The key to running an efficient retail business or restaurant is by conducting quality inspections regularly. We cover why inspections are necessary and what benefits they offer in a number of other posts. Overall, they promote and ensure brand compliance, allow more communication and observance between store management and headquarters, and they’re essential to maintaining a consistent customer experience.

A good inspection can be beneficial in any industry. While each industry has varying needs for inspections and store audits, visits or walks we see four common inspections that the retail and restaurant industry can implement – Operations, loss prevention, merchandising and health and safety/food inspections.

Operations 

Operations inspections most often are used to check the external readiness of your store. An Operations checklist will ask and answer questions like, are the customer facilities in order? Are floors swept and clear of debris, are items stocked and organized properly, when did the last store cleaning occur?

You should be able to answer these questions easily, if there’s confusion or no record of when tasks were completed it’s likely time to get into your stores and conduct inspections more consistently. 

While maintenance tasks are very important, an operations checklist can help you identify issues or learning opportunities for specific processes as well. By integrating a brand standards software like Action Card, you can track tasks and process compliance in real-time. Our powerful tool allows you to create a way for frontline employees to communicate and offer insight or concerns before more problems take root. 

Loss Prevention

Typically, loss prevention refers to minimizing retail shrink or a loss of goods. The most well known example of product shrinkage is shoplifting. However, there are many other aspects that must be taken into consideration as well. 

1. Administrative Error
2. Merchandising Errors & Product Labeling
3. Training
4. Lost Paperwork 
5. Employee Theft

These are the largest contributors to retail shrink. Simple mistakes make up about 21% of all retail shrinkage. Loss prevention inspections help to keep these mistakes minimal and under control while also reinforcing loss prevention policies across all of your stores. Daily loss prevention check can be easily scheduled for the end of each shift and keep communication open with store leaders. Action Card brings accountability to every level of your store and business. 

Merchandising

Unplanned purchases have reached an all time high with more than 76% of in-store purchase decisions happening at the self. This means that it’s more important than ever to have accurate pricing and merchandise standards. 

It’s common for the retail industry to have frequent quick changes in merchandising. New designs, product layouts, shelving and organization can easily create a bit of mayhem on the sales floor. Performing consistent merchandising inspections and audits is necessary to keep display visually appealing, pricing is accurate and no immediate repairs are needed.

Action Card can help keep your merchandising on point by notifying leadership of immediate needs, creating follow-ups and notifying team members in real-time when action must be taken. 

Health & Food Safety

It’s hard to imagine that health & safety checks are not a priority for every business in the restaurant or food industry, but by implementing food safety inspections your wallet, restaurant and employees will be well protected. The most effective inspections go beyond food safety by taking all aspects of a restaurant’s safety preparedness into account. Checking aisles and walkways are clear of obstacles, kitchen equipment is placed to prevent fires correctly and all safety features are in use are a few items that a quality health & safety checklist will include. 

Action Card can help your team relieve the pressure and keep your employees and business safe. Our real-time communication tools ensure every team member can keep your leadership aware of potential hazards and create a plan to correct the issue. Custom scoring, action plan tracking and trend analysis are a few features that will keep your staff ahead of the game and out of harm’s way. 

If you’re looking for ways to control and optimize your store inspections, field visits or checklists, request a free 30 minute demo of the Action Card app. Our knowledge reps will help you see how our brand standards software can bring accountability, efficiency and communication to every business.