Quantum Newsprint hosted by Bill Sjoblom

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!

A Great Idea From Karen...

I heard a great idea from Karen, our DM in St. Louis. On Saturday morning at the most recent New DM Karen shared that she provides recognition once a month to a store that has done something noteworthy. Sometimes it is for improvement in store conditions or audit prep and sometimes it is for outstanding service to their customers.

The twist?

She sends the recognition to the clients corporate office, not to the store. A simple letter or handwritten note will work. Or you could go to Staples or Office Max (or on line) and make up a simple certificate. Karen stated that client management likes this approach and they often share the recognition with all the folks in their organization.

Thanks, Karen! Great idea. Has anyone else used this successfully? What other creative ideas do you have to recognize your clients?

It's a Cell Phone World

Yep, like 'em or hate 'em cell phones have impacted almost every facet of our lives.  They are arguably one of the greatest inventions of our times or a curse!  The reality is that cell phones are like any other tool - they can be used to make our lives better or can be a constant distraction and even a safety issue. 

I want to take a minute to review our cell phone guidelines.

• Your cell phone should be on mute while you are working.  Unless you are expecting an emergency call, you should not answer phone calls or texts while on the job.  It is unprofessional and a distraction.  This includes meetings in your division and the corporate office.
• Don't use your cell phone to make calls or text  or access the internet while you are driving.  Research indicates that you are four times more likely to be involved in an accident if you are using a mobile phone.  Police in some areas are now checking cell phone records when investigating fatal and serious crashes.  If you need to make a call or answer a call while driving, pull off the road to a safe area.
• Avoid unprofessional unavailable messages.  You represent QS and you never know when a client or a QS staff member may need to call you.
• We are not allowed to take pictures in our client's stores without permission of the client.

Just a reminder as we start the new year! 

Growth With United!

I am pleased to announce that QS is now the exclusive provider of audit services to United Refining - Kwik Fill stores!  Part of this new business was serviced by RGIS and part of it is new service to United's Limited sites which are small kiosk locations.  We added 72 new audits per month. 

This additional business resulted in QS opening a new division in Erie, PA and Jon is the new DM!  Welcome, Jon!

This is a good example of how providing great service to current clients can help us grow QS.  United made this decision based on the outstanding service provided by our folks in Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Binghamton. 

A special thanks to each of our United - Kwik Fill service providers!

You CAN Impact Store Conditions

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!

FAPBA?

We have a new type of audit called FAPBA.  The acronym stands for Financial Audit with Price Book Accuracy.  We are still working on a better name, but this type of an audit is a sort of blend of a financial (retail) audit and a scan audit.  

One of the things that has changed in the c-store industry is that pricing is becoming more and more complicated.  Many stores don't price all of their product.  In some chains, the price of beer, cigarettes, soft drinks and dairy products are different in almost every store.  It is becoming almost impossible to memorize all the prices and it is impractical to carry a scanner to look up prices.  

FAPBA involves scanning every item to make sure we get the price and department right, then we simply enter the quantity.  Our new software program then generates a retail comparative report just like a financial audit.  

This is a good solution for clients that are not ready to go to a full item level audit but still want price book accuracy.  We are using this program to audit Byrne Dairy in the Syracuse area and have been testing it for beer and other categories in Sprint in Mississippi.   

Hess and Chevron Sign Long Term Contracts

I am pleased to announce that QS has just reached agreement with Hess and Chevron to extend our service relationship for three more years.  We are honored that Hess and Chevron have recognized the value that each of you have been providing.  

We have serviced Hess for almost 25 years and Chevron for 12 years.  

Thanks to all of you that audit these two accounts!  Let's continue to provide the best service possible and always be on the look-out for ways to increase our value!

How do you add value for your clients?

The Peak Group was in the office last week and one topic of discussion was "How do you add value for your clients?"  Good service companies are always looking for new things they might be able to do for their clients.  It could be as easy as helping to train store managers on how to get ready for an audit, or maybe alerting the supervisor if you see things in the store that are a high theft risk.  

Here are some of the ways the Peak Group is adding value:

• Turning shelf tags sideways (or using a different color tag) to alert the store manager when pricing is incorrect.
• Contacting the supervisor when stores are not writing up transfer slips when product is moved from one store to another.
• Attend zone meetings regularly to address concerns about audit issues and get good feedback about our service.
• Watch for signs of tampering on the fuel dispensers.  Some of our clients are using a security tape that indicates if the dispenser has been opened without a key.
• Look in the bathroom trash for any discarded product.  We have also found beer stashed in the ceiling tiles above the bathroom.  

I would like to hear from you...what do you do to add value for your clients?

New Business with United!

 

I can't tell you how happy I am to share this news with you!  Starting November 1, we will become United's (the stores are branded Kwik Fill) "sole audit service provider."  This means that we will be adding 70 limited sites (these are mostly kiosk locations) and 60 new full size stores.  With United's current frequency model, this will result in 72 new audits per month.

We also plan to open a new division in Erie, PA. 

Special thanks to Lynnette, Karla and all of the service providers for United!  We got this business because of the great service you have provided to United over the years!

Remember my previous blog post that stated our goal of adding 50 audits a month?  Well, this meets that goal for one and a half months!

 

What's Good Enough Today Will Not Be Good Enough Tomorrow

That's a quote from Stan Sheetz, the CEO of Sheetz.  The company now has almost 14,000 employees, does $4.5 billion in sales and plans to open it's 500th store by 2016 (they currently have about 400). 

I like this motto - it fits with "Pleased But Not Satisfied" which I talked about in an earlier blog post.  I am wondering how we can improve our client service?  What ideas do you have about giving our clients more of what they want and less of what they don't want?  What are the one or two things we could do differently - either here in the corporate office or out in the field at the audits? 

I am curious.  How will we change to be "good enough tomorrow"?