Quantum Newsprint hosted by Bill Sjoblom

SPECS - Top 10 Valuable Comments for Week Ending May 27

We now are completing the SPECS report for 21 clients!  Many of you have only recently started using this report so I thought it would be helpful to provide some more examples of the most valuable comments.  Keep up the great work!

$700 sunglasses credit carrying over 1 year (Dave Fenner)

All smokeless-228 cans-you may want to check the retail $  amount-it doesn't seem to right $139073.39 (Annabelle Martin-Raymond)

Freezer walk-in doors frosted over and do not shut (Jason Clark)

Missing five floor tiles in front of end cap- floor needs to be swept and mopped (Doug McClellen)

E-cig invoice= missing mats and energy pills signed off on as being in store by cashier (Doug McClellen)

The full lottery books were not counted. They were in the safe. Asst. tried several time to get it opened.  Apparently the timer is messed up. The lottery number that I have is only what was in the bins on the counter. (Alisha Peppers)

I witnessed 2 different people walking out with merch. By the time I went to get manager they were gone. (George Plitnikas)

Cooler had 8 totes full of dairy soda and sandwich. items stacked in front of shelves hiding merchandise on shelves.  Broken cases scattered across floor and under doors. Had to down stack freezer just to enter and count it. Bkrm was in the same condition. (Steven Smith)

Rhonda is one of the best (xx) managers that I have personally met and her store is always a pleasure to count.  Cooler  doors,  floor and checkout were all turned excellent.  Great store  great manager.  A job well done to Rhonda and her team! (Chase Kisling)

Automotive products lack pricing  many of the grocery items have blank labels tobacco products not priced as well. cooler was priced properly as well as candy.  (Dimitri Dascy)

Have You Heard of Change.org?

I was recently reading Time Magazine's The Top 100 Most Influential People in the World and found an article about Ben Rattray who started Change.org.  Change.org is a site that "empowers you to create real change in your community, city or country".

We believe that building momentum for social change globally means empowering citizen activists locally. That's why anyone, anywhere — from Chicago to Cape Town – can start their own grassroots campaign for change using our organizing platform.

Your campaign can be about anything. From supporting curbside recycling programs to fighting wrongful deportation to protecting against anti-gay bullying, Change.org members start campaigns around thousands of different issues. 

Our mission is to build an international network of people empowered to fight for what's right locally, nationally, and globally. We hope you'll join us.

Check out the site and let me know what you think.  If anyone has used the site or signed a petition, I would be interested in that too!

SPECS: Questions From the Field

I recently received an email from Bryant in Syracuse with some great questions about our SPECS reporting process.  I thought others may have some of the same questions so I decided to post them here along with my answers:

What are our clients looking for?  What details are important for me to provide?

Answer: In my Showme "Why SPECS?" (if you have not watched it, check it out - there is a link on the first page of QNet) I said there were four major areas of interest to our clients:

1. Anything that impacts the customers shopping experience.  Could be positive stuff like greeting customers by name, people in uniform or a clean bathroom.  Or negative thinks like running out of coffee, gas pumps out of order or lights burned out. 
2. Training that store personnel might need.  This would include store manager paperwork, not understanding the back office computer or cashiers not knowing how to do something on the register.
3. Anything that impacts the audit results or causes shrink.  You might see someone actually stealing something or evidence that something has been stolen, credits that are not handled correctly, incorrect pricing, or even cash laying around.
4. Store conditions.  But be careful on this one.  The client does not really care if it makes our job harder.  They do care if store conditions impact #1, #2 or #3 above.  This would also include excessive damaged or unsalable product.  

Some of the questions seem a bit vague.  Why not ask more specific questions?

Most of the questions on the SPEC report are intentionally a bit vague.  If we were to ask specific questions we would perhaps need 100 questions or more and we still might not be able to cover every situation that would be important to our clients to hear about.  We want you to use your skills and experience to report observations and information that you know will be valued by our clients.  That will give QS a true competitive advantage - not a 100 question survey!

I sometimes don't really have much to report other than "the store was in good condition".  What should we say then?

This is a really important question.  When you don't have anything significant to say...don't put anything on the report.  It is better to leave the answer blank than to write in a comment like "everything was good".  Why?  Because a lot of answers like that create "noise" that makes it harder for our clients to see and evaluate the important observations.  So try to eliminate responses like "no recounts" or paperwork complete" or "not applicable".

Thanks again, Bryant!  And if anyone else has questions about our SPECS reporting process, please hit reply now and let me know! 

Rutters: The Journey to World-Class Foodservice

There is a great cover story article in this month's Convenience Store News about our client Rutters based in York, PA.  The typical Rutters store has 25% of it's floor space dedicated to food service.  In order to emphasis freshness, all food service areas are designed so that you can watch your sandwich or meal being prepared.  And all orders are prepared in four minutes or less!

