Carphone Warehouse is to issue standard operating procedures to all stores at the end of June as part of an efficiency drive using best practices learned from Best Buy.
Step-by-step guides on about 400 processes will be delivered through a web-based system Carphone Warehouse has called How2, which is set to go live on June 22.
In tandem with this, Carphone Warehouse has run a productivity study across 20 stores to examine how long it takes to complete processes and then make a business case for improving them.
In a second stage to the project, processes in the rest of the business – such as its call centres and distribution centres – will be mapped. This will begin in the next month.
Carphone Warehouse business operations director Ashley Cook said: “We’ve used learnings from Best Buy on this stuff. The learnings were to document and understand the processes and procedures that the business operates on, work out how long they take and then look for inefficiencies and work on fixing those. That’s the main prize.”
Carphone Warehouse entered into a joint venture with US electricals giant Best Buy in May last year to roll out its big-box format electricals stores in the UK in spring next year.
The How2 system provides a step-by-step guide on any process that a member of staff in store may need to complete and has been created to allow staff to provide better customer service at the point of sale.
The system requires little training to use but 33 ambassadors have been appointed within the business to promote it to stores. Staff will then be educated about how it can make their lives easier.
How2 will allow Carphone Warehouse to roll out products and propositions to stores quickly and will also be used to train new starters.
Last week Carphone Warehouse revealed that it would de-merge its retail and fixed-line broadband business Talk Talk in July next year. They will become two separate listed companies.
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