C-Store Management Made Simple

Using time well is not easy, but if you had a set of key information, would it make sense to take a little time each day to organize? If your managers have a good daily plan, what would happen?

If they manage the important work – staffing, stocking, cleaning and customer service, then good results will follow. Those that believe managers can control store activity, know they must have a plan to succeed. Using time well is the key to growing profits. Good managers control the work in their stores. They resolve problems, fix inventory issues, open the store and schedule labor. It takes knowledge of the situation and the ability to manage the resources. Providing the key information makes managing more effective.

So what information should be provided to make it easy for a c-store manager to have a great daily plan?

Many think helping them to choose daily work items wisely, is a key to success. Providing key facts allows a manager to assess the store performance and then assign the work to get the needed results. Making it easy to see the key indicators for store results allows the store manager to focus attention and make things happen. Here is a list of things used to make decisions that help improve store performance.

C-Store Daily Plan – Prioritize, Fix & Grow

1. Same day sales – same day of week, last week or last year
2. Monthly sales – year over year comparisons
3. High-risk shrink activity
4. Underage Selling alerts
5. Top selling items
6. Items that sold last week but are not selling this week
7. Categories that are going up or down compare to the same period last year
8. Planning orders to keep hot movers in stock yet avoid excess inventory.
9. Customer feedback
10. Store inspections
11. Store maintenance items

Daily C-Store Plan – Make It Easy!

If there is a place that the most important information can be found so that the manager is not spending time gathering the information, then it becomes a quick check to decide what things need attention. Creating a list of actions and getting them done becomes a short task each day and leads to success. Knowing where to find the answers is a big part of the job. Make it easy!

There may be missing information, but having a regular scan to keep an eye on the big things helps find small problems before they become large. Of course, there are other things to manage and address. Hiring, training, new programs, holidays and sick leaves will alway keep managers busy. Making sure the regular items that need attention every day are not missed, help to keep a manager’s day less stressed and a bit more managable.

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Get the book on store accountability.

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For starters, as an essential business, it has been necessary to keep stores open. In the current market it is hard to find enough staff, even with new incentives and wage increases. Keeping good workers becomes critical to performance. Perhaps never before has staffing been such a challenge. Even worse, hiring is expensive. It takes time from the key staff that already know the most about the stores. Further, it requires even more of the experienced staff time to train. Finally, new staff introduce additional risks of mistakes or fraud.

“The challenge of retaining talented people makes rewarding great results essential.“

Slaton Whatley, Zelmo’s ZipIn.

Knowing which staff are performing well is the first step for retention. Next, identify which staff are not performing well. The list is the first step towards coaching or training. In both cases, the ability to identify staff behaviors is crucial.

One method used track behavior is upselling results by promotions. It is no accident that some cashiers consistently have higher take rates on promotions that others. Having factual data to show results provides a quantifiable basis for merit pay. Using results, top performers can be recognized and rewarded. As part of the recognition process, they can be interviewed on the tips and methods for achieving the strong results.

Ask top performer to explain their success. In this way, you recognize their good work. Further, it provides specific examples of best behaviors. Next, these practices add training and coaching material. Obviously, the best practices of the top performers are beneficial for training others. As a result,  training the staff is example based. Naturally, training is easier.

Combining objective results with common-sense management engages the staff in a positive way. Typically, HR specialist remind us: people leave managers not jobs. Naturally, managers need help to balance staff expectations and job satisfaction. As such, simple tools and data provide a low stress, high impact method to engage with staff. Hence, better results are achieved. Most importantly, c-store staff retention and upselling improves.

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Age Verification Compliance Summary

Overview

The new  regulation and compliance laws for underage sales  are here. As such, retailers must find ways of selling responsibly. Obviously, they must also make it easy for regular customer to buy what they want. That is, no one wants to be the ID czar. For example, good cashiers do not want to sell alcohol or tobacco to underage customers. Cleary, managers must balance the risk of cashiers making age judgments throughout the day rather than the stricter approach of forcing a 100% ID check policy. Full compliance means regular, well known customers may become annoyed. Hence, the challenge is too much verification and frustrated customers or too little verification and risk failure. To make things harder, some store managers argue strict ID policies take away from their marketing appeal. They are the local/community store where everyone feels at home.

What can a retailer do to satisfy customers, employees, and regulators?

The Compliance Approach – Establish Standards & Identify Staff Risks

Navigating an underage drug crisis requires balance. Managers address social-responsibility along with ID regulations. As expected, new technologies that apply AI and data-driven oversight provide new options. That is, data analytics combined with artificial intelligence track endless purchases. Thus,  every store is monitored fully. That means all activity can be review. It is easier to train staff and correct mistakes using specific examples. Hence, managers can apply the right balance of oversight with cashier decision-making.

As a result of these challenges, BandyWorks developed a method to identify stores and cashiers at higher risk of selling to underage customers. For example, the proprietary software identifies all age restricted transactions. It then generates an analysis based on specific compliance heuristics. As a result, standard behavior is established and risky events are presented. This enables a “heat map” to graphically show the store and cashier activity. Standard age verification performance across the company is  established and henceforth abnormal behavior becomes easy to identify.

Using this new tool, area and store managers receive a short list of stores and staff that need attention. It helps them stay in compliance in their c-stores. Next steps become clear as comparison data makes it easy to know who is taking short cuts, or who is skipping the ID process all together. This information can be instantly shared or delivered on a schedule to the manager in charge.

The Age Verification Analytical Process:

1. Lists cashiers with risky verifications
2. Documents actual results for regulators.
3. Tracks the verification method.
4. Counts fake birthday entries.
5. Establishes an age verification baseline.
6. Simplifies training.

Age-based Analytics Perspective

Comparing store details makes it clear which stores and cashiers need attention. As such, an area manager or regional director can find unusual stores or staff. Naturally, they  show a better way. The simple counts and lists  make questions easier and solves problems faster. In summary, managers stay in compliance with age verification in c-stores. in this manner, the process is simple to use. Best of all, engagement with cashiers is less stressful. In fact, it helps cashiers to know that you care age verification. Thus, they know you care.

Age Compliance Bottom Line

No one wants unneeded age checks. Of course, managers must find the balance.  It follows that a  consistent system using actual results provides the best way to avoid fines and loss of license. Obviously, it feels great to ensure only adults are buying.

Click here to request an analysis of Age Verification Compliance at your store

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Shrink is an everyday part of most C-Store operations. It is not always easy to control. By watching patterns of behavior by cashiers at the POS register, it is easy to pick out those that may not be working as they should. Not every void is theft and note every theft has a cash register event. Many losses, however, follow patterns that can be traced.

Inspect with Good POS Data

Most employees will work as you need with proper guidance. However, those with bad intentions willing to take advantage of trust often have a lot of experience. Many of those that do steal start with small transactions and monitor the response. A lot of the times they increase the amounts. Eventually, the amounts get so big it is noticed. Effective monitoring techniques allow supervisors to spot the trends earlier and save money and headaches. Good operators report that using the data to coach and correct makes a big difference. That is, consistent use of data to show specific actions, avoids personal issues and instead focuses the talk on the important changes that are needed. That is, good data cuts through bad behavior by stopping things that should not be happening.

Cuts Through Bad Behavior

Of course, a lot of the ‘shrink’ behavior is not really theft – just mistakes. However, if the mistakes are not corrected it becomes harder to see the ones with bad intentions. Whether the mistake is an honest one or not, keeping track and addressing problems early keeps the mistakes to a minimum and makes it easier to spot the bad actors.

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1. High theft from employees and delivery staff
2. District managers consumed with interviews or covering for missing managers.
3. Dirty stores, unfriendly service, unhappy customers
4. Silence and disregard to problems or the opposite – finger-pointing and blame
5. Pumps with bags and broken coolers that take too long to fix

Customers are buying every day. Making the most of sales opportunities happens when your managers focus staff on customer service. Addressing problems quickly and establishing work practices to avoid them make it possible to optimize c-store performance. There is a proven system to optimize c-store performance. It starts by removing the obstacles to growth.

