Service Credits in Retail Monitoring Explained

How can an automated service credits system help retailers get value from contractors?

When retailers outsource their cleaning to third party suppliers, those that win the bid normally have a great pitch. But, in the long run how can retailers efficiently monitor whether (and to what extent) the suppliers’ staff are meeting standards. Without a system in place:

• Staff don’t maintain high standards.
• Customers’ store impressions decline.
• Retailers face high charges compares to the quality of work.
• Retailers cannot identify specific stores or regions that are below standard.

But, even using an auditing system that isn’t quite right can lead to:

• Employing extra staff and wasting time.
• Slow, manual reporting on audit results.
• Lost audit score cards, or delays in getting them back to the office.
• Lack of evidence for poor audit scores.

Instead, retailers need to adopt a solution that can capture the cleaning operations, and auditing, before automatically calculating the service credits due for each contractor. Service credits are are financial penalties for suppliers when they don’t deliver Service Lines (e.g. cleaning or security) to a satisfactory standard. These calculations take into account patterns of failing audits over time. Here’s an example of how mpro5 provides a digital automated service credits solution for Morrisons:

• After 3 failures in a row, apply a charge.
• Each additional failure until 3 passes in a row increases charge e.g. 5% – 10% – 15%.
• Set maximums e.g. up to 30% on the charge.
• Once 3 passes for that service line, the charge is reset until it fails 3 consecutive times once again.

Correlating the service credits, with individual audit reports including notes, photos and other evidence prevents any dispute on the the suppliers owe. In this way, retailers can enforce standards, oversee operations and improve customer satisfaction… winning!