Nick the Greek started when the 3 Nicks (Big, Little, and Baby) realized that there was no traditional Greek Street food in the states. They traveled to Greece every year, and when they came back, there was nothing at home to fulfill their cravings. They took it upon themselves to create our concept and bring Greek Street food to the masses. Nick the Greek specializes in gyros (rotisserie meats), souvlakis (charbroiled skewers), fresh salads, and traditional desserts like loukoumades. We opened our first location in 2014 and began franchising in 2019; today, we have 33 locations. 

NTG goals and plans for the future:

Nick the Greek’s goal is to take our concepts nationwide and introduce Greek street food to families across the country.

Why you originally chose to engage with Retail Audit Pro:

After interviewing multiple companies to aid in the support of our franchisees, we felt most comfortable working with Retail Audit Pro due to the amazing response and customer service we received from day one.

Early impressions of Retail Audit Pro after we first started working together:

Initially, we used the shops to ensure that certain criteria were being met and treated it as such. Once we saw how great the information that Kurt and the team provided, we realized that Retail Audit Pro provided much more than simply secret diners, and we decided to make them an integral part of our brand. 

How do you use the shops to improve your operations?

Shops allow us an opportunity to see our business through the customer’s eyes. It’s even better than that because it’s a professional customer’s eyes. At times you may think that your operation is efficient and going well, but another set of eyes may see things very differently, and that is just an amazing tool.

How do you use the field audit app to improve your operations?

Field audits are an essential tool for a franchise business. The field app tool is easy to use and customizable to our business which really helps us crack down to the most minute details of what any problem may be. Field audits have become the most valuable tool to our franchise business because it preps our team and our franchisees for health inspections, shows them what areas need improvement and what areas have improved.

How do you use the brand reputation management platform?

Replying to online reviews and seeing review trends can be time-consuming and overwhelming. Brand reputation makes all this achievable with a snap of a finger. We use the tool once a week, and within minutes we can reply to all reviews, not just the bad ones, see what metrics we are hitting and missing on via the pulse tool and gauge our overall customer sentiment. It’s an amazing tool.

How do you integrate Retail Audit Pro into your franchisee training/ramp-up strategy?

Retail Audit Pro is an integral part of our franchisee training and initial opening strategy. Our franchisees are trained to hone in on key metrics as well as track their reputation during their openings and during regular business hours. It’s an amazing tool that provides them with an opportunity to learn more about their business than they ever thought.

How does Retail Audit Pro fit into NTG’s goals/plans for the future?

We are always looking to develop our partnership with Retail Audit Pro further and create custom reporting and metrics that provide us an opportunity to learn more and continue to develop our brand. Retail Audit Pro has been integral in our growth, and our partnership has been extremely beneficial to both parties. 

Favorite part about working with the Retail Audit Pro team thus far?

Kurt and the team are easy to contact and work with. They understand what is important to a restaurant owner, and they work with you side by side to develop the platform to your liking. I can’t say enough about how satisfied we are with working with Retail Audit Pro. They are truly a step ahead of their competition.

Retail Audit Pro has helped Nick the Greek with their restaurant evaluations and can do the same for your business if you are looking for further insights into your customer experience. Get in touch with us today to learn more about our Retail Compliance Auditor programs!

The post Q&A with Komiel Mohsen, COO of Nick the Greek appeared first on Retail Audit Pro.

Companies like Emagine Entertainment win business by focusing on exceeding customers’ expectations on site, and ensuring their guests have an “exemplary experience,” according to Melissa Boudreau, VP of Sales and Marketing for Emagine Entertainment.   And she’s right – creating an experience that guests can’t replicate by streaming movies in their living room is key to differentiating and bringing customers back. But consistently delivering on that brand promise is a challenge, so Emagine partners with to create a comprehensive program by combining feedback surveys and mystery shop data to monitor and measure their success at executing on their mission.

