ATLANTA -- The surprisingly coveted title of cleanest restrooms in the fourth annual CSP/Service Intelligence Mystery Shop goes to RaceTrac Petroleum. The 254-store chain beat out Casey's General Stores by a sliver0.7%to take the top rank.
First off, we have great people working in our stores and with field management, Mark Reese, vice president of operations for RaceTrac, Atlanta, told CSP Daily News. They're smart, dedicated and hard working.
RaceTrac uses an external source to conduct weekly mystery shops of its own, employs an internal audit using a supervisor-run check-list and provides a rewards program to encourage maintainance of store-level cleanliness.
This year's competition was extremely close with regards to restrooms, but RaceTrac posted the highest percentage of 90.6% to claim the title. Ankeny, Iowa-based Casey's General Stores finished second at 89.9%, with San Ramon, Calif.-based Chevron Corp.'s ExtraMile stores finishing third at 89.3%. The average composite score for all 10 chains in the survey was 79.4%.
As in previous years, the spring study involved 10 convenience firms to which anonymous testers made 150 visits each to company stores carrying the chains' branded, retail identity. The chains varied from year to year, as did the actual stores targeted for the study.
Interestingly enough, the last time Casey's was included in the mystery shop three years ago, the chain came in No. 1 for cleanest restrooms with a score of 90.6%. Bob Myers, president and CEO for Casey's, attributed that ranking and its strong showing this year to the diligence of his managers, particularly the women among the chain's employees.
Myers said female customers are particularly sensitive to restroom cleanliness, and since a majority of their store employees and managers are women, he believes the chain as a whole prioritizes that goal.
In last year's survey, Cumberland Farms won for cleanest restrooms, with a score of 87.3%, a good 7.4% higher than the average composite score for that year. Fairfax, Va.-based ExxonMobil's On the Run stores finished second that year, while Chevron's ExtraMile stores came in third. Canton, Mass.-based Cumberland Farms was not included in this year's survey.
Look for more results from the CSP/Service Intelligence Mystery Shop in the August issue of CSP magazine.
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