Overcoming the Challenges of Existing Retail Audit Systems

In order to provide documented verification of adherence to corporate standards – safety, branding, etc – retailers rely heavily on periodic audits that normally include tools such as checklists, compliance surveys and multi-level standard tasks.

Most systems developed to perform these audit are “homemade”, meaning that they are a combination of paper forms and somewhat-automated applications developed in popular spreadsheet or word processing software. In addition to being cumbersome and wasteful, these existing systems can cause the loss of critical information and/or significant time between the detection of an issue and its resolution.

Retail audit apps are the ideal solution to this scenario. By implementing a retail audit app, retailers can use smartphones and tablets to automate the periodic audits required to comply with corporate standards.

A retail audit app will not only automate the data collection by allowing custom forms, checklists, surveys, and tasks, but also makes it possible for managers and supervisors go get real-time access to data, significantly speeding-up critical decision-making. State-of-the-art retail audit apps will even provide time and GPS verification, authenticating the time and place where the audit was performed.

VisitBasis Retail Audit App provides all the tools necessary to setup and execute retail audits, from custom checklists, questionnaires, and multi-level tasks – that can include pictures and signatures – to real-time access to audit data and authentication.

Try VisitBasis Retail Audit App today! Sign up for a free trial or schedule an online demo.

Choosing the Ideal Retail Audit Software for your Needs

Retail audit software has revolutionized the way retail audits are performed. Instead of having to deal with mounds of data to be input and analyzed, now retail operations can easily access and interpret the information coming from points-of-sale, with little concern over issues such as clerical errors and fraudulent check-ins.

Choosing a retail audit software, though, can prove to be more complicated than expected, due mostly to the many options available on the market these days. To help with choosing a retail audit software, operations should take into consideration the following points:

Budget
Most retail audit software solutions on the market charge on a cost/user/month basis, but some charge an additional cost/location that can snowball and easily blow up any project budget.
Size of retail operation
Ideally, a retail audit software should be scalable and able to adjust to retail operations big and small, with equal level of service and reliability.
Ease of implementation and use
One of the most frustrating things is business is having to rely on IT departments or outside contractors in order to deal with mission-critical devices and applications. Choosing a retail audit software solution that requires no specific hardware, installations, downloads, deployment, etc, will make the implementation process a lot simpler.
Data access and authentication
Cloud-hosting is the ideal situation for retail audit software solutions, since it is paramount for it to be operational and accessible 24/7.

VisitBasis is a comprehensive retail audit software solution for businesses of all sizes. VisitBasis allows creating task templates for everything that needs to be checked at the retail location, providing a budget-friendly and easy-to-use system that helps you take full control of retail audits at the point-of-sale.

Ready to try the benefits of mobile? Sign up today at www.visitbasis.com for a free trial, or book a free online demo to see how it works.

Field Team Management Software: The Best Way to Investigate Competitors

Why Companies Need Competitor Analysis?

Competitor analysis is a substantial part of marketing strategy. It allows companies to assess their competitor’s strengths and weaknesses and develop effective strategies to improve competitive advantage. Yet most of the companies do not conduct this type of analysis systematically enough, relying on intuition and informal impressions. A lack of robust competitor analysis places companies at risk of being outdone by competitors.

How Field Team Management Software Can Help Research Competition?

Today keeping up with the times companies have already implemented various types of field team management software to automate field reps activities and improve their performance. It should be mentioned that a comprehensive field team management software solution is not just for field reps tracking or store tasks performance. The most sophisticated field team management solutions offer companies the ability to conduct regular store audits collecting various types of data, including clients information, prices, parameters of the layout, photo reports, customer surveys, stock levels, promotional activities and so on. Thus, to take the full advantage of their field team management software solution, along with gathering store data on it’s own performance, companies should do the same thing with competitors’ information.

What Are The Benefits of Automated Competitor Data Collection?

Field team management software provides customizable task templates with different types of answers for everything that needs to be checked, allowing your field reps to capture accurate, live data that can be analyzed in real time back at the home office. Real-time analytics and customizable reports to analyze competitors’ strategies is one of the most important features of field team management software, which allow companies to use targeted marketing when competing with those surrounding brands.

To get more information about how to research your competition or to see for yourself how you can so it in the most innovative way, visit www.visitbasis.com and get your free trial today!