The Rutters journey into food service has been a long and varied one.  In the 1940's Rutters offered hand dipped ice cream at it's dairy stores.  In the late 60's and early 70's they started offering roller grill items and sandwiches - made to order and pre-made.  In the 80's and 90's Rutters owned and operated a chain of six full size restaurants - but those were sold off by 2000.  In the 90's the chain introduced higher end coffees and coffee drinks and added up to 12 heads for fountain drinks.  At one point Rutters even tried branded fast food including Pizza Hut and Little Caesars.

Over the last seven years, Rutters has focused on it's own proprietary foodservice brand Famous Express.  The latest innovation is a wok program and they have added a high-speed oven and fryers.  And one unlikely hit is the fried pickle!

We are fortunate to work with such an innovative company like Rutters!  Thanks to all of you that continue to provide great service to this client!

Kiva: Repost and Update

About six months ago I posted a blog Check Out Kiva.  For those of you not familiar with Kiva, it is a micro-lending site.  Their vision is to "Empower People Around the World with a $25 Loan".  Yes, that's right, your $25 loan goes a long way to helping impoverished people start or expand a business or finance life changing improvement.  Last Novemeber when I posted my blog, Kiva had more than 634,000 people like you and me who banded together through Kiva to loan more than $253 million to poor people in 60 countries.  Today 764,000 people have loaned more than $311 million!

Here is how it works.  You don't even have to use your own money for your first loan.  Just click on this Special Link and you may be eligible to receive a $25 credit in your account for your first loan.  You pick the country or the type of loan you would like to fund and read a little bio about the person (or group) who needs a loan, then you loan them the money through Kiva.  The interesting thing is that almost 99% of the loans are repaid! 

So far I have made ten loans, three of them have been fully repaid and the rest are on schedule for repayment.  So you can re-lend the same money over and over again.  You can also withdraw the funds from your Kiva account at any time. 

I also set up a Quantum Lending Team on Kiva that allows us to work together and communicate about Kiva. 

I urge you to check out Kiva and join the Quantum Lending Team to make a difference - around the world!  Hope to see you soon on Kiva!

SPECS - Top 10 Valuable Comments for Week Ending May 13

We have implemented our new SPECS reporting process for 13 clients.  From time to time I thought I would post some comments which I thought were the most valuable for the previous week.  I hope that it will help some of you to better understand what to report.  If your comment is chosen to be published here, you will receive a $15 gift certificate.  Thanks...and keep those great observations and comments coming!  You are making a difference for our clients!

Shed has mouse droppings all over the place.  Mice have been eating cigarettes  (Annabelle - Providence)

Store has $423 in lottery tickets at least 3 years old.   (Miguel - Newark)

Initial purchase analysis went back to July 2011.  We needed to go back more and had trouble printing it.  (James - Albany)

Manager did a wonderful job in organizing outside shed. Major rodent issue and organization issues last time. These have all been resolved. Damaged and expired products have been returned or thrown away. Storage is now clean and easy to count.  (Dimitri - Brooklyn)

Spare cash drawer kept under counter w/cigarette cartons.  (William - Miami)

Soda delivery last night at 5pm. invoice not in system. Unknown to us till half way through.  (Darlene - Daytona Beach)

Store still has a usstb return pending from 2010.  (Dean - Canton)

Manager came in on his day off for the audit.  thanks!!!!!  (Shawn - Jacksonville)

Nine damaged watches in office sat in office for 4 years- valentine cards from 4 years still in inventory.  (Doug - Louisville)

Tobacco: $1255; please address this issue  there are out of dates from over a year ago.  (Chad - Roanoke)

 

ShowMe!

Remember the blog I wrote a few weeks ago about Khan Academy?  Well after I saw that piece on 60 minutes I have been thinking about how we might apply this concept of teaching to QS.  Then Rachell found an app for iPad called ShowMe.  It is simple to use and looks a lot like the Khan Academy teaching videos. 

So we are trying this new tool.

ShowMe is really easy to use and has the advantage of a sort of virtual newsprint.  Here is quote from an article by David J Hill on Singularity Hub:

ShowMe, like other whiteboard apps, captures what users draw on the iPad screen but it also records their voice. Creations are then stored and can be shared with others. For users, ShowMe capitalizes on the touch computing of the iPad, which feels more interactive than a mouse and keyboard, but it also provides the “pen on paper” look-and-feel. While glossy educational animations can do a lot to teach concepts, ShowMe captures more intuitive learning by showing handwritten sketches and notes as well as showing them revealed in real time. This lends itself to following along with the reasoning behind explanations that makes certain teachers so successful in helping students learn.

We currently have five ShowMe modules on QNet.  Just log on to QNet and on the first page there is a link for ShowMe.  Our current modules are:

• How to Complete a SPECS audit
• Why SPECS?
• Values Meetings
• New Store Setup
• Payroll Explained

Take a minute to check them out!  And please give us some feedback!  Love it or hate it...tell us what you think of ShowMe.

