1Place compliance software keeps Z Energy retailers in check
Z Energy is one of New Zealand’s most iconic companies, keeping Kiwi motorists moving through the delivery of fuel and added services at more than 200 retail sites across the country.
The company takes customer experience seriously; they shook up the fuel industry in 2011 by bringing back forecourt concierges. The concierge service remains today, with staff on-hand daily at Z Energy retail sites to help motorists refuel, check tyre pressure and clean windscreens. Inside, Z Shops meet a wide range of customer needs, with food, snacks, barista coffee, essentials, touch screens and ‘comfort stops’ on offer.
It’s a lot of moving pieces to manage on a site level, let alone from head office, where consistency and compliance across the brand is of paramount importance. Z Energy Retail Operations Support Team Leader Blair Wilson says, in the past, individual sites completed their own paper-based checklists in an effort to monitor monthly promotions and merchandising.
“It was hard to ensure consistency across the brand. Some sites were doing very little. Some were doing a lot and they were all checking different things, which made it pretty hard to ensure consistency.”
Business Development Managers were also held up by the extensive amount of paperwork they had to go through during their on-site visits.
Flexible software tailored to Z
Unlike many compliance monitoring apps and software, 1Place can be set up to suit the specific needs of any multi-site retail client. For Z Energy, 1Place is set up centrally at head office with three levels of operational compliance checklists available for sites and staff across the country to complete via the 1Place app, which is available on any device.
Level 1 checklists are for sites to monitor their monthly operational execution. Site or team leaders use the standardised online checklist to check that merchandising and promotions are compliant.
Level 2 checklists are for retailers and operations managers to undertake quarterly. These act as a spot check of level 1.
Level 3 checklists have been established for business development managers to look at the systems behind making sure the checks in level 1 happen.
Blair says the customisation and automated reporting is what sets 1Place apart. “It can be set up as one standard checklist for all and reported on centrally. Users can also set up dashboards based on what they want to see, which is great.”
Blair says the 1Place team is very responsive and the set-up process was “very easy”. “The support the whole way has been amazing.”
Consistent reporting leads to productivity
1Place is saving time for Z Energy users at each level.
Since bringing on 1Place, Blair and his team has reviewed the checklists, taking notice of which checks were being completed or avoided by every user.
“We decided if it’s important enough for one person to check, it’s important enough for everyone to check. If it’s not important enough for anyone to check then no one should be doing it.”
As a result, the number of checklists have been reduced and consolidated.
“We also reduced the frequency between required checks to enable our team members to spend more time facing the customers.”
Exception reports generated by 1Place have also increased efficiency for retailers and business development managers.
“They’re following up when things aren’t done rather than asking every site if they have done it.”
Looking forward, Z Energy is hoping to utilise 1Place’s flexibility to establish automated action assigning – “if someone selects ‘no’, we want to test whether it automatically assigns to the right person” – and a food safety trial by integrating 1Place with Bluetooth probes.