Customer loyalty isn’t just one thing you do. All the little things you and your staff do add up to a complete customer experience. In a convenience store with fuel service, this may have nothing to do with how your staff interacts with a customer. After all, you likely have a large set of customers who pay at the pump and never even walk inside your store. It may be, though, that customers don’t venture inside to make additional purchases simply because of what they see outside.
Exterior Facility Care Sets the Stage for a Positive Customer Experience
You may have the best advertising at the pump for you in-store specials, but if they’re surrounded by a littered lot and overflowing trash cans, people may not be tempted to check them out. Keeping your store’s exterior in tip-top shape is the best marketing you can do for add-on sales. The effort is two-fold:
- Employee training. The first step in maintaining your store’s exterior is training. Exterior facility care training sets a level expectation among all your employees regarding what the outside of your store should look like. From there, employees should be trained on specific maintenance tasks, such as sweeping the parking lot, clearing the trash cans, and cleaning the dumpster area.
- Policies and procedures. There’s a difference between an employee knowing what needs to be done, and being given the opportunity to do it. Make sure your store’s policies and procedures support giving employees the time they need to complete their exterior facility care duties. Have contingency plans in place to cover shifts where you’re short-staffed or situations where the outside of your store needs extra attention, such as after a weather event or a big rush.
The Manager’s Role in Exterior Facility Care
What gets inspected gets done. What gets rewarded gets repeated. As a c-store manager, walk your exterior regularly, looking at it from a customer’s perspective. Coach employees when you notice short-comings in facility care, and reward them when they perform above expectations.
C-Store Training on Exterior Facility Care
The Exterior Facility Care Training Workshop by Ready Convenience helps c-store employees of all levels understand the importance of exterior care as well as the proper techniques to keep your exterior looking its best. Watch the video below, or click here for more information.
