5 benefits of a retail audit and observations app
Does managing your retail store feel like you’re drowning in a sea of to-do lists? There’s always so much to keep on top of that your job as a retail operations manager can sometimes seem near impossible. If you’re not trying to perfect the customer experience, you’re busy managing compliance, keeping stores up to standard or coaching staff to make more sales.
What’s even more problematic is that all of those tasks are of high importance. If you start letting one slip, it’ll have a knock-on effect on the others. This is why so many successful retail companies opt for a retail audit and observation app.
Unlike traditional retail audit apps, these easy-to-use platforms encompass all the tools you need to manage every element that affects your store's performance. This includes customer service, compliance, cleanliness, in-store merchandising, employee performance and sales. They take the pressure off retail ops managers by streamlining all essential tasks in one place.
In this article, we’re going to take you through the five incredible benefits a retail audit and observation app can bring to your company and why you should seriously think about investing in one.
#1 Retail audit apps make it easy to drive a consistent customer experience
The key to success in retail is to follow a consistent customer journey that has been tried, tested and proven to achieve real results. In fact, 73% of consumers say that customer experience is a deciding factor when making purchase decisions and 42% of customers would not mind paying more when offered a warm and friendly customer experience.
In order for you to build up your reputation and create a loyal customer base, you need to make sure your excellent customer service is consistent. If you don’t, you’re never going to reap the benefits. In fact, 50% of people have said they would switch brands after one bad experience.
How does a retail audit and observations app work?
A retail audit and observation app allows you to carry out quick and easy staff observations so you can map their actions to your ideal customer journey. Here’s exactly how it works.
You create a list of all the things your sales team needs to do to deliver an amazing customer experience. This could be things like greeting customers, asking for their name, offering them a seat, asking what they’re looking for or using their name in the conversation. Once you’ve compiled your list you can now upload it to the platform.
Your list will be in the form of questions and you’ll have different ways that you can collect the answers e.g. yes/no, a sliding scale, a dropdown list of answers or a numerical answer.
Your store managers can then carry out a staff observation in a matter of minutes by using the quick answering format.
At the end of the report, the app will collate a score so you can see where staff are failing to meet the tasks set out in your customer journey and how they can improve.
Their score will also form part of a bigger report which makes it easy to holistically view the performance of your business as a whole. For example, you may notice that 50% of employees aren’t greeting your customers by name.
Being able to easily see where your employees aren’t meeting expectations makes it quick and simple to rectify the issues. These small changes can make a big difference, in fact, one of our customers saw a 200% increase in sales through this alone.
#2 They make store visits efficient and effective
Store visits are a valuable time for area managers. It allows them to assess performance and work out what needs to change so they can carry on improving. However, a lot of retail businesses find that store visits are ineffective because each is left to a person's own style, process and opinion. Without proper structure, these visits can be a complete waste of time.
A retail audit and observation app gives each manager a deliberate format to follow. This will cover all the essential things you need to know to ensure your retail stores are operating compliantly, effectively and efficiently.
How do they work?
They follow the same format as the customer journey observations (mentioned above) but the questions will be tailored around the performance of the store. You might want to include questions such as what is the cleanliness of the store, is all staff training up to date, are safety measures all in place, and is store merchandising all up to date?
With all managers following the same structure, it makes it very easy to highlight areas of weakness. The app will process all the scores and develop unique insights across the entirety of your business. You’ll be able to see things like how compliant your stores are as a whole, which things are out of date and what areas you need to improve on. Having all insights in one place makes everyone's job easier and you’ll have tangible proof of the areas that need special attention.
#3 Retail audit and observation apps make your audits quicker
Having effective processes is the backbone of any successful business. Without them, your company can suffer from poor productivity, financial losses and inadequate customer service. Not only this, but you’ll find it very difficult to meet your business goals. One hugely renowned fast food chain that goes by the name of Taco Bell went from losing money to being worth $1.98 billion in 30 years just by re-engineering its core processes.
Without effective processes, your employees’ time can end up being spent in the back office, completing admin, spreadsheets and paperwork. This means they aren’t meeting the needs of the store on the shop floor.
Speed up your audits
A retail audit and observation app significantly speeds up the time it takes to carry out a successful audit. Because they allow your managers to complete checks ‘in the moment’ at the touch of a button and they collate all of your results for you, it means they can be done in a fraction of the usual time. In fact, one of our customers saw that audits were being completed four times faster than usual.
#4 They track and manage everything in real-time
In order to improve your performance in retail, it’s vital that you have a clear roadmap of where you want to go and that you can see where you’re going wrong. If you’re not closely tracking the performance of your stores and your employees you’re going to find it tough to shape performance to drive success.
An effective retail operations manager knows that every single detail makes a difference to the overall performance of a retail store and this is why you need to track as much as you can. Everything from cleanliness, safety, appearance, attitudes, behaviours and odours can affect the customer experience so it’s vital that you get them all right.
Track every last detail
Having a retail audit and observation app allows you to track every last detail making it quick and easy to see where you need to focus your attention. When you’re always busy it can be easy for things to slip through the net which can have a dramatically damaging effect on your store’s performance. However, when everything is tracked, it’s like having a hundred pairs of eyes on your stores and employees. This means you can stay updated on performance no matter where you are or what you’re doing.
See performance in real-time
Another benefit of tracking everything digitally is that all data is updated in real-time. Paper or spreadsheets only offer a snapshot in time which can mean that by the time you read them, they’re already out of date. A retail audit app gives you a bird’s-eye view offering you real-time visibility of your store’s performance. Every time an audit is carried out you’ll be the first to know.
#5 Action plans and tasks ensure that things get done
How many times have you asked for things to be done only to find out months later that they’re still on someone’s to-do list? You can carry out the best audit in the world but if no action is taken as a result of your findings, it’s essentially pointless. Retail operations managers need to close the loop by ensuring that tasks are completed in a timely manner.
A retail audit and observation app allows you to set tasks in the moment. This means you can create actions for employees whilst you’re in the middle of your audit, ensuring you don’t forget a thing.
Employees will be notified and they’ll be sent a deadline of when they need to have the task completed. You’ll automatically be alerted as to when tasks are done and any that are overdue.
So there you have it, those are the five main benefits of a retail audit and observation app. If you’re serious about increasing sales in your store click below to see the pricing or request a free trial. Join the likes of Victoria’s Secret, Virgin Media & 02, Tesco Mobile and Next who are all using our app and start achieving the results you’ve always wanted.
