What kind of convenience store would Sheriff Andy Taylor, Aunt Bee and Opie have run? Perhaps the type that ranked No. 1 in this year’s first-ever CSP/Service Intelligence Mystery Shop study of chains with about 100 stores or fewer.
Mayberry’s hometown mindset drives operations at Grand Island, Neb.-based Pump & Pantry, a 50-store chain that claimed the top spot in every category in the study.
The margin of victory was so removed from group averages that it may have made the chain a scientific anomaly. But barring such exclusion, it’s a happy victory that most certainly earns the Nebraska chain a closer look. (See the list of seven chains shopped in this category on p. 72. For a review of chains shopped in the category of 150 stores or more, see the August 2013 issue of CSP magazine)
For Bosselman Pump & Pantry Inc., which owns and operates the Pump &Pantry chain and employs 1,200 peoplewithin its network of businesses, its secret lies in a mission that turns customers into family, the store into a home.
“It’s a Mayberry experience,” says Charlie Bosselman, president of the 65-year-old company, which also runs quick-serve restaurants, hotels and truck service centers.
“We always say we’re from a small community, so we reflect that in the store whether we’re in a town of 400 or in Omaha.
”Yet having its fi ngers in many pies, as itwere, Bosselman as a company draws from disciplines across channels—something the c-store industry is just now beginning to take advantage of.
Having started on a farm with a second job driving a truck, Bosselman’s grandfather, Fred Bosselman, began the company in 1948 with a truck stop. The business developed into fuel wholes alingand c-stores, and over the years expanded in many directions, including owning a professional indoor football team, the Nebraska Danger.
But Bosselman says the key to the company’s operational excellence is in understanding the restaurant business. “I’ve heard [people] say if you can make money in restaurants, you can make money [anywhere],”he says. “In a restaurant, you need quality control, cleanliness and discipline over the floor, inventory, margins and payroll—it’s a discipline that’s then easier to implement within a c-store.”
That’s certainly not to say that running a c-store—especially to Bosselman’s standards—is easy. His expectations regarding store appearance and customer service are 100% all the time.
“But the ultimate foundation when you talk about cleanliness is we’re also in foodservice,” he says. “We have the same philosophy … [in that] the convenience store needs to be as clean as a restaurant, and that’s one of the things we emphasize.”
Standing by Its Mission
The hometown experience for Bosselmanbreaks down into terms that start to soundlike solid operational priorities. Its missionis supported by five principles:
- Cleanliness
- Pride in your work
- Integrity
- Friendliness
- Fun
Getting back to the restaurant premise, Bosselman says that type of business means employees must stick to policies and procedure sfor cleanliness, dating product forfreshness and watching inventory in the cooler for spoilage. All these elements are continuously in play.
Foodservice has been a pivotal part ofthe business, with the company havingput its fi rst Subway franchise in a truckstopin 1990. The company has six full-servicerestaurants and what Bosselman says is“a number” of fast-food sites. Some areconnected to c-stores, and some are freestanding.
This is where Bosselman first startedwithin the family business. It’s also wherethe company got its taste for the brandedfast-food concept. “We do a good job runningoperations,” he says. “Other peoplespend a lot of time inventing their ownconcept, but we do a better job at managing.”
Pump & Pantry is the only c-store chainin the country with a Cinnabon franchise;seven stores have the profit center, withplans for 20 total. “This is not just the newestthing we saw at the NACS [Show],” hesays. “We’re going to run it as a restaurant.”
That means clean, with the biggest concernbeing restrooms. “How often do yougo into a restroom and it’s a disaster?” hesays. “People start to wonder, ‘What’s thekitchen like?’ ”
As a side note, Bosselman is clearly ona mission when it comes to bathrooms,preparing to launch a major initiative toremodel every restroom in its chain. Allstores will soon have accessible, updatedrestrooms—with higher-end tile andfixtures, along with touch-free dryers—that neither require keys to get in nor haveoutdoor entrances.
For Bosselman, the investment is simplyanother extension of its family philosophy,one that’s communicated during the hiringprocess and continues through ongoingdiscussions with seasoned supervisors. “Itell my managers it’s their store,” he says.“ ‘You’re the one running it; it refl ects onyou.’ ”
What helps this reinforcement processis the very hometown demographic thesestores serve. “We know a lot of people …our family knows a lot of people,” he says.“So it doesn’t take long after someonedrops the ball for me to hear about it. Customerscall me directly.”
