How to Make Your Store Audits More Effective

Learn why you need a digital tool for audits at your retail operation

No matter what kind of retail store you are running, chances are you depend on audits and checklists to ensure key procedures are being implemented correctly and consistently. But are you maximizing the potential of the auditing process? Or are you missing opportunities to generate actionable insights and improve your business?

Here are 5 ways you can make your store audits more effective.

Digitize the Process

First and foremost, if you’re still using pen-and-paper questionnaires and checklists, you need to digitize your auditing process. Digitizing will save tons of time for the staff doing the audits, as well as improve the quality of the data you get from the audits by requiring auditors to input assessments in a standardized fashion. Plus, you’ll immediately have the data in a digital format that can be stored forever, more easily analyzed, and effortlessly shared with anyone from clerks to managers to CEOs.

Ask the Right Questions

The quality of your questions determines the quality of information you’re going to get from your audits. Asking specific questions as opposed to broad ones can help you dig into the factors that are driving certain trends. For example, if you suspect that cleanup at closing time is an issue, don’t just ask the auditor a yes or no question like “Is the sales floor clean at closing time?” Also ask more detailed questions like “Have all employees been trained on closing procedures?” “Are the dressing rooms checked and cleaned throughout the day?” “Has the garbage been emptied?” and so on.

Keep Questions Simple

Complex, multi-part questions, as well as ones requiring subjective judgments, should be avoided. Instead, make sure each question addresses just one issue. Clear questions with “yes/no” answers will help the audit go faster, especially if you are using a tool with a “thumbs up/thumbs down” system for answering questions, which allows questions to be answered with the touch of a single button.

Compare Across Audits

Daily audits or checklists can be a great indicator that your store is running smoothly on a day to day basis. But in order to identify trends at your store, you need to do more than just look at the results of each day’s audits as they come. You need to compare the results of these audits on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis. This is easily done when you are using a digital process, since the results of audits can be stored indefinitely and made readily available for use in reports.

Take Immediate Action

Typically, the faster you address an issue revealed by an audit, the easier it will be to correct and the faster you will see improvement. This makes it essential to quickly analyze the data from audits, generate insights, and act on them. When managers can complete audits and run reports in the same tool, and then share the results digitally with all affected parties, taking immediate action is much easier.

Improve Your Retail Operation with MyFieldAudits

MyFieldAudits is a digital auditing and reporting tool that was specifically designed for the needs of retail stores. It includes all the functionalities you need to standardize auditing procedures across store locations, collect and store data in the cloud, and generate easy-to-read reports with data visualizations that can be shared with all stakeholders. To learn more about MyFieldAudits, please contact us at info@MyFieldAudits.com.