Key Reasons to Implement Retail Audit Software

Simplify the process of scheduling. Traditional scheduling is a time-consuming and burdensome process for a field team manager. It usually involves creating a list of store visits, filling out paper forms for field reps, or using general-purpose calendar application. Using retail audit software you can easily organize the schedule of visits for any period of time and improve your field team’s bottom-line by reducing time traveling to appointments, planning routes and accessing information.
Automate field reps notification of the scheduled appointments. Generally field reps receive the appointment schedule during a visit to the office, or via an email, or a phone call. Traveling to the office to receive tasks takes time and reduces field reps’ productivity. After field reps receive the schedule of visits and the list of tasks to be performed at each point-of-sale they have to find out their routes all by themselves using a map application or a GPS-navigator. With retail audit software all the visits and tasks are instantly displayed in tablets and smartphones of field reps due to automatic synchronization. Field reps can view all the information about every point-of-sale, including location, contacts, history of visits, map location. Field reps can always optimize their day route at the click of a button to make sure they have the shortest path between locations.
Get live retail visit confirmation. As a rule field reps notify field team managers of the fact of arrival at a point-of-sale by a phone call, a SMS, or marking the time of arrival in a paper report. When implementing a retail audit software solution field reps are being monitored on the map in real time. Field team managers can see their routes, the arrival time, and time spent at each point-of-sale.
Streamline data workflow while minimizing mistakes and time taken to perform tasks. Field reps usually collect store data completing paper forms, which are then to be transferred to the office for manual data reentry to the corporate database. A more advanced way is filling in a Word or an Excel form and e-mailing it to the office. Retail audit software allows automated data entry using a tablet or a smartphone. All the data collected at stores is automatically transferred to corporate database and is available for integration with company’s back-end system, export or analysis. Mobile forms allow to collect data very quickly and accurate eliminating paperwork and minimizing mistakes
Get custom reports based on actual retail audit data. Nine times out of ten field team managers try to compile the information across paper forms or Excel spreadsheets, manually entering data to corporate database. After data entry is finished managers often don’t have time and enthusiasm to analyze big amount of data from all the stores. With retail audit software all the data collected at points-of-sale is instantly available for analysis. Use Google API and BigQuery access to your data to get ultimate custom reports and dashboards in seconds. Apply sophisticated filters to get the exact information you need. The reports can be easily exported to corporate database.

Register at www.visitbasis.com to get your free access to retail audit software and start your retail audit automation at no risk and up-front costs.

Improving Retail Audit Efficiency in the Field and at the Back-Office

VisitBasis is a great mobile retail audit system that can really help you increase your retail audits efficiency. VisitBasis offers customers the ultimate capabilities to increase the efficiency of retail operations and improve field reps productivity.

Improving retail audit efficiency in the field.

As soon as retail audit software solution is downloaded on retail inspectors’ tablets or smartphones, they are empowered with a complete set of tools and opportunities to collect and transfer store data. Field reps don’t have to remember specific details, because they are enabled to get any information about schedule, points-of-sales, customers and products from their mobile devices. Combining this with flexible forms, photo-reports, bar-code scanner, text notes, electronic signature, gives retail auditors the ability to perform tasks more quickly and efficiently.

Improving back-office efficiency.

Using retail audit software field managers get precise real-time information from the field with activity dashboards and reports. Eliminating paper-records and awkward data re-entry can significantly improve field managers’ efficiency. All field activity is GPS confirmed and time stamped and automatically synced so field managers get immediate retail visit confirmation and can analyze all the data collected applying sophisticated data filters and getting the exact information that is needed at the moment.

People who really know what retail audit operations are have designed VisitBasis retail audit software to simplify store data collection and analysis and made it affordable for any company. The VisitBasis Lite is completely free for any number of users and allows starting retail auditing automation at no risk and no up-front costs. All you have to do to get your free retail audit software is to register at www.visitbasis.com

Store Execution Software to Automate Your Retail Audits

Retail audit involves the measurement of market via retail sales. Retail audit interviewers perform regular visits to points of sales to collect information on retail purchases, retail selling prices, stock, distribution, and customer’s opinion.

A retail audit generally measures what brands are sold and their quantity sold in a certain period providing very accurate information on broad market shares, market sizes and sales trends. There are different types of retail audits to specify the data collected. For example companies often organize retail audits to provide a comparative look at the sales of competitors.

Aggregating retail data and analyzing trends companies get total market estimates and can develop marketing strategies based on actual information. The power of retail audit data lies in the coverage of stock and distribution so the more points of sales are covered with retail audits the more reliable overall picture of retail conditions you can get.

Companies put much effort and spend money routinely performing retail audits. But their efforts often break down in practice with multiple locations to audit and significant amount of retail data to be analyzed. To reduce chances of bias or unprofessional approach to auditing companies often use the services of third-party organizations (advertising, marketing, consulting and BTL agencies) to organize retail-auditing process. The disadvantages of this option are the costs, poor cooperation between managers, loosing part of retail audit data, fraudulent reports, big time gaps between a store visit and appropriate company’s actions.

