Company operations across the board have never seen changes like those brought on by the pandemic. Whether it’s closing their doors to the public, going online, an increase in sales or a complete overhaul in how they do things, no one has been immune to its impact. The same goes for customer behaviours. They have changed, in line with changes to their lives which we’ve also seen over the last year.
Food is one area that we’ve witnessed increased demand. The advent of lockdowns and customer fears over shortages is resulting in surges of bulk buying. With government announcements about restrictions, we’ve seen various patterns of purchasing emerge. And when any difference, change or erraticism may appear in customer behaviour, every store manager needs to pay attention and stay on top of their stock.
And it’s not just stock. At a moment’s notice, any staff member or, indeed, multiple members could be notified they are a close contact of a confirmed case of Covid-19 or, indeed, contract the virus. This means at any time, or any day, you can suddenly have a staff shortage with minimal warning. But instead of everything coming to a standstill, there are ways we can keep operations going during this time and beyond. One of the main ways is by going digital with your food inventory management process.
This option can overcome many of the obstacles faced in this area due to the pandemic and beyond. For example, staff not being able to come in whether Covid related or not. You might be relying solely on an in-house manual count with multiple staff members, or indeed, you are out sick as a manager. With a digital food stocktaking solution like DigiTally, you can access what you need from your device, meaning the process doesn’t stop entirely because everyone isn’t in store.
The same applies to staggered shifts. Fewer people doesn’t mean the work comes to a complete halt if your food inventory management process is accessible online. It also brings a new level of safety to your operations as it’s narrowing down the in-person time and restricting contacts by association. Regardless of any in-house hiccup, this continues to increase your oversight on the process all the time.
This is a no brainer when it comes to better managing your food stock, now and in the future. You can see patterns, manage multiple locations, access this information from your device, make better inventory decisions and respond to your customers’ needs. Their behaviours change in line with the changes experienced by them during these unusual times, but this means you can respond more effectively, which is ultimately what matters.
Everyone is doing what they can and adjusting where they can to the new way of doing things. But while the threat continues, we don’t need to be just thinking long term with our strategies. We need to be implementing them now, so the solution you decide to go for will overcome any external and unexpected obstacles faced later. And if you want to be pandemic proof with your food inventory management operations, make sure your choice is a digital one and go DigiTally.
