Progress, not perfection: That’s one of the mottos for the operations team at Cenex Zip Trip, Spokane, Wash. The 70-store chain—the corporate-owned stores of CHS Inc., Inver Grove Heights, Minn.—is a brand-new participant in the CSP/Service Intelligence Mystery Shop. And for its first year in the program, Cenex Zip Trip did very well, ranking with the top five brands, thanks to its strong results in interior and exterior cleanliness, dairy cooler, fountain and coffee bars, and employee appearance.
Click here to view Cenex Zip Trip's Mystery Shop Report Card.
Ian Johnstone, general manager for the chain, says it’s a matter of store associates focusing consistently on six key priorities:
- Customer service: Are you greeting customers with a smile?
- Cash control: Are the tills correct and secured?
- Check stand and image: Is the counter neat and uncluttered?
- Food bar: Are the roller grills stocked and the hot dogs at the proper temperature? Are condiments filled?
- Coolers: Are they faced and full of product?
- Facing: Are shelves neatly faced and each section fully stocked?
“We’re not always going to be the least expensive and we’re not always going to be the most expensive,” Johnstone says. “But we’re going to do things right, be consistent and predictable, so that when people come in, they’re going to walk out of here 99% of the time satisfied.”
That consistency depends on communicating to store associates why the six priorities are so critical—why it is so important that the hot dogs are at the right temperature, the bathroom is clean, the coolers are fully stocked. “If we can’t get all of our associates to buy in and move in the same direction, we’re going to have issues,” he says.
Cenex Zip Trip has been testing two additional daily priorities—bag 10 bags of ice and wipe down dispensers, for example—that change each week. The idea is to improve communication between corporate and stores.
“Even though we have a communications book where we could write this stuff down, it’s trying get people to open the book and say, ‘Here’s what we’re working on today,’ ” says Johnstone. “It’s just trying to bake a cake a different way.”
Training forms the backbone of this effort, with management constantly emphasizing the importance of the priorities. Cenex Zip Trip’s own mystery-shop program ensures that the stores are executing.
The chain has eschewed the mystery-shop performance contests that other retailers often use to motivate employees; Johnstone believes they result only in short-term improvements in execution that quickly fade once the contest ends. Instead, the retailer focuses on hiring for attitude (and training for skill), providing great benefits and offering plenty of positive reinforcement and guidance from store managers.
“Everything we do starts with the store manager,” he says. “We may have all of the greatest ideas in the world, but if I can’t get them to be executed, I’ve got nothing.”
NEXT: Opinion: Stop the Mediocrity
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