Last week I got this email from Alisha, an Audit Supervisor in Roanoke. It just goes to show that you CAN impact store conditions by working with the store manager and providing honest feedback in a caring way.
I just wanted to send a quick email. I have been working with Quantum for almost 5 months now. I absolutely love my job, and the people that I work with. When I first started, our division was not doing well at all. I really didn't know what to think. I am still confused on why we have trouble keeping people here. But anyway. Stores are getting a lot better. Some of the managers even forward to seeing us come in to audit their stores. It makes the day so much better when we see those people!
I wanted to share a bit of information with you. Sheetz is my least favorite client to work with, because of it being a scan audit, instead of retail. There is one store in particular, here in Roanoke that I had audited last quarter. I had left that store saying that it was by far the worst Sheetz that I had audited. And it was kept at that status until this past Thursday. I had been dreading going to that store all week because I knew what was in store for me as an auditor.
Jimmy and I were blown away. As he was uploading the store, I was peeking in the coolers and the beer cave to see what I was up against this time. All I saw was that it was organized. As I went into the cooler to start counting, I was speechless. I didn't know which way to turn or who to call. All I could do was smile.
The manager had been working all morning, by herself, to get this store organized. It was unbelievable. She had the product in perfect rows. Nothing was mixed. Not only that, but she had turned the item in the front so that the bar code was facing outward so that I could save time by not having to turn every item around which is what i usually have to do.
Jimmy then came and got me a few hours later and showed me some things in the back room. She had opened boxes of new product and had it to where we could see what it was and so that the bar code, was again, facing outward.
All of this was unbelievable. She had told us that it was an apology from last time. I'm not quite sure what was left as a comment to that store last quarter, as I'm not the one that supervised. She did say that it would be that nice from now on, though.
This was the first time, outside of Quantum, that I have felt appreciated and respected as an auditor. I was so happy. It felt good to know that people do care. This manager made my day on Thursday. She and I had chatted for a bit about the audit process. I wish that other managers were as understanding as she was. The more a store is organized, the better the numbers are. Some managers imply that they don't have the man power, nor the time to organize a store for an audit. This I do not understand, since they know ahead of time that we are coming.
Any who, I just wanted to share that bit with you. There are plenty of PMIs in our division that are coming along in bettering their stores. I can only dream that all of them would be as great as what this store.
Thanks, Alisha, for sharing this story. I think it will be an encouragement to others!