Most retail task management tools provide information about store conditions, but are they helping you solve problems as efficiently as you would like?
If not, you’re probably using a “traditional” task management solution. For some retailers, that’s a pencil-and-paper checklist. For others, it’s a spreadsheet. Either way, field teams are entering data manually and exchanging multiple emails, texts or phone calls with managers about store survey findings. By the time anyone solves a problem uncovered in the survey (if they solve it at all), there are already new problems to address. To speed up this process, you need answers:
- Who is in possession of store data?
- How and with whom is store data being shared?
- Are store teams really solving problems – where’s the proof?
Most task management tools are unable to answer these questions, and execution suffers as a result. Thankfully, there’s a better way. AccuStore makes your store data actionable, adding a much-needed new dimension to traditional retail task management methodologies.
Efficient communication = better performance
Imagine a district manager just emailed you a collection of spreadsheets containing survey data for 30 stores. There’s an entry for every item on the checklist, which means the survey team did its job.
However, it took days for store teams to take note of problems, enter data into a spreadsheet, and send that data to the district manager, who then needed to collate it and pass it on to you.
You’re in the midst of a new promotion and need assurance that there is adequate shelf space for the inventory you just ordered. It looks like 22 of those stores don’t have enough unoccupied fixtures to accommodate the promotion. Will it be possible to communicate the urgency of this problem to each store in time for the big marketing blitz?
Unfortunately, your task checklist failed to inform an extremely important decision: your inventory plan. Although every task was completed, the process you followed made it impossible to communicate efficiently and execute in a timely manner.
The AccuStore platform gives you the missing piece – collaboration – that will help you support your stores more effectively. With AccuStore, field teams use mobile devices to collect store data and complete your checklist. This data is then sent to you automatically, so you can work directly with management and staff to solve problems quickly.
In short, AccuStore will help you ensure that every store is prepared for that upcoming promotion.
That’s not where the advantages end, though. You still have to modify your new merchandise order to suit sales floor realities in those 22 stores. How do you know whether direct store delivery (DSD) vendors followed through on your order changes, or if employees are stocking the merchandise according to the new plan?
AccuStore enables any user to capture photos of store conditions. Those images appear on your screen in real time, so you can verify that the change has been made and hold DSD or employees accountable for noncompliance.
A new dimension to retail decision-making
Mobile technology and real-time communication provide the missing links between traditional retail task management tools and effective execution. With AccuStore, you’ll finally address the “what’s next?” part of data management and keep staff focused on problems that impact customers.
As a result of these efficiency gains, you will reduce indirect spend and increase financial growth across your chain. Contact us to learn how you can access up-to-date, accurate store data and streamline task management at your stores.