C-Store operations best practices evolve with experience, technology and creativity. Retail competition is high. Therefore, smart owners and managers seek new ways to serve customers. Naturally, they want to provide new items that are desired. Obviously, they desire higher margins for higher convenience and value.
New products, faster service, cleaner shopping, home delivery, choices, and sometimes just simpler options are all included. Successful C-Store operations best practices make use of hot products as well as long term service excellence. Monitoring results, listening to customers and measuring ROI are all part of choosing the items of value.
In addition to great merchandise and service, operations have a direct impact on results. Operators that achieve high growth, stable margins and increasing loyalty operate well. Technology, management and training drive operations success. Best practices apply to technology selection. Of course, management is critical. Top performers have the same items as the bottom performers. Different cashiers in the same store have different outcomes. Stores are the same. Management and execution make a difference.
C-stores that thrive study best practices. They measure their results with POS scan data analytics and compare themselves internally and externally. The use of data is an objective way to find areas of strength. Of course, objective data will show weakness as well. The key is to know the actual status and focus energy on the priority work that drives sales and provides control.
Accountability is Better Store Performance, Not a 4 Letter Word
C-Store Operations Best Practices | Managing C-Store Change & Accountability
May 18, 2016 —
Getting better results is the goal for any c-store manager. Many use technology to drive performance in there stores. Good managers in c-stores or any business, understand that getting good results means having good accountability. Tools are critical, but a manager is responsible for results. Good managers know good accountability is better store performance. 4 …
Don’t Let your C-Store Performance Problems be a Surprise
C-Store Operations Best Practices
May 11, 2016 —
Don’t let c-store performance problems surprise. Everyone knows that work has surprises and work has problems. The trick is to do what you can to make sure those problems are not surprises. If you are looking at your c-store performance on a monthly basis, you may be well aware of that wisdom. Finding the problem …
Advantages of Owning a Small C-Store Company
C-Store Operations Best Practices | C-Store Tips
April 5, 2016 —
If you were to ask someone on the street “What would your rather own, a small company or a big c-store company?”, the typical answer would probably be “A big company”. Advantages of owning a small c-store company are many. Smaller companies have a lot of advantages that are often overlooked. First, they try different …
This is Not Your Mother’s Love
C-Store Operations Best Practices
February 25, 2016 —
One of the surprising things about the motivational impact of numbers. Share results shows staff that you care about performance. Think about it. We know business at some fundamental level has to produce a revenue. Obviously, sales generates the money to run operations. the staff control the output of a store. If you are not …
4 Ways Employees Win with Accountability
C-Store Operations Best Practices
January 7, 2016 —
There are 4 ways employees win with accountability. I am one of the “doers” in my company. I report directly to our CEO. Tracking my activities is a key part of my job. Our culture expects work to be done and done well. We know how projects are progressing. Further, we analyze how use our …
Taking Time to Sharpen Your Tools
C-Store Operations Best Practices | C-Store Technology | C-Store Tips
July 16, 2015 —
Taking time to sharpen your tools is necessary. C-stores tools include reports to drive business. Managers look at them to measure performance, make key decisions and set the path for the company going forward. When the tool that is used to guide this process is a report, it makes sense to spend a little time …
4 Questions to Ask In Order to Answer “What’s Your Coffee Cup?”
C-Store Operations Best Practices | C-Store Technology
June 22, 2015 —
Good data provide good insights. A useful measurement can be a single number that indicates the health of a days work (or any other unit of time). For example, in a c-store the inside sales traffic is key. Those spending money inside is even better. Many operators use the measure of coffee sales to judge …
The Biggest Employee Complaint
C-Store Operations Best Practices
June 19, 2015 —
A song was written, “Tell me what you want, what you really, really want.” Though this song may be a bit Pop, there is a lot of wisdom in this request. Studies show that employees want and need this feedback. The corporate benefit in doing so is multifold. Dr. Jan West, PHD, wrote an article about the biggest …
The Tyranny of OR in a Business Intelligence Environment.
C-Store Analytics & Scorecards | C-Store Operations Best Practices
May 19, 2015 —
Simplicity is an excellent method of assessing goals, designs and decisions. Every businessman understands how much easier it is for staff when things are straight-forward and clear. Simple is a friend to action and results. Sometimes, however, simple can be confused with easy. Simple is almost never easy. Albert Einstein is credited for defining the …
Accountability – Six Things to Get Right – 6 – Tracking
Accountability – Six Things to Get Right – 6 – Tracking. Tracking is last of the six items. It measure progress towards goals. Goals are measured to determine success. They expose actions and results. The assessment of goals judges the level of success. It tells us where we are and where we need to go. …
With Accountability, consequence versus punishment is the key to success. The toughest part about accountability is applying consequences when performance is not as desired. There comes a point when there has to be a negative consequence. If done correctly, such a point only comes when shared expectations were not met and the responsible party had …
Convenience Store Accountability Rules – Oh Yeah!
C-Store Operations Best Practices
May 12, 2014 —
Entering the store for coffee and a snack, a warm ‘hello’ springs from behind the counter while several clients form short lines at 3 registers. The busy store is clean and well organized. Such management does not happen by accident. Oh yeah – convenience store accountability rules make a difference. Accountability is a key component …