Bridging the Staff - Field Gap

A few weeks ago some folks were in the office for the New DM workshop. We got some good input from them to help us better understand the Staff - Field gap. Here is what we heard:

You like field visits from staff. But we don't do a good job of follow up after the visit. You want to know what we observed, you want to get feedback from us on what might need to be improved or changed. I also heard that whenever we pick up a QIC and count (even if we are painfully slow) you feel like we can better understand the challenges of your work.

Changing our structure often is confusing. Some of the new DM's in the workshop told us that at times they did not know who to call for help. They might not even be sure about who their Director of Operations was. We will try to communicate better when we make changes. If we don't, please call the office if you are not sure who to call and they will either answer your question or direct you to the right person.

When you are in the office for training you want to meet everyone. This one seems pretty easy to fix. It seems like a "no brain-er" that we should introduce everyone in the office to you.

Coaches and mentors can be very helpful to your development. If you would like to establish a mentoring relationship with a staff member or peer, contact Rachell Bernhardt at rbernhardt@quantum-services.com.

I am very concerned about staff's responsiveness to your needs and questions. Please let me know if we disappoint you. You can email me at bsjoblom@quantum-services.com or call me on my cell - it's on Q-Net under under the employee information search.

I want to thank the New DM group for their input. What about the rest of you? What ideas do you have to help us understand the staff - field gap?

It's Hip to be Square at Family Express!

A little over a year ago we started service to Family Express, a family owned chain of about 50 c-stores in Northeast Indiana.  In May of 2011 CSP Magazine published a great article about the chain Hip to be Square.  The headline was referring to the fact that Family Express makes it's doughnuts square -- even though it costs about a penny more for the special mold and assembly set-up to produce square doughnuts. 

Why?

Because it is a differentiator for Family Express and it represents a culture that goes against the grain in many ways.  The result is a company that is passionate about it's customers and service.  they routinely review more than 50 applicants to make one hire because they are looking for people who are interested in building relationships with customers. 

And it is paying off.  Despite the downturn in 2008 the last three years have been it's most profitable with results that put Family Express in the top 3% to 5% of all c-store chains.

Matt from Valparaiso provides most of our service to the Family Express chain.  Thanks Matt for building our relationship with Family Express!

Are You a Quitter?

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a blog Are You a Smoker?  I got responses from three people who wanted to quit smoking.  That's a great start!  I wanted to share one story (with permission) that I found very interesting and yes, inspiring...from Bryant in Syracuse:

You will be glad to know that as of today I have been smoke free for five days. I know that does not seem like a lot to most but to a smoker that is a big step.

How you may ask?

Well, I'll get to that but first I will answer why I quit. Main reason is health (the most obvious) but did you know that here in NY a pack can cost you about 8-9 bucks a pack? Lets see... that's one pack a day, seven days a week comes to 252 dollars a month... to slowly kill myself.  Not to mention the smell (in your clothes, your car, on your hands, and worst of all your home). I could go on and on but now you will learn what surprised me the most, was how I quit.

This part is going to seem odd... but effective. After the long drive home from ASDG (Keep in mind, that during this whole story I have not had one cigarette) I went straight to bed and awoke that Sunday to find myself feeling a little under the weather. At first I brushed it off as fatigue and went about my day... Monday came and I knew I had caught a little cold, all the signs were there.

For the record, however, I hardly ever get sick but when I do... its bad, so as you can imagine, that Tuesday was pretty tough.  I pushed myself through the day and slumped to the sofa where my wife began to cater to my every need (Even if it was a need I didn't desire. She has a pushy bedside manner) Morning came and ohhh... did I hurt. Classic Flu. The aches, pains, cough, and tissues were in full bloom. The biggest shocker was that my loving wife had used my phone to call Lynnette the night before to inform her that I was not going to able to make it to work. Yes, I was just as shocked as you probably are and I was little conflicted. I loved her more for what she did yet felt slighted at the same time. Luckily (for both our sake I think now) the flu had sapped me of all energy to be able to fight against her better judgement. It was at that time spent in bed that I decided to test the old saying, "it is always best to quit when you are sick".  I found this to be true. The whole time I was fighting the flu I was also going through withdrawal of smoking. Killing two birds with one stone in a way.

I don't recommend a smoker go find the nearest flu bug to quit but it helped me. Hhmmm.. first time I can recall being happy I got sick.  So far, so good. With no cravings I can go each day making the right step to a happier healthier me.

Next step is to get the wife to quit... least I can do for what she does for me.

Great story, Bryant!  It is really hard to kick this habit.  Please take a moment to send Bryant an email to encourage him -- or get his help if you want to stop smoking (bmawyer@quantum-services.com).

What about the rest of you?  Anyone else want to share how they are kicking the habit?  And don't forget my offer.  If you want to quit we want to help.  If you are on our health insurance contact BAC or Pam Hoyt for details on what our plan covers.  If you are not on our health insurance let Pam (phoyt@quantum-services.com) or me know if you want our help with a quit smoking aid.