But Bosselman has a strong cadre ofexperienced and loyal managers, he admits,many of whom have worked for the companyfor 10, 20, even 30 years. That “consistencyin leadership” is also part of hischain’s success, he believes.
“Our district managers have cubicleshere in the office, but most of the time,they’re out in the field,” Bosselman says.“They’re taking the mission statement,emphasizing those points and hammeringthem home all the time.”But reinforcement works only whenemployees already have a bent towardcustomer service, he says. “Ultimately, customerservice is not something … you can train,” he says. “You can’t hire an 18-year old kid who won’t say boo to anybody. It’s not the personality you want to hire.”
He describes the right personality traitsas positivity and having an innate understanding of what good customer service is. In addition, the company does a lot ofrole-playing with its staff, showing them what to do to resolve conflict.
Often, employees will go out of their way to solve customers’ problems, Bossel man says, recalling how one employee even lent her car to a stranded motorist so he could make it home for Christmas.
“It’s not the legal way you want [the employee] to do it, but it comes from the idea of providing a hometown experience,” he says. “And we emphasize that ,sharing those comments with our employees.”
Handling Remote
Along with the hospitality piece of the QSR and even motel businesses, Bosselman’s other endeavors cross-pollinate into good c-store practices
For instance, its chain of 42 trucking service centers is spread across 20 states. The discipline needed to make stores in remote areas successful tie back to hisc-store chain. While calling it a balance between holding the reins tightly and letting go, he says remote surveillance, a firm connection with store number sand frequent district manager visits all help make widespread networks succeed.
Again, being a 50-store chain may help in that employees know Bossel man himself may step in to rectify any major concerns. While a virtue at Bosselman’s chain, that kind of on-hands super vision may be a disservice as the company grows. He admits that the company couldn’t acquire more than three or four stores a year; otherwise the new sites might not get the full attention or training employees need.
And it’s not just management style that would impede the process—it’s that hometown business formula in general. “Implementing those principle scan be difficult because a lot of people, especially in big cities like Omaha, are not used to a small-town mentality,” he says. “When you go into a store, the clerk knows your name. And from behind the counter, she’s got your [favorite] pack of cigarettes because she knows what you buy.”
That step back into a long-lost era has been operational gold for Bosselman’s and something that, for many Americans, will never get old.
Goliaths May Have Upper Hand
Smaller chains need work; ‘outliners’ blur results in new twist for study
In a new twist in the annual CSP/Service Intelligence Mystery Shop study, researchers grouped seven regional c-store chains with 20 to 110 stores, seeking to understand store-level operations for chains of that size and to see how smaller chains compare to larger ones.
On a whole, the results were mixed, in part because the grouping’s overall top rated chain, Bosselman Pump & Pantry Inc., Grand Island, Neb., did significantly better than the rest of the chains. (Seecharts in this story.)
“If you were to take out the outliers say the top two—Bosselman and Rutter’s—then the smaller chains did not doas well on a whole as the larger chains,”says Cameron Watt, vice president andgeneral manager for Service Intelligence,Ft. Mill. S.C., the firm that conductedthe study in partnership with CSP. “Youwould have expected [smaller chains] tohave a tighter focus of control.”
The difference is not so vast as to raiseconcern, he says, but called it “interesting”that smaller chains rate lower.
“I don’t know if [bigger chains] havebetter written standards or engrainedprocess,” he says. “If you ask yourselfintuitively whether a big chain would dobetter than a [smaller], local … chain,you’d probably think [local], but itdoesn’t seem to be the case.”
That said, Watt cautioned extendingthe analysis too far. Taking out twochains out of seven can skew resultsaltogether.What larger and smaller chainsappear to have in common is a penchantfor picking the right people. BothLa Crosse, Wis.-based Kwik Trip andBosselman—the top chains in the twostudies—go to great lengths to fi nd candidateswho have innate people skills.
For the industry overall, demand forthese instinctively caring individualscomes from channel blurring, says foodserviceconsultant Ed Burcher. Havingworked with the likes of Wawa Inc. andPetroCanada and its Neighbours stores,Burcher says quick-service restaurants,drug chains and mass merchants arestarting to sell the same things—be theypackaged snacks or hot pizza.