Managing 18 locations, leadership just didn’t have enough bandwidth to see what was going on for themselves on-site often enough. Initially, Emagine started as many businesses do, by sending out surveys to customers and asking them to provide direct feedback. But the frequency of the data being captured wasn’t enough, and they wanted more data, more often. “For every one complaint we receive, we assume 10 guests have suffered in silence,” said Boudreau. To address this, they expanded to include Retail Compliance Auditor programs in addition to their survey program to increase the amount of data they receive and augment their direct customer feedback with objective third party data.

Retail Compliance Auditor are prepared with specific questionnaires and areas in which they are to focus so management teams can monitor areas for which customers may not ever provide direct feedback. It also allows Emagine to monitor specific days and times to ensure they are collecting data at both busy times, as well as slow periods to ensure staff is maintaining consistent standards.

The results?

Poor scores are shared with leadership in each building, and issues are addressed quickly.  “We’re going to make mistakes,” states Boudreau. “These programs help us learn from them and prevent them in the future.”

Possibly more importantly, lost revenue opportunities are surfaced. For example, Emagine’s loyalty program is supposed to be offered to guests by the staff. Enrollments in the loyalty program drive repeat business and higher sales. However, mystery shop data told leadership that almost no one was pitching the loyalty program to guests. As a result, new training was put into place, which has driven an increase in pitching, resulting in higher enrollments.

“If you are concerned customers are not getting the service you expect and what your goal is to attain, these tools help you understand in depth,” stated Boudreau about the services Emagine utilizes. “You can get data in a short amount of time to make quick, real business decisions that impact the bottom line.”

While cinemas can’t expect competition to go away, companies who adapt and differentiate, like Emagine Entertainment, will continue to see growth by consistently exceeding customer expectations.

The post Emagine Entertainment’s Exemplary Guest Experience appeared first on Retail Audit Pro.

Starting with a Retail Compliance Auditor program to collect unbiased external data, AGFC shopped a mix of meal times and locations to create a complete view of their customer experience. The data provided either validates that standards of excellence are being met, or that new coaching or training tools are needed for constant incremental improvement. Recognizing positive feedback, the AGFC team embraces the opportunity celebrate what’s going well.

But for AGFC, shopper data was just half of the picture. To complete the 360-view, they needed to capture internal data to combine with their shop data. They rolled out a field audit program within the last year to complement the third-party data. By partnering with for both solutions, they can combine and view data in a single dashboard, resulting in easy interpretation of the data to make key business decisions.

“I’ve seen some cultures embrace the shops while others ‘manage’ the shop,” stated Jeff Goodman CEO of AGFC. “You need to turn yourself over to the feedback. Data is coachable information. If you put the appropriate amount of energy into coaching and resolving, you see a real ROI. You can’t manage a program just looking for 90% score, then put that report in the drawer. Even at 95%, look at the misses and take the opportunity to improve. You get out what you put in.”

AGFC is still growing. With new restaurants in development this year, they will continue to monitor and validate their standards of excellence through their Retail Compliance Auditor and audit programs for continued success.

The post How American Gonzo Food Corp Enhanced Consistency Through Retail Compliance Auditor + Audits appeared first on Retail Audit Pro.

Well, the team at Flatbread saw things a little differently. Building a culture rooted in their mission of providing both guests and employees a place to “renew their spirit,” Flatbread has created both a training and management program that is designed to ensure the “Flatbread experience.” They use their Retail Compliance Auditor program to validate that training and ensure the guest has not just a good experience, but a “Flatbread experience.”

Download the full success story to read more about how Flatbread differentiates pizza and beer.

The post How Flatbread Differentiates Pizza and Beer by Ensuring the Customer Experience appeared first on Retail Audit Pro.

We recently chatted with Maria Jump, Assistant Vice President of Student Services at Colorado State University – Global Campus. CSUG is a 100% online university that was founded about 10 years ago and focuses on non-traditional students. Offering Bachelors, Masters, and Certificate programs, the average age of its students is 35 and most are working part of full time in addition to studying for their education.

As an online only school, they prioritize student service above all else since they miss the face-to-face interactions. As such they have implemented Retail Compliance Auditor programs across various services to monitor and evaluate how they are doing internally, as well as how vendor partners are servicing their student body.