Today due to the new mobile technologies field reps empowered with a retail audit software solution are able to perform retail audits using just their tablets and smartphones with no need to visit the office to report the results. All the data collected at stores is automatically synced with corporate database and is instantly available for building analytic reports. The new way of retail audits organization provides faster data workflow and reduces time for decision-making, improving the bottom-line.

It has always been considered that setting up a retail audit is expensive and requires significant efforts. Due to retail audit software you can set up an automated retail audit in less than an hour, and analyze all the information from points of sale live, as soon as your field reps collect it. Today the option of in-house retail audits organization is more affordable than ever: the price on a retail audit software solution starts from $24 per user/month. Moreover a company can get your retail audit software completely free to start retail audit automation free of charge at no risk.

To learn more about retail audit management or how to organize a retail audit using a retail audit software solution visit www.visitbasis.com.

Key Benefits of Retail Audit Software

Traditional retail audit methodologies often result in incomplete coverage of stores due to human resource constraints and significant paperwork. Conducting a retail audit is often associated with colossal amount of data, lost paper forms, and fraudulent reports. Besides your field reps performing retail audits get exhausted from filling out paper forms, spending too much time at points of sale, making phone calls and visiting the office to report the results.

Therefore great number of companies uses the services of third-party organizations (advertising, marketing, consulting and BTL agencies) to organize retail-auditing process. The disadvantages of this option are the costs, poor cooperation between managers, loosing part of retail audit data, fraudulent reports, time gaps between a store visit and appropriate company’s actions.

The automated retail auditing amazingly differs from traditional retail auditing. Today due to the new mobile technologies field reps are able to perform retail audits using just their tablets and smartphones with no need to visit the office to report the results. All the data collected at stores is automatically synced with corporate database and is instantly available for building analytic reports. The new way of retail audits organization provides faster data workflow and reduces time for decision-making, improving the bottom-line.

Choosing software for retail audits, you definitely have to focus on the needs and characteristics of your company’s business processes. Then consider the importance of such factors as the cost of implementation and use of retail audit software, usability and accessibility.

Here at VisitBasis we’ve focused on delivering a system that integrates completely with every process in your business. VisitBasis is all-in-one software solution that provides the most complete set of tools for your business in one great package. VisitBasis is designed to meet the market demand for scheduling field sales activities including CRM, processing orders, reporting and analyzing field sales performance.

Key benefits of our retail audit software

For management:

Save on field operation costs by optimizing routes and eliminating paperwork
Increase field rep performance by improving training and mentoring through monitoring
Streamline field data collection and have immediate access to visit information

For field reps:

Get the job done on the spot: eliminate after-hour reporting
Optimize customer routes and save time while getting more done
Supervisors/managers will automatically know you are properly doing your job, improving communication

Why choose VisitBasis?

VisitBasis provides the most complete set of tools for your business in one great package. Through the implementation of a structured approach for retail visits and tasks, VisitBasis simplifies data collection and analysis.

Easy to deploy and cost-effective – VisitBasis retail audit software implementation takes a little time and no money. Visitbasis Lite is the only Free Mobile Data Collection solution on the market. You can start your retail audits automation completely free after you create an account at http://www.visitbasis.com.

Every mobile activity is GPS and time-stamped – Fraudulent check-ins become easy to detect and dealt with.
True offline/online capabilities – Mobile users are able to work offline and the system synchronizes once online – no need for paper alternatives.
Bring-your-own-device (BYOD) – Your reps can use their own mobile devices so there is no need for you to invest in additional hardware.
Available in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian – For field reps of all backgrounds.

Implementing a Software Solution for Store Audits Automation

Looking for retail audit automation solutions? VisitBasis Retail Audit Software allows you to organize your retail auditing process using PC, tablets and smartphones.

VisitBasis is a complete mobile data collection solution for managing, scheduling, and monitoring field team activities in real-time. It allows field operations managers to oversee all stages of the store audit, field merchandising and field sales processes, from assigning territories and scheduling visits/tasks to immediately retrieving results through VisitBasis online dashboard and reports.

How to Organize a Retail Audit Using VisitBasis Retail Audit Software?

Retail audit automation with VisitBasis is extremely fast and simple. See for yourself how easy it is to implement our retail audit software by following the steps below.

Step # 1

Register your free account at www.visitbasis.com. It takes less than a minute. After the registration is complete you get the immediate free access to our retail audit application and can start your retail audit automation free of charge.

Step # 2

Log in to the VisitBasis Application with the e-mail address used during registration and the password provided in the e-mail from VisitBasis after registration.

