based visits
• Increase same-store sales 1%
• Increase in-store merchandising ROI
• Protect the health & safety of your customers and employees
• Increase customer satisfaction

Regional Vice-Presidents and Directors

• Track and measure in-store execution…in real time!
• Track the performance of programs, regions, stores and individuals
• Complete oversight and collaborative workflow involving the district manager and store owner
• Real-time web and mobile-based task management.  Get it done and see it through completion!

District and Regional Managers

• Simplified, time-saving data-entry on any device (smart phone, laptop and tablet)
• Around-the-clock access to historical performance data, at any of your stores, anywhere, on any device.  View repeat unacceptables,  trends and store-to-district comparisons.
• Utilize performance data to inform, engage and advise franchisees on driving their business and the brand forward
• No more paper, reduced emails, fewer follow-up phone calls! Free up your time to do what you do best: help the stores!

Franchisees and Managers

• Around-the-clock access to historical performance data anywhere, on any device
• Easy-to-use reports showing historical best and worst performing areas, trends and notes from all prior visits

Customers

• Consistent execution of service, merchandising and health & safety standards improve the customer experience, reduce customer complaints and improve same-store sales.
• Customers have a way of thanking stores that are well run…they come back!