Download the Proven Way to Remove Obstacles to C-Store Growth

Download the whitepaper with a full list of c-store obstacles and learn how high growth companies overcome them. Find ways to improve with the white paper –  “Optimize C-Store Performance – The proven way to increase sales, simplify work and make time to grow.”

C-Store Performance- Related blogs and links

You may also like a related blog regarding:

C-Store Performance – The Proven System for Growth

Top 20 Chains Own 30% of All Stores

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C-Store Growth – Use a Proven System

It takes significant resources to address all five areas of performance. The simple fact is that more stores to share the burden means more resources are available. But, the large operators were not always their current size. The successful companies were first able to optimize their store performance, grow their business, generate extra cash and free up management time to drive store growth. That is, they use a proven system for c-store growth. Operating existing stores well is the critical first step to make resources available. Without on-going and consistent same-store growth, management time is pulled back into the existing store oversight rather than new store creation or acquisition. With comprehensive management in place, fewer problems occur. Available resources catalyze new store growth.

Download – Optimize C-Store Performance

Download the whitepaper to learn more –  “Optimize C-Store Performance – The proven way to increase sales, simplify work and make time to grow.”

C-Store Performance- Related blogs

Increasing Tobacco Sales

What C-Store Managers Need to Increase Sales.

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C-Store managers often discuss accountability when stores are not performing well. Perhaps even more often when money or inventory goes missing. It is easy to become frustrated when employees do not perform as desired. When supervisors get frustrated or angry they may even think the employees have a bad work ethic or are not trustworthy.

For many of us, it can be stressful to have to address problems dealing with people. The problems typically involve bad sales or scorecard results, which means they are impacting profits or customer service. These bad results also create stress because others may be impacted and a supervisor or manager is held responsible.

Fixing mistakes by people requires a lot of time and communication. It can feel like it takes too long and requires too many repetitive instructions. When things are really bad, it can feel like staff are becoming belligerent and intentionally acting against their company. In the worst case, it may seem like fixing the problem is making it worse. Unfortunately, if bad results don’t get better, managers may decide it’s better to ignore them. In this situation managers may be told they lack accountability.

C-Store Accountability – When it gets mean

If behavior is not addressed it will likely get worse until something or someone passes a limit and the person in charge just lets their frustration overwhelm them. Once control is lost, many will act rough and hurtful. Such mistakes can make it even harder to address future problems. Once there is a history of over-reacting, others are more likely to guard themselves. The person in charge may feel guilty about their past approach. Such stressful situations can lead managers and owners to believe that no one likes accountability and the only answer to hire different people. But if the situation is not addressed, it may very well re-appear in the newly hired staff.

When C-Store accountability problems last too long and relationships become frayed, it is not uncommon to feel like those that work for you do not like you. Some may think you are mean and unfair. The staff know that getting new staff is very hard and they can ‘get away’ with almost any bad behavior as long as they stay quiet. Managers sometimes think there is nothing that can be done in these situations, leading to a feeling of hopelessness. If you reach such a point, it may be useful to take a completely different approach to the problem. Instead of looking at fixing the staff, take a look at the management process.

C-Store Accountability – Looking in the Mirror

When we look at the staff in terms of responsibility, or worse, blame, we only looking at the actors in the process. But the best place to look may be at the C-Store accountability process itself. Bob Latino describes his theory about looking first to the management process in Mistakes Were Made, But Not by Me… Facing the Mirror . Managers need to worry less about who made the decision and why. Instead, think more about how the management process or system allows that action to occur. He suggests ‘… we have to look in the mirror and face the possibility that we could have unintentionally contributed to the bad outcome. Progress occurs when we stop tolerating bad work. Openness and non-punitive environment is a key principle. He argues that we must make sure we are putting a process in place that directs the correct action. Further, it must provide an assessment that allows errors to be corrected when they occur.

Take the approach that the management has the main responsibility for problems. You may find a less defensive response from your staff. Even better, they may help to fix the management problem.

C-Store Accountability – Related topics

For more information on a related topic, please see one of our most popular blogs on the differences between consequence and punishment.

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