Formal field visits are a systemized way to track and improve performance, at least they should be. When conducted properly, store reviews make real, bottom line impacts. They fortify the brand, increase customer loyalty, and mandate standards and quality. All that sounds great right? How long has it been since you updated and upgraded your store review process? Reviews aren’t a set it and forget it action item, that is unless improvement and performance aren’t of concern.

Collaboration

By incorporating collaboration into your store review process, you’re creating a learning opportunity. Instead of simply receiving an email with action items, the store manager should be part of the entire process. They should be given context behind the information gathered at a store reviews. Giving context increases accountability and encourages discretionary effort. Move away from “Do it this way”, to “This is why we do it this way”.

Follow Through

A really common issue we found with most store reviews is the lack of follow through. If it’s not thoughtfully built into the process, action items fall through the cracks, making the review process one of the more expensive wastes of your organization’s resources. There should be a workflow in place that makes follow through easy to manage and track.

Customization

Your brand is unique, it’s what keeps customers coming back and telling their friends. The finer points involved with your store review process should be tailored to your organization. More than customized questions, your review tools should work with your organization, not the other way around. Tailored workflows and robust functions are needed instead of the paper-based, disjointed way we see store reviews handled.  

Recognition

In order to truly drive success, you have to be able to support and recognize the faces behind that success. Reviews and employee recognition should go hand in hand. If you want the people building and protecting your brand to continue to do so, you have to encourage those actions and attitudes. Does your review process currently work in tandem with your employee recognition initiatives?

Technology

Customization, tailored workflows, seamless collaboration and a built-in relationship between success and recognition, it all sounds great, but it certainly doesn’t happen in spreadsheets and on clip boards, it happens on dashboards. Traditionally, the field visit process has been paper-based. We suggest moving the process from paper and spreadsheets, to smart devices, where cloud-based collaboration and automatic work queues can drive and track success.

Would you like to know more about the technology that can help fortify your brand through optimized field visits? Let’s connect. .