quantum services faqWe understand that choosing an external company to come into your c-stores and count your inventory is a big deal. You not only need someone with exceptional expertise who is efficient and accurate, but you also want to trust them from day one. You likely have many questions, and we’re happy to answer a few of them below in our inventory audit FAQs.

For 50 years, Quantum Services has provided superior inventory audit services to leading c-stores across the country. Given our broad experience, we’re happy to answer any additional questions outside of these FAQs you might have about partnering with us and bringing our auditors into your stores.

There are benefits to both approaches. In general, outsourcing functions that are not core competencies of your organization is a good idea. Sometimes we must admit our company cannot be great at everything.

Some of the many benefits to outsourcing your inventory counts to an audit company that specializes in convenience stores include:

  • Finding and keeping great talent is always a challenge. Your best people likely won’t end up on your audit team because you’ll want to leverage them in your core store operations instead.
  • It’s difficult to provide the necessary training and support for internal auditors. Will you invest the time and resources needed to keep the skills of your auditors at peak performance?
  • Internal audit programs often experience “job creep.” It’s too easy to keep adding more tasks and responsibilities to the auditors. The result is a job that requires an almost impossibly broad skill set and the ROI for these additional roles is evaluated infrequently.
  • Your audit process and approach are at risk of becoming insular and outdated. How will you get the audit industry’s best practices into your organization regularly? Outsourcing gives you access to the latest technology and insights.
  • Internal audit programs must compete with other departments for technology and equipment investments. Will they win often enough to stay ahead?
  • Outsourcing the audit function increases flexibility. With an internal team, your audit costs become mostly a fixed budget item. With an outside provider, you pay only for the number of audits you need, giving you budgeting flexibility without increasing or decreasing staff.
  • When all the hard and soft costs of your audit program are considered, it is often less expensive and more cost effective to outsource.

We will increase your confidence in the accuracy and completeness of your audits. The purpose of an audit is to find out if you have a shrink problem. If you lack confidence in your audit team, it becomes so much harder to take corrective action quickly. Quantum Services also shares industry knowledge and experience to improve your audit systems, identify shrink control weaknesses and provide you with custom feedback on your store operations through our SPECS observations and trends reporting.

Our choice to specialize in c-stores impacts almost every area of our service to our clients. Operators of convenience stores face a unique set of auditing challenges and opportunities. Our specialization helps us meet those needs. Our staff are full time auditors who average more than four years of service to Quantum. This results in a depth of industry experience and knowledge unmatched by other inventory services. Our technology and systems to ensure accuracy are designed specifically for c-stores. We don’t claim to be the best solution for everyone, but we are the best choice for the convenience store industry.

We know fear of the unknown or change sometimes results in putting up with your current system even though it may not work that well. Quantum Services has transitioned hundreds of clients over the years. We have developed a New Client Process that lowers your risk and keeps everyone informed. We are happy to put you in touch with some of our newer clients so they can share their experience with you.

Home•INVENTORY AUDIT FAQs: Getting to know Quantum Services