CASE STUDY. Five Acre Farms Milks Data to Lower Out-of-Stocks and Perfect Retail Execution

Transcription

1 CASE STUDY Five Acre Farms Milks Data to Lower Out-of-Stocks and Perfect Retail Execution

2 COMPANY: FIVE ACRE FARMS Five Acre Farms, based out of Brooklyn, New York, brings food from local farms into nearby grocery stores, restaurants, and food shops. Although the company s main focus is dairy, including milk, cream, yogurt and kefir, Five Acre Farms portfolio also includes eggs, apple juice, and seasonal apple cider. Each Five Acre Farms product is sourced and produced within 275 miles of the point of sale. Five Acre Farms finds outstanding farmers using sustainable practices, pays them fairly, and tells their stories. The company s business helps to create jobs and promote the local economy, expand access to local food, safeguard the environment, preserve farmland, protect groundwater, and foster proper animal treatment. The information Five Acre Farms collects through GoSpotCheck helps decrease the amount of lost sales, lower the number of out-of-stocks, and monitor a baseline for field execution. Alexandra Constantine, Field Representative at Five Acre Farms, explained more about how the food and beverage company uses GoSpotCheck to collect actionable data. PROBLEM Before implementing GoSpotCheck, Five Acre Farms used an internal tool available only through internetconnected computers, requiring data entry after account visits. While at accounts, the Five Acre Farms team retained information by memory so they could be fully engaged in their interactions with store staff and customers. As such, human error in capturing data was inevitable. A deep understanding of pricing is critical to the success of any retail business. To that end, Five Acre Farms sought detailed reports that would help identify and analyze pricing trends and related market insights. However, the company s existing tool did not offer adequate reporting or an online dashboard with displayed data limiting the ability to access and analyze data for enhanced decision-making.

3 Our team has been very pleased with GoSpotCheck and the value of the information we have collected and acted on as we continue to grow our business. There is definitely more GoSpotCheck can offer that we haven t even tapped into. The large number of merchandising sub-categories involved in Five Acre Farms business, including which SKU s are currently stocked and out of stock, posed additional challenges for data aggregation. Recognizing the internal tool s limitations, Five Acre Farms began looking for a SaaS solution designed to monitor merchandising, demos, and account relationships. The company also wanted to ensure that its products were on the shelf, items were labeled correctly, and insights could be shared and distributed appropriately. SOLUTION Five Acre Farms implemented GoSpotCheck to improve efficiency, marketplace visibility, and knowledge sharing. Before rolling out GoSpotCheck, Five Acre Farms reps would leave accounts, write down notes, and then reenter information digitally. With GoSpotCheck, data can be collected on-the-go in the GoSpotCheck mobile application instead of only off-site leading to clear timesavings and greater accuracy. Missions the GoSpotCheck word for surveys are the foundation for Five Acre Farms data collection. Mission History and open-ended questions help keep track of important information to maximize returns from earlier account visits.

4 I can look at my game plan from a previous visit just before I enter a store. If I want to alert myself to buy a sample of Maple Kefir for the dairy manager during next visit, that reminder will be saved for me within GoSpotCheck so I can refer to it later, Constantine said. Each of Five Acre Farms GoSpotCheck Missions is dedicated to gathering insights about a specific business component. The Merchandising Mission collects data regarding products carried in an account. The Pricing Mission helps reps verify and correct pricing. GoSpotCheck also helps Five Acre Farms track consumer feedback in a few ways, one of which is documenting keywords that come up in conversation. The presence of both multiple select and open-ended short answer questions gives reps flexibility to input all necessary information. A real-time dashboard with filterable data provides quick recaps of weekly activity including what percentage of stores have out-of-stocks. Examining those numbers in relation to promotions and sales helps Five Acre Farms monitor progress toward reaching sales goals and maintain accountability. Instead of reading each report at face value, we can synthesize information to make a meaningful and actionable story out of what we re doing in the field. The GoSpotCheck database also provides information surrounding Five Acre Farms enabled and disabled accounts. The list of populated places, accessible to anyone with permission, is a logical way to examine business by region indicating to the company where it needs to deploy additional marketing and merchandising support. Meaningful data also helps Five Acre Farms take related action to reach resolution. Either I m noticing that I m making progress in my stores, or I know that I have a job to do because my stores aren t performing the way I would like. GoSpotCheck data gives us a challenge and a purpose, Constantine said.

5 OUTCOME Five Acre Farms has found success within GoSpotCheck by using different task types to collect quantitative and qualitative data. The food and beverage company minimizes lost revenue by identifying, understanding, and taking action to address problem areas. As soon as we actually see on a sheet what stores are running low or out of stock of certain items, we can base our conversations with dairy managers around those particular items. In that way, GoSpotCheck has helped Five Acre Farms decrease lost sales, Constantine said. Five Acre Farms generates reports to cleanly show important data, including which stores carry certain products and progress toward and achievement of its merchandising goals which, for Five Acre Farms, is a minimum of two visits at each store per month. The total number of visits performed in a single month is one indicator of which accounts are receiving the most attention. Out-of-stock reports help Five Acre Farms pinpoint lost sales in a given location and thus easily identify an area of improvement, Constantine explained. For Five Acre Farms, the first step to decreasing product voids was finding what products are the most challenging to keep on the shelf. By utilizing GoSpotCheck data, the company determined that cultured items, including yogurt, are most often out of stock. This trend was surprising, considering cultured items have some of the longest expiration dates in Five Acre Farms portfolio. It s kind of a counter-intuitive insight that we may not have understood without GoSpotCheck. Instead of reading each report at face value, we can synthesize information to make a meaningful and actionable story out of what we re doing in the field, Constantine said.

6 The flexibility of the GoSpotCheck application makes it easy for Five Acre Farms to collect a variety of data points. Store managers sometimes have important feedback for Five Acre Farms regarding issues like late deliveries or dates on shipments. Insights from GoSpotCheck provide a concrete form of evidence to begin proactive conversation toward resolution. Either I m noticing that I m making progress in my stores, or I know that I have a job to do because my stores aren t performing the way I would like. GoSpotCheck data gives us a challenge and a purpose. Five Acre Farms circulates its collected data companywide from the Sales Director to the CEO as well as with partners and customers to build trust and share information. Our Director of Sales works very closely with the head dairy manager at a major chain in the region, and he asked her for a monthly out-of-stock report for our products across all their stores, Constantine said. GoSpotCheck made it easy to provide him with exactly the data he needed.

7 To monitor expansion efforts, Five Acre Farms uses GoSpotCheck data to determine the percentages of two top-selling items that are out of stock. The relationship between that data and corresponding account visits helps define what corrective actions will be most beneficial to reduce the number of out-of-stocks. By the same token, it is important for Five Acre Farms to verify what products performed highly to allocate its resources properly. We always pay particular attention to GoSpotCheck data surrounding our best selling items, Constantine explained. By collecting and analyzing data with GoSpotCheck, Five Acre Farms strategically decreases lost sales, out-of-stocks, and product voids. Still, Five Acre Farms management has only scratched the surface of GoSpotCheck s multi-faceted technology. Our team has been very pleased with GoSpotCheck and the value of the information we have collected and acted on as we continue to grow our business. There is definitely more GoSpotCheck can offer that we haven t even tapped into, Constantine said. GoSpotCheck Can Help Your Business Too We have a wide array of solutions. Request a demo to get started: REQUEST A DEMO