We know how impactful this is on our industry –as human beings, as business operators, or with colleagues and loved ones affected in many ways –our thoughts are with you. We all wait eagerly for the light at the end of this tunnel, which we know with confidence is coming.

As I mentioned in my last update, we are all in this together and we are here for you. I hope by now you’ve had the chance to listen to our COVID-19 preparedness webcast.

We have additional free resources now available here for our technology subscribers –with several ways our technology can help you bring in more guests, protect your locations, and your bottom line. What has been shocking to see, and is mentioned in these resources, is that the rate of fraudulent activity has already increased 50% within the last two weeks.

To our services and retail customers –we are focused on Exception Based Reporting work, updating awareness campaigns, folding COVID-19 topics into our audit protocols, and preparing for the soonest possible moment when your locations return to normal. In this area, we have made the difficult decision to temporarily push to April any non-critical or non-phone-based work until we see more volume activity.

Lastly, I would like to say thanks to all the operators and employees who are working through this crisis. When I got my morning coffee today, (by mobile order and proper social distance), I was struck by how much has changed in the last few weeks. The labor/employee dynamic has already shifted in a dramatic way.

On the one hand, employees have fear right now in your restaurants and stores that we need to help them with, on the other hand more operators are being taken advantage of based on our data, and on the other hand there is incredible talent flooding the labor pool already. This is certainly a challenging time to balance. We remain here for you.

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Best,

Mike

Chief Executive Officer, DTiQ

Theoretically, it’s easy to spot the difference between an engaged and a disengaged employee. You can look at their quality of work, willingness to collaborate, and overall behaviour in the workplace. But employee engagement can be difficult to quantify and measure – and disengaged employees are more likely to quit.  Further if you are a franchisee managing multi-unit stores in the quick service restaurant (QSR) industry for example, your challenges are even greater.

Because employee engagement is directly connected to retention rates, franchisees and managers need to understand this powerful metric.

Employee Engagement and Retention: What’s the Difference?

Employee engagement and retention may be closely connected, but they are distinct. Employee engagement is the level of enthusiasm, connection, and dedication a worker feels toward their job and the company at large.  An engaged employee is:

Clear about their role and their specific job duties

Loyal to their employer

Motivated and productive

Invested in the success of their company

Employee retention, on the other hand, is a company’s ability to prevent staff turnover and keep employees. Because engaged employees care about their work, their colleagues, and helping their team succeed, they are less likely to leave for another job. Strong employee engagement, therefore, translates into high employee retention.

Benefits of Higher Retention Rates

High employee retention benefits everyone, including the customers served by the franchise. Here’s how retention affects each stakeholder group:

Management: Hiring and training new staff is expensive and time-consuming.  For high-turnover, low-paying jobs it has been estimated managers should expect to pay around 16% of the employee’s salary to replace them.[1]. Replacing a mid-level employee can cost much more. When employee turnover is low, franchisees and managers have more time (and budget) to focus on other priorities.

Employees: High turnover affects both the employees who leave and those who stay. Employees who leave your franchise miss out on company training, development, and advancement opportunities. And those who stay may have to take on additional work while the position is being refilled, which can lead to stress or burnout.

Customers:  Knowledgeable and experienced employees are able to ensure a seamless customer experience. In contrast, high employee churn can mean that guests receive slower and lower-quality service as they interact with less-experienced employees.

Shareholders: One study in the US conducted by Gallup estimates that voluntary turnover due to burnout can cost an organisation up to 20% of its payroll budget. Think about it, that can translate into thousands – or millions – of pounds each year, significantly affecting your bottom line.

Overall, low retention rates also significantly affect morale. If the makeup of your team is always changing, your team is less likely to be invested in your collective success. Managers lose the institutional knowledge that these employees hold – and the opportunity to promote them to higher-level positions, which costs less than hiring external candidates.

How to Develop an Employee Engagement Strategy

You want your employees to be happy, engaged, and productive, and you value keeping them feeling that – but do you have a plan in place to achieve that goal? Ad hoc initiatives like employee appreciation days are great, but they’re not enough to build a strong company culture or increase employee engagement.

Smart video systems can play a significant role in success. They can provide insights that help improve every aspect of a customer’s experience and your team’s interaction with them from the moment they enter your establishment.  With the ability to support staff with chargeback queries and video evidence to counter customer complaints, it’s therefore, no wonder more businesses are leveraging smart video solutions.

What’s needed to maximise success in the use of such tech in relation to employee engagement is a clear strategy and a comprehensive plan to foster a positive workplace culture, reduce turnover, and keep workers motivated and engaged on an ongoing basis. To build your strategy, take a critical look at each phase of the employee lifecycle at your franchise:

Recruitment: Your employee recruitment efforts and materials should communicate your mission and attract applicants who are passionate about the work you do.

Hiring: Clear position descