Even the best remote monitoring cannot detect some things – they need a human to actually visit a store.
Condition and Compliance Issues
For a number of issues observed during field visits, a human can spot defects that a computer simply wouldn’t. For example, during a field visit a damaged shelf-edge label, a missing safety sign or a hazard were all observed which would not have been picked up from a feed of cameras throughout a store. In such cases, the sensors simply record whether something is present or absent and a human makes a judgment about whether something is adequate or not (e.g. is a sign torn, is it faded, is it displayed correctly – all issues that affect compliance).
Pricing and Promotional Accuracy
This ensures that the correct price ticket is attached to the correct product and that any offer, promotion or event is displayed on the correct product with the correct end date printed on the price ticket. In-store material, such as A-boards and shelf edge labels, are also checked to ensure that they are displayed correctly and not damaged or worn. This is particularly important where prices or offers are changed regularly as point-of-sale material may be left in a back room or distributed to stores but not actually displayed.
Competitor Activity at Ground Level
A new fixture from a competitor, a new range from another supplier being placed on the same shelf as your products, a promotional stand that has been set up on the shelf space of another supplier – none of these will show up in your own internal sales data. However a field visit can record what a store actually looks like on any given day from a customer’s perspective.
Access and Layout Problems
These can change overnight without even the store’s own team knowing and therefore will not be reported. An outside observer coming in on a routine visit can pick up on these quickly and highlight to the business the changes that have occurred and how these may be impacting customers.
Staff and Service Observations
A number of aspects of a store and its staff can only be collected by someone visiting a store in person. Dress code, greeting, and product knowledge are just a few examples that a structured field visit can collect for a data collection company and provide an honest answer to whether a brand is meeting its standards in stores across the country.
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Please be aware of the rules on collecting information about individuals in public places when undertaking field work as a UK business.
These types of field data collection visits complement the work that can be done remotely and by means of automated reporting to highlight specific issues or situations not visible in remote monitoring.