Are you interested in activity management software, but find it difficult to imagine what improvements such a tool could bring to your point of sale? Here are three real-life examples of reorganisations carried out within different retail models and shop types, thanks to the Timeskipper platform.
I/ A 4,250 m2 franchise hypermarket: 13% growth in turnover
Using Timeskipper allowed the director of this facility to completely rethink how they approached replacements for certain seasons or after retirements, as well as the organisation of the new Drive delivery service. But how? Through simple observations highlighted by the management software
No need for “1-to-1” replacements
The workload calculated by Timeskipper for the summer period showed that, although activity remained relatively high, it did not justify hiring seasonal staff for the same scope. By
simultaneously identifying the times when more people were needed and those when no extra staff were required, we were able to show that replacing one person out of two was sufficient and did not adversely affect the quality of the service or the customer experience. In fact, it was the opposite!
Building a Drive team without hiring more staff
With the activity better optimised, the Drive service was created by using hours saved in the shop, without having to take on extra staff! Permanent employees were assigned to prepare orders and receive customers at the right time of day, thus meeting one of the major challenges of omnichannel food retailing while improving the customer experience.
But Timeskipper’s benefits didn’t stop there. The solution also helped the store to redirect poorly used time to new tasks, such as analysing shortages, tidying the stockroom, checking prices, etc.
As a result, the store saw its sales increase by 13%, while its shortages and stockroom inventory were halved. And to top it all off, the investment in the platform paid for itself in just two months.
II/ A five-person pharmacy: better forecasting of activity to refocus on the core business
The pharmacist was unable to add value to their work because they were spending too much time on day-to-day emergencies and backing up the teams in reception, departments and checkout: tasks were not being carried out at the right times, delays were mounting, and in the end they found themselves having to make up for emergencies and unforeseen events throughout the day. Why? They lacked foresight over their daily activities, especially customer traffic and parcel deliveries, which largely determine a pharmacy’s daily workload.
Using Timeskipper has helped the practitioner to better forecast daily activity in the pharmacy by incorporating parcel traffic and, thanks to the AI module, anticipating customer traffic at quarter-hourly intervals. By preparing their schedule the day before, they knew when to assign the right member of staff to the right task in the right place: set aside time to advise customers (counter sales), receive deliveries and stock shelves during quieter hours,reserve time for new services, depending on the care or diagnosis required and the versatility of the staff.
By having real visibility for managing their activity, the pharmacist was also able to free up time for their core activities: thinking about their sales strategy, optimising supplies, providing better training for their teams, and generally spending more time improving the quality of customer service and the profitability of their pharmacy.
Efficiency comes from the value created in your area of responsibility, and Timeskipper makes you more efficient and even improves your skills within your area of responsibility by adopting the right practices.
III/ Integration of a dozen shops ranging in size from 8,000 to 12,000 m2: Timeskipper
helped ease a change in organisation
When a retailer is planning a major transformation plan involving a switch from a 60-year-old organisational model to a more cross-functional system where tasks are managed on a cross-functional basis, some employees can legitimately feel completely lost.
And while clear communication is essential for everyone to understand why the change is happening, it is not enough. In this specific case, Timeskipper helped employees to understand and accept the new organisation. But how? The tool’s schedules showed the tasks that needed to be done by order of priority as well as how long they were to take and who was assigned to them.
Everyone could see the change and understand and anticipate what the shop was asking of them. For teams, this kind of visibility is reassuring and motivating. As one of the employees said:
“The new organisation has broken down the barriers between the departments: while logistics and sales are still two separate activities, they are not opposed to each other.Everyone has multiple, cross-functional responsibilities”.
Timeskipper addresses the issue of time in all forms of physical retail. The tool identifies and
recovers time spent poorly so that it can be reallocated to issues such as reducing staff costs, creating new services, increasing added value in a specific area of activity, and transforming the organisation. Whether they are hyper-urban convenience stores, hypermarkets or specialist retail outlets, the tool optimises how points of sale are organised and pays for itself in less than six months.