What sets chains apart is customerservice. “Standards are important, butpeople will do business with people theylike,” says Burcher, president of BurcherConsulting, Oakville, Ontario. “Fromease and simplicity [of shopping] tobeing able to help them through the dayand make them feel good, we’re in thehospitality business.”
Putting the right people in the rightjobs is critical, he says. Entering a c-storeat 6:15 a.m. before a recent plane trip, hewatched an employee work diligentlyto face product and get the store readyfor the day. “At 6:15 in the morning, he’shustling to make the store look great,”Burcher says. “You don’t get that froma [manual].”
Interior and Exterior Cleanliness
For Charlie Bosselman, cleanliness is a foundation for offering foodservice. His Pump & Pantry chain within Bosselman Pump & Pantry Inc., Grand Island, Neb., took the No. 1 spot in the two categories of interior and exterior cleanliness.
“It’s the same philosophy as havinga restaurant,” he says. “The conveniencestore needs to be as clean as a restaurant.That’s one of the things we emphasize.”
And Bosselman isn’t alone. Jere Matthews,vice president of operations forYork, Pa.-based Rutter’s Farm Stores, sayscleanliness starts from the moment thecustomer steps into the lot.
“We prioritize … the forecourt withgas pumps, garbage … because that’stheir fi rst impression,” Matthews says.
Bathrooms, he says, are importantat Rutter’s, with newer stores havingrestroom facilities more in line with anupscale restaurant. Besides high-end tileand fixtures, the equipment is touchfree,with the overall look promptingpositive feedback from customers. Tokeep standards high, Rutter’s has itssupervisors conduct store audits. Whenthey fi nd defi ciencies, they approach staffimmediately.
And exceptional execution getsrewarded. At Rutter’s, such recognitionhappens throughout the year. Monetaryrewards await many at the end of theyear as well.
Matthews believes cleanliness is partof the company’s history, which datesback to the 1920s. It’s a brand perceptionthat speaks to the larger customerexperience.
“When people pull into the lot andsee the garbage cans emptied, the pumpsare clean, the fl oors are clean, the store isstocked and clean inside—in additionto being treated well—they perceive thatas a good experience and will choose tocome back,” he says.
Merchandising
For Matthews of Rutter’s, properly merchandising a store means being “ready for business.”
As a store operator, “we always wantto be ready for business,” Matthews says.“We’re checking, making sure our coffee area and fountain area are stocked, cooler area is stocked and that we have product available. If you’re out of a product, you’re losing a sale and maybe making a customer unhappy.”
Many individuals—foodservice supervisors to marketing managers and store managers—are checking specific areas of any particular store, hunting for out-of stocks.“It’s a standard we have in place,” he says. “We’re all looking for the same things.”
Multiple supervisors have come up through the ranks at Rutter’s, so they know what expectations are, he says. “We know when we walk in the store, we should have all types of coffee available, all fountain flavors available,” Matthews says. “Maybe a certain store doesn’t sell all flavors, but the expectation is still that the store is in stock.”
Those standards have also evolved, especially as the store format has grown over the years, he says. Store managers and associates have had to learn to adapt. He says the knowledge of food-handling regulations and other health and safety requirements have grown exponentially. These innovations include the use of fryers for hot food and ovens so stores can bake their own bread. A number of Rutter’s stores have woks used to make higher-end fare.
“You have to change your standards as you evolve,” Matthews says. “You must …continue to up your game.”
Customer Service and Employee Appearance
For Quinn Ricker, customer service is a major priority. The Anderson, Ind.-based Ricker’s chain inspects its customer service and overall store experience continuously, using a contracted secret-shopper firm to conduct two mystery shops a month a teach store.
Unlike most chains, Ricker’s has a variable compensation or bonus program for its hourly people. For most of the industry ,the bonus program is for the manager and is based on sales increases or hitting labor goals, he says.
“We really took the aspects of that manager bonus program and applied it to our[customer service representatives] as well,”
Ricker says. “We wanted to align the entire store: When the store does well in our ‘Operational Excellence Inspections’—which are quarterly, more intense mystery shops—then everybody in that store gets a bonus. If that store fails, everybody fails.”Ricker says some people have called the process “a little tough love, but what we’ve found is that it’s brought everyone together.” Essentially, the strong have thrived and some of the chain’s team members who were not as engaged are no longer with the company. “You’re either going to win or lose as a team.”
