Why should I outsource my audits instead of utilizing my own team?
There are benefits to both approaches. In general, outsourcing functions that are not core competencies of your organization is a good idea. Sometimes we have to admit that our company cannot be great at everything.
Some benefits to outsourcing to an audit company that specializes in convenience stores:
- Finding and keeping great talent is always a challenge. Your best people probably will not end up on your audit team because they and you will want to leverage them in your core store operations.
- It is difficult to provide the necessary training and support for your auditors. Will you invest the time and resources needed to keep the skills of your auditors at peak performance?
- Internal audit programs often experience “job creep”. It’s too easy to keep adding more tasks and responsibilities to the auditors. The result is a job that requires an almost impossibly broad skill set and the return on investment for these additional roles is evaluated infrequently.
- Your audit process and approach is at risk of becoming insular and outdated. How will you get the audit industry’s best practices into your organization regularly? Outsourcing gives you access
- Internal audit programs will have to compete with other departments for technology and equipment investments. Will they win often enough to keep current?
- Outsourcing the audit function increases your flexibility. With an internal team your audit costs become mostly a fixed budget item. With an outside provider, you pay only for the number of audits you need, giving you budgeting flexibility without have to increase or decrease your staff.
- When all the hard and soft costs of your audit program are considered, it is often less expensive and more cost effective to outsource.
Click here to download “Making Sense of Outsourcing.”
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How much will it cost to hire Quantum Services?
Our pricing depends on a variety of factors including your audit procedures, inventory level, travel to your locations, frequency and supplemental audits you may require such as cash, fuel, deli or cost audits. Typically our rates for retail audits in convenience stores range from $175 to $400, item level scan audits $225 to $500. Hybrid audits costs are somewhere in between. We can usually give you a more accurate estimate with a twenty-minute phone call and some basic store information.
How frequently should my c-store be audited?
The typical range of audit frequency in our experience is between monthly and quarterly. We have found that many of our clients are able to reduce their frequency of audits after hiring Quantum Services because of the increased confidence in the audit results accuracy.
Click here to download “Audit Frequency – Finding the Perfect Mix.”
How will hiring Quantum Services help me reduce my shrink?
We will increase your confidence in the accuracy and completeness of your audits. The purpose of an audit is to find out if you have a shrink problem. If you lack confidence in your audit team, it becomes so much harder to take corrective action quickly. Quantum Services will also share our industry knowledge and experience to improve your audit systems, identify shrink control weaknesses and provide you with customized feedback on your store operations through our SPECS observations and trends reporting.
Why does it matter to me that Quantum audits only c-stores?
Good question. It is a vitally important issue because our choice to specialize impacts almost every area of our service to our clients. Operators of convenience stores face a unique set of auditing challenges and opportunities. Our specialization helps us meet those needs. Our staff are full time career oriented folks that average more than four years of service to Quantum. This results in a depth of industry experience and knowledge unmatched by other inventory services. Our technology and systems to ensure accuracy are designed specifically for convenience stores. We don’t claim to be the best solution for everyone but we are the best choice for the convenience store industry.
How will I know the counts I get from Quantum Services are accurate?
It all starts with hiring the best people with background checks and drug testing, investing in extensive training and developing systems to verify the accuracy of each audit. Our quality control begins at the point of data entry at the store. Auditors can check their own work by reviewing every keystroke. We involve the store manager in a line by line comparison of today’s audit to past audits and recount sections that don’t compare favorably. At the corporate level we developed keystroke analysis software that has revolutionized reliability in inventory audits. But maybe more important than all of that is our attitude toward accuracy. We know our people are human and will make mistakes. Our job is to find the errors and correct them, not try to hide them from our clients.
Click here to download “Mystery Solved! Keystroke Analysis Software Revolutionizes Reliability in Inventory Audits.”
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Do you guarantee your audits?
Yes. Our guarantee is the best in the business. If you are ever dissatisfied with the work that we do, just let us know in writing within thirty days and we will refund you the cost of the audit. Of course we will want to know what went wrong so that we can take corrective action to prevent the same problem in the future.
Click here to download “The Best Auditors in the Business.”
How easy is it to transition my c-store inventory audits to Quantum Services?
This is a good question because fear of the unknown or change sometimes results in putting up with your current system even though it may not work that well. Quantum Services has transitioned hundreds of clients over the years. We have developed a New Client Process that lowers your risk and keeps everyone informed. But don’t take our word for it, give us a call and we will put you in touch with some of our newer clients so they can share their experience with you.
Read what our clients say.
Click here to download The Costly Fear of Change.”
Click here to download “Why Can You Trust your Rollout / Transition to Quantum Services?”