CSUG has always surveyed students to get first-hand feedback on services and interactions. However, they found survey data was only telling part of the story. It was ideal for garnering sentiment toward a vendor, or the student’s perception of a service, but it didn’t allow for them to know the areas of improvement to optimize processes and offerings to continuously improve. They need to constantly evaluate processes and identify gaps to provide the level of service the CSUG brand promises.

Retail Compliance Auditor allows them to control actions to monitor and evaluation specific actions and services. For example, student feedback was overwhelming positive regarding a vendor partner that provided tutoring services. However, Retail Compliance Auditor data provided insight into specific touch points and interactions that allowed for process improvements and better service. This allowed them to take their good service to great.

CSUG is looking forward to expanding their Retail Compliance Auditor program across all their services – enrollment, advising, website, library, etc. As Jump states, “Everything starts with the student. Increased enrollments, higher revenue, everything starts with the students having the best experience possible.”

The post Colorado State University Global Campus Drives Student Satisfaction with Retail Compliance Auditor appeared first on Retail Audit Pro.

So we sat down with General Manager of Spencers TV & Appliance, Roy Hannah, to hear how he as used his Retail Compliance Auditor program to drive the kind of customer experience that aligns with Spencers’ brand promise.

Can you provide an overview of your business? How long have you been in business and how many employees? What is your role and how long have you been there?

We have been a family owned and operated business in Arizona for 44 years now. We have 10 locations and a central warehouse.  2 years ago we became an Employee owned (ESOP) company.   We have just over 200 employees currently. As General manager I have many roles; I am one of the buyers, manage a store location, manage some of our advertising, etc.

Where are you headed as a business? What kind of growth or management goals do you have?

If you aren’t growing you are dying.  We strive to be the best solution to the Phoenix market in the appliance category (low price leader, best customer service, most knowledgeable sales team in the industry).  Our goal is to have the largest market share of retail appliances in the Phoenix market.

What challenges were you facing, and what motivated you to solve them?

The biggest limitation to our growth has and always will be the number of great people we can add to our team.  People make or break the business, we constantly look for the right people to join the family.  Our motivation is and always will be serving our customers, employees, and their families to the best of our abilities.   We need to constantly train and evaluate our services in order to keep our level of service up to the standards our customers expect.

Why did you choose our Retail Compliance Auditor Program to help solve this problem?

It gives us a behind the scenes look at the way we’re serving our customers and allows us to use it as coaching to keep our staff sharp.

What kind of shops are you conducting? How have you found the process?

We send in shoppers to 10 locations, and each location is shopped monthly. We focus the shoppers on asking product questions to test staff’s product knowledge as well as the service level. They also review the location for attractiveness, merchandising/product placement, etc.  We are a part of BrandSource, and since other brands in their umbrella mystery shop, we are able to benchmark each location’s performance against other brands in the BrandSource family.

The whole process has been easily customizable by your team and communication has been great from your staff.

How have you and your company benefited from your Retail Compliance Auditor program?

People seem to make better decisions knowing shoppers will come in to ask questions they should know. With each location able to be benchmarked against others, there’s a friendly competition and pride when good scores come in. Acknowledging the top performers sets the right standards for the rest of the brand locations.

What would you say to other businesses facing similar challenges as you did?

Don’t rely on your past accomplishments to carry you forward.  It’s what you do today that counts.  You need to earn your customers business each and every day which requires constant upkeep and growth.

Would you provide us a quote that sums up your feelings about your Retail Compliance Auditor program?

You don’t know what you don’t know. Take the opportunity to shed some light on your people from a different angle and you’ll be surprised at what you can learn.  On one hand you’ll end up with confirmation that some of your team are doing exactly what they should and you can recognize/praise them for it.  On the other hand you’ll undoubtedly find some areas where you can and should improve.

The post Spencers TV & Appliance Drives Customer Service with Retail Compliance Auditor appeared first on Retail Audit Pro.