Quik Trip (QT), arguably one of the most popular convenience stores in the US, was founded in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1958 by Chester Cadieux and Burt Holmes, who were childhood friends. By 2011, QT had managed to open more than 500 stores and was planning to open over 200 more stores by 2014. Since its founding, QT has been doing exceptionally well as a business. As of 2010, there were over 145,000 convenience stores across America, with more than 60% of them being single-store operations. The first QT store offered grocery products only to its customers; as the managers spotted new opportunities, the business grew to sell gasoline, fresh food, and most goods and services that are available in convenience stores. This paper will analyze QT’s core values that contribute to its success.
Competitive Advantage
According to Jukic (2019), operation strategies that give a company a competitive advantage are the attributes or undertakings by a business that helps the company to outperform its competition; these may include location, speed of service, time of business, price, and quality of service. QT stores open 24 hours a day, throughout the year; the ability of the organization to provide a consistent shopping experience for its customers helps the company gain a competitive advantage over its competitors. Ample parking space for the customers is another attribute that has been helpful for the company. Providing enough parking spaces was a strategic operation by the management of QT after they realized that most of their customers drive to the stores. Quality and fast customer service have also been utilized by QT to encourage more customers to shop at their convenience stores.
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Operations Management and the Customer
Operations management (OM) refers to practices taken by the administration or management to ensure efficiency within the organization (Harvey, 2016). Hiring, training, and securing of goods needed or raw materials are some of the functions of operations management. QT is very specific about its hiring process. In the organization, positions at the entry-level are part-time and full-time clerks, relief assistants, and night assistants; to work at any higher position at the store, an employee has to move up through the ranks from the entry-level positions. This technique cultivates a culture of commitment among the employees; happy and committed employees provide pleasant and valuable service to the customers. QT management has a strict policy on the training of its personnel; part-timers receive 40 hours of training while full-time employees receive up to two weeks of training. The training has a positive impact on customer experience.
The Value Chain
Simply put, a supply chain is a network between a business organization and its distributor/supplier; this is different from a value chain which analyzes the activities of a business organization intending to create value and customer satisfaction. QT’s five core values are to be the best, never be satisfied, focus long-term, do what is right for the company, and do the right thing; these have been very useful in creating value for the products and services and ensuring customer satisfaction in all stores of the company.
Performance Measures
Measuring performance is crucial in any business because it provides insight into a company’s service delivery design and helps administrations to discover what aspect of the business needs improvement (Hui, 2017). QT utilizes the mystery shopper program to evaluate customer service at its stores. The mystery shoppers visit the stores once a week and observe the quality of the customer service, employees’ appearances, cleanliness of the stores, and merchandise displayed in the stores. This evaluation criterion has proved to be helpful for QT. However, the company can implement other performance measurement techniques like taking short customer surveys on customer satisfaction or analyzing sales growth to study the performance of the stores; these two techniques have proven to be useful for many businesses.
Quik Trip’s Use of Technology
In today’s business world, technology is constantly advancing; therefore, there are new useful innovations that can be integrated into almost all industries. To be relevant in any business, it is crucial to be aware of the technological advancements in your business (Hui, 2017). QT like many other leading businesses has utilized technology in its operations to enhance efficiency in its service delivery. The company is so efficient that it may take a customer only three to four minutes from arrival to departure. For instance, rather than scanning high-volume items, employees at QT use speed keys to check out customer merchandise faster. The company utilizes other common business technology like computers, software, accounting systems, and inventory control systems which strengthen the business.
Conclusion
Quik Trip’s management strategies and the company’s success prove that strategic management is crucial to any business’s success. The company’s ability to create a competitive advantage, QT's operations management that positively influence the customers’ experiences, its five core values that promote customer satisfaction, its performance measures, and its ability to incorporate technology in its operations has helped QT become the most popular convenience store in the US with over 700 stores.
References
Harvey, J. (2016). Operations Management special issue on “Professional Service Operations Management (PSOM)”. Journal Of Operations Management , 42-43 (1), 4-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jom.2016.03.005
Hui, B. (2017). The Business Mindframe (2nd ed.). World Scientific Publishing Company.
Jukić, D. (2019). management Strategy analysis. Strategic Management , 24 (1), 10-18. https://doi.org/10.5937/straman1901010j
