PHOENIX -- Honored for their dedication to excellence, three convenience retailers were presented with CSP's Outlook Awards on the final night of the Outlook Leadership Conference this week.
The 2006 awards were presented Tuesday night during the Outlook Leadership Awards Evening, sponsored by Nestle Waters. Moto Inc. was recognized for customer service, The Spinx Co. for operational excellence and C.N. Brown Co. for community involvement.
Robert Forsyth, president of Moto Mart Convenience Stores, said he believes that while customer [image-nocss] service is important at the store level, it really has to start with him. [Customer service] is mission critical,said Forsyth, president of the Belleville, Ill.-based company, owned by Moto and operated by FKG Oil Co. The adage is that you can't be in business if you're not meeting your customers' needs. If a company really sits down and puzzles through an approach and a strategy toward meeting customers' needs, that's when results happen.
For Spinx, Greenville, S.C., the secret to the company's operational excellence is this: hiring the right person for the right job. The question of excellent people comes from matching the person with the job,said CEO Stewart Spinks. If you're introverted, this job at the store level is probably not the right one and you'd wind up putting them in the wrong spot. But they might be perfect for foodservice. You're not forcing a square peg into a round hole. That's in part what has led us to better performance at the point of sale.
Community involvement comes easily for Jinger Duryea, president of C.N. Brown, South Paris, Maine. C.N. Brown began its work with the Muscular Dystrophy Association 20 years ago, and this year the company's combined contribution to MDA may reach $3 million. In fact, the involvement with MDA comes so easily that Duryea can't imagine not being involved. It's really just become part of our culture,Duryea said. It's something we do, and honestly couldn't imagine running the company without that alongside of it.
The awards for operational excellence and customer service were determined through a mystery-shop program by Ritter Associates, Toledo, Ohio.
Read more about the three winners in the December issue of CSP.
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