Key stats:
- 40 stores implemented Zipline
- 8000+ associates using it
- 90% in-store execution rate
- 86% reduction in time to complete assessments
Festival Foods is a Wisconsin family- and employee-owned grocer committed to giving back to its communities. Continuing to grow from 40 supermarkets and 8,000+ employees, leaders were finding execution more and more difficult to measure. They needed to:
- Combat industry challenges like staffing shortages, increased omnichannel complexity, and rising inflation
- Uphold their focus on people and relationships through optimized operations
- Improve efficiency and boost associate engagement
- Clearly track execution based on “delivering results with excellence and displaying a passion, focus, and sense of urgency in day-to-day work”
A fresh way to communicate and execute
Before Zipline, Festival Foods relied solely on email. That meant over 20 departments combing through stacks of daily requests—many of them duplicates, with others buried and missed altogether.
Now they can target information by region, location, and department, as well as assign individual tasks across teams. One-to-one/group messaging makes communication quick and direct, reducing the load of calls, emails, and texts. Over 80% of communications were scheduled, with clear task outlines to be completed by each department and team.
“Communication changed completely. You come in, you check your Zipline, see what’s coming up for the day. And then as a leader I can go in and see what was accomplished the day before and what maybe is behind, and ask questions in that area,” said Frank Abnet, Senior Vice President of Store Operations.
Store teams can check Zipline first thing and know exactly what they need to do to keep the day on track.
Accounting for accountability
What does a well-done task “look” like? Just upload a picture to the Zipline mobile app. Store Directors and Market Leaders can visually verify execution in real time, making sure everything—like setting up their famous “Hot Ham Stand”—is up to standard.
Zipline’s surveys and assessments mean execution can happen at scale, quickly. In one case, the time to complete an in-store assessment was reduced from 3 hours to just 25 minutes.
Accountability is built-in across the platform. Recipients can delegate tasks and department directors can track completion, creating a feedback loop that clearly surfaces opportunities and areas for improvement.
“Before I even walk into the store,” Michael Slakpere, Market Store Director told us, “I pull up Zipline, I take a look at overdue tasks, communications that have been streaming into the store. I have a good idea of what I’m walking into, so that allows me to engage leadership in the store at a much higher level.”
A faster route to greater brand impact
Just 6 weeks after a full-fleet Zipline launch, Festival Foods had fully embodied its brand ideal of execution. On top of 93% readership, they achieved a 90% execution rate—3x the industry average of 29%.
Everything is accessible, searchable, and actionable within Zipline. Instead of managing hundreds of email attachments, Support Office staff can inspect store setups in seconds. One source of truth puts important information at everyone’s fingertips. Excellence is clearly defined and simpler to achieve.
So team members have more time to focus on guest experience (and bringing them back). “If I describe Zipline in one word,” Michael continued, “it would be ‘transformational.’ It transformed the way that we communicate within our organization, it transformed the way our teams execute, and ultimately that leads to our teams being able to serve our guests better than our competitors.”
“It’s a rare thing for new software to help a team transition so smoothly. Zipline is the exception. We chose Zipline due to its superior functionality, the company’s reputation, and most importantly, the general culture fit with Festival Foods. Through the pilot, tasks and duties never skipped a beat—because everything was in Zipline. Reliability is priceless, and Zipline gave us newfound confidence.”
– Michael Siakpere, Market Store Director at Festival Foods
Learn how Zipline can keep your day on track
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