Cashier interaction is the category that receives the most points in Ricker’s internal mystery shops. “That customer interaction is what’s going to taint or really impress a customer and change their experience for the positive or the negative,” he says. “It’s a big one.”
But strong customer service starts at the hiring level. Ricker says the company puts a lot of effort into hiring the right people. “We’re a midsized company, but we strive to act like one of the big boys and put some resources behind the hiring process,” he says. “We have actually hired on a trainer and a recruiter so the full burden of hiring doesn’t fall entirely on the managers.”In addition, the chain conducts “town halls” once or twice a year with its people. A lot of companies focus on the customer first, Ricker says. “It’s not that we don’t focus on our customer, but our real focus is on our team members,” he says. “If we take care of our people, they’re going to be able to take care of the customer. It’s a little bit of a different angle of looking at customer service, but I really think it provides a differentiating factor for us.”
A mystery-shopping program is ameasurement tool designed to reinforceyour staff’s focus on achieving servicestandards. Your staff drives the outcomesof your program (and your customerexperience); therefore, their adoption andenthusiasm are crucial to overall success.After launching hundreds of programsacross North America, we’ve identifiedthree critical actions businesses must taketo maximize the success of programs.
Build a Trusted Program
Building a reputable program your staffrespects is the foundation of a successfulmystery-shop program. Best practicesminimize potential for error in results,while also reducing the chance of shopperidentification during evaluations.Key steps to avoid a few common errors:
Avoid complex quantitative measurementsand focus on qualitative observations.These are more aligned with theway your customers evaluate your servicesand minimize potential for humanerror through memory constraints.
Focus your program on a few keyfactors that are the most important foryour customer conversion and satisfaction(e.g., upselling, cross-selling, productknowledge and site cleanliness). Toomany measurements can increase errorrates and may also overwhelm your staff.
Ensure shoppers are not doing anythingthat is not typical of a regular shopperto minimize risk of identification.If you are looking to capture this typeof information, we’d recommend exploringovert audits. Overt auditors disclosetheir identity and intentions to your staffand can openly record detailed informationas they move through locations.
Communicate and Motivate
A successful program is one in whichemployees are motivated and enthusiasticto excel. While material rewards andincentives are great external motivators,developing strong internal motivationis the ultimate goal of this step. Our No.1 recommendation for businesses is todevelop an internal communications strategysurrounding their program. It should:
- Emphasize store values and build aculture of strong performance.
- Motivate employees by emphasizingtheir impact on achieving business goals
- Communicate overall value andgoals of the mystery-shopping program.
- Educate employees about how programresults will be addressed.
- Encourage individuals to offerproductive feedback and suggestionsfor continuous improvement.
- Promote and acknowledge individualand location successes.
“Instead of focusing your communicationssolely on the program, promote theunderlying business values driving it,” saysJodie Hewson, marketing and communicationsspecialist for Service Intelligence.“If you can build a culture that your staffbelieve in and feel proud to be a part of,motivation and enthusiasm will grow andprogram results will improve.”As you build your communicationsplans, be aware that many communicationmethods leave managers responsible forpassing along info to their staff. Your communicationsstrategy should empowermanagers to promote your ongoing messagingaccurately and leverage mediumsdesigned to reach your employees, such asnewsletters, break-room posters, etc.
Get the Most from Results
Trust and enthusiasm will falter if employeesare worried about how program resultswill affect them. To get the most from yourresults and promote employee buy-in,ensure that no matter what kind of resultsyour locations are getting, they will be usedto add value to your business. Processes fordealing with both positive and negativeresults should be administered and communicatedto staff. Our suggestions:
Positive results: Building incentivesinto your mystery-shopping programare a good way to recognize employeesfor positive behavior and motivate themto perform. We also recommend tyingprogram incentives into other performanceindicators to promote an overallpositive performance.
Negative results: We view negativescores as an opportunity to improve yourbusiness. Ultimately these situations areyour chance to:
- Implement new training or coachingprocedures to better support standards.
- Identify and repair operationalissues that do not support your standards.
- Review your mystery-shoppingsurvey to ensure it’s realistic and fair to staff.
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