Case Study

Case study - Smoothie King

Rachel Bienvenue

In This Article

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Case Study

Why DTiQ?

When we were in the market for a video surveillance system, we wanted to work with a company that made it easy to access everything from one place. I didn’t want to have to log in and out of different systems, type in separate IP addresses, etc. The beauty of DTiQ’s system is that all my data is accessible from one central location that I can get to easily on my mobile phone. At the office, one monitor is dedicated to my custom dashboards on 360iQ so I can keep an eye on what’s going on.

DTiQ is a Partner

Although as a company we don’t really mind spending money upfront, we appreciate that the monthly subscription with DTiQ makes it a real partnership. Cameras are going to fail, DVRs are going to go out; the fact that DTiQ is responsible for maintaining the equipment is very valuable. Having a partner that allows us to simply submit a ticket when something needs to be addressed is so helpful. In our organization specifically our stores span 4 states, so having 1 main point of contact, 1 company to handle technical needs, makes a huge difference.

“If someone’s on the fence about DTiQ, they shouldn’t be. The DTiQ system is worth its weight in gold”

360iQ Dashboard

I rely on the 360iQ dashboard daily. I use it primarily to view live and recorded video plus access support information. The Support section is impressive; we can submit tickets directly on the site and view their progress. The response time is fantastic with regard to callbacks. When we receive guest complaints or comments that require further investigation, we can easily access video and audio footage to determine how the team interacted with the guest. It is paramount to me to take the right action based on what really happened. You never want to not believe your team but you have nothing else to go off of without video and audio verification. If we can’t hear what was said or see what was done, we just don’t know what happened.

Things, like not smiling or not being sincere, can be easily addressed with training. If an employee does something completely inappropriate though we have grounds to terminate. The system takes out the guesswork and emotion. You can’t argue with footage.

I can see how many cars are in line all day, notify mangers to adjust staffing requirements or head to busier stores. We can make minute by minute decisions.

Thanks to the DTiQ system we can pinpoint what exactly happened. As an example, if there’s a $100 deposit missing; we can dig through footage or review SmartAudit™ to see where it went. We explain to our team that the system is there to protect them. It makes people think twice. There are some smart kids who work with us who I know can come up with creative ways to steal but the level of detail in the audits and access to material in 360iQ makes them think twice. It’s a great deterrent just in case they were thinking of doing something bad!

SmartAudit™ Reports

One of the most critical areas for us is speed of service. The fact that we can use the audits to track ticket time is important; we have been alerted to some really high ticket times, which is something we address immediately. We notify area managers so they can coach their teams on what went wrong. Sometimes stores are understaffed so we can adjust staffing requirements as needed throughout the day. Alternatively, maybe team members are just not handling peak times properly. The productivity alerts stand out to me also in the audits.

Cell phone usage is a slippery slope but if a guest is present there is no doubt that phones should be away.

Generally speaking, anytime we have doubts about a team member it is reinforced by the audits. The reports help support decisions regarding terminations – whether related to slow service times or excessive cell phone usage as examples. Just last month we were on the fence about a particular employee; the audits showed this person on their cellphone in the back of the house instead of upfront helping guests. It made the decision easy and we could show her the proof. There’s no telling what this kind of behavior could cost us in the future.

Sometimes you can fool yourself into not firing someone because of the inconvenience of having to find a replacement, adjust schedules, etc. but the audits provide independent, arbitrary facts about what transpired that help us validate our decision making process and make us confident in those decisions.

Emotions can get the better of you too; I’m guilty of that. Some of our Managers wear their hearts on their sleeves and others will terminate at the first sign of wrongdoing. I believe there’s a happy medium but it’s always tough regardless so this is a good tool to help make a decision one way or another. There are folks in dire need of the job who just can’t perform, unfortunately. We’ve certainly taken action dozens and dozens of times based on what we have found in audits though this applies to the system in general – cameras, audio, and POS integration.

Additionally, audits don’t necessarily include an opportunity to change something every time but can also confirm that we’re doing things right. When the team members see these files they’re blown away. We don’t tell them when or how often the audits are conducted and they’re always surprised by the level of detail that another party other than our own can uncover. We don’t want them to feel like it’s big brother all the time but if you do the right things it protects you from the people who aren’t.

We recently got together as a leadership team and agreed we need to do a better job of customizing our audit questions. I know you offer complete customization, so it’s on us!

Financials

This is an area that’s hard to pinpoint. We know for certain that the system has impacted our operation but I can’t identify specific areas of financial improvement. I am confident that the DTiQ system has deterred theft from occurring, which is certainly saving us money. Plus, we have a better understanding of guest interactions that went wrong, issues that would cost us a future business or real actual dollars, that we can fix. Local police departments have come to us for video footage and DTiQ excels in those scenarios by offering watermarked discs, plus downloadable video. It’s an impressive feature.

Final Thoughts

On the surface, surveillance doesn’t appear to be an effective way to use limited financial resources but you can’t let that dictate your decision because it’s the exact opposite. When I add up what we spend on the system for 10 locations it is a lot but I know that without it we’re stuck guessing what happened when you are not there. Unfortunately, you can’t trust anyone. When given the opportunity to steal, the majority of people will. The system keeps honest people honest and gives me peace of mind as an owner.

If someone’s on the fence about DTiQ, they shouldn’t be. The DTiQ system is worth its weight in gold; to be able to be in your store without really being there…. there’s nothing better. I have no idea how I would manage my stores without DTiQ’s audio and video capabilities in my stores.

Case study - Smoothie King

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