Cursor: The number of audits conducted in retail chains doubled

Stores, producers and distributors are more frequently outsourcing audits on the quality of customer service, goods display and promotional activities. Cursor, which offers services in sales support and logistics, noted a 100% increase in this type of services in 2015. Now the company executes over 25,000 audits monthlyStores, producers and distributors are more frequently outsourcing audits on the quality of customer service, goods display and promotional activities. Cursor, which offers services in sales support and logistics, noted a 100% increase in this type of services in 2015. Now the company executes over 25,000 audits monthly.

The audit service enables to collect information on the effectiveness of product distribution and quality of communication with consumers in retail chains. It also allows for an overall assessment of tasks resulting from contracts concluded by stores with external partners (suppliers and distributors offered in a given network of products or services). The latter group of clients is the one that most frequently uses external audits. Cursor’s statistics reveal that the majority of audits refer to the form of goods display, how the stores meet their obligations and the knowledge of the sellers on the goods of a given brand offered to end-consumers. External auditors verify among others the way a given retail chain uses the POS materials, the level of prices and availability of products or correct execution of marketing campaign assumptions, including loyalty programmes. The stores on the other hand often commission customer service quality assessment and compliance of facility decoration with the standards of a given chain.

Data from audits assist in effective sales management of sales chain locations. On the one hand, the audits enable identification of areas for improvement, on the other, facilitate optimisation of promotional campaigns conducted in a given location, said Piotr Haman, Trade Support Managing Director at Cursor SA.

The audit service may include an assessment of all units in a given chain (complete audit) or a predetermined number of facilities (statistical audit). It is often combined with other sales support solutions, e.g. interventions regarding identified irregularities or distribution of POS materials. The client can order a report with assessment results as well as an advanced analysis of the audit data.

The solutions applied by our company enable integration with the clients’ IT systems, thanks to which we can collate information on e.g. sales results in a given facility with the cost of sales representatives’ labour dedicated to that location. Our auditors are equipped with mobile devices with specialised software which allows for transmission of data together with photo logs in real time, said Piotr Haman.

The audit completed in an outsourcing model is objective, which guarantees the increased credibility of the obtained data. The service enables companies to effectively monitor field operations in their own sales structure or replace them with external auditors. Cursor has a team of several hundred people which operates nationwide, the know-how and infrastructure which enables to optimise cost of execution of this type of projects.

The clients include mostly FMCG companies and retail chains from the cosmetic, fashion, electronic and the construction industries.