Step # 3

Add office managers and mobile field reps. Assign users to divisions and assign a security role to each user

Step # 4

Let your field reps to install the VisitBasis Retail Execution App on their tablets or smartphones. The VisitBasis App is downloaded free on Google Play and App Store for any number of users. To start using the application a field rep should use the e-mail address used in the office part of application when registering the user and the password received in e-mail from VisitBasis.

Step # 5

Save customer information on points of sale that have to be visited. The information may include address, contacts, installed equipment, documents attached, price lists and more.

Step # 6

Add products that have to be audited, split products into various product trees, attaching photos and adding additional properties.

Step # 7

Create task templates to define tasks to be performed at points of sale. The simple but powerful task builder allows creating various types of tasks with different types of answers (number, text, electronic signature, photo, multiple choice.

Step # 8

Schedule retail visits to the points of sale and optimize their routes to get the shortest route for the day.

Step # 9

Add tasks to each visit. All sheduled visits and tasks are instantly displayed in tablets and smartphones of tour field reps. Field reps can performs all the tasks paperless, using just their tablets or smartphones.

Step # 10

Monitor all field reps activities live on the map to get the clear picture of current retail conditions. All the data collected at points of sales is instantly displayed in the office part of application due to automatic synchronization. Verify visits and tasks execution live and monitor the progress of tasks performance.

Step # 11

Built analytic reports based on time-stamped and GPS-confirmed data. Get the exact information you need at the moment using sophisticated data filters and reg expression. Export reports to MS Excel and integrate easily with your back-end system.

Start your retail audits automation today with VisitBasis – a simple but powerful data collection solution that does not require installation or license purchase. Implement VisitBasis to your retail auditing process to improve the efficiency of your field team management.

www.visitbasis.com

Retail Audit Software: Overcoming the Challenges of Field Team Management

Managing retail audits can be a challenging task. Field team managers are dealing with many people, at many different locations, bringing in a lot of information on many products. The challenges are doubled if your team is geographically dispersed. In today’s world field team members often work in different cities, countries and time zones, or even speak different languages.

Among most common challenges a field team manager faces with are:
Scheduling and time-planning challenges (a rep can’t find customer’s location, got sick and must be substituted, etc)
Getting inaccurate or undue information from the field reps (e.g. fraudulent reports, errors, lost paperwork, improper use of the working hours)
Wasted time and productivity due to weak communication (via e-mail, SMS, office-calls) and slow paper submission
Field reps concentrating on the paperwork, not customers
Significant amount of fragmented information field reps have to consider
The security of corporate data storage and sharing
Weak analytics (managers often don’t have time and enthusiasm to analyze big amount of data from points of sales)

The key solution to solve all the challenges listed above is to give your field team managers and field reps the right tools to perform retail audit activities. Retail audit software can help companies to overcome most of the common problems that office managers face managing field teams. Companies that have adopted retail audit software out-perform those that haven’t through streamlining of the processes in the field and in the back-office.

VisitBasis retail audit software is a cloud-based, complete mobile data collection solution designed to schedule and monitor field team activities in real time. Implementing VisitBasis retail audit software you can expect the following benefits:

Your reps can perform in-store activities on their existing mobile devices, eliminating paperwork
You can design the tasks assigned to your teams so you get the exact information needed from the field
You can easily assign territories, visits, and tasks to your field reps
You can monitor in real time what is happening in the field: Where your reps are, what are they doing, results of their work
You can generate up-to-the-minute reports filtering all the information that comes from the field

Sign up today to get our retail audit software solution completely free. VisitBasis provides the most complete set of tools for your business in one great package. Through the implementation of a structured approach for retail visits and tasks, VisitBasis simplifies retail data collection and analysis.

www.visitbasis.com

Best Way for Field Teams to Optimize Retail Audits

Mobile retail audit systems can make a real difference when it comes to managing retail operations, since they are a way for managers to be virtually in-store, at every store, and at all times.

VisitBasis Retail Audit Software provides all the elements needed to actively implement in-store programs and monitor them step-by-step, allowing managers to make adjustments as needed and long before sales numbers come in.

With the VisitBasis Retail Audit App, retail operations managers are able to:

Easily manage user, customer, and product databases and assign territories accordingly.
Create advanced task templates with actions that include photos and signatures, among others.
Effortlessly schedule recurring visits, weeks or even months in advance and calculate the shortest customer route for each field rep.
Know where each mobile user is at any point in time and get up-to-the minute information on the activities being executed at the point-of-sale.
Generate reports with detailed timing and location information.

See for yourself how VisitBasis can help your company’s retail audit operations – sign up free today at www.visitbasis.com! To learn more about retail audit automation using retail audit software follow the links below.

Retail Audit Software

Retail Audit App (Android, IOS Tablets and Smartphones)

Audit Software For Retail: Retail Audit & Store Execution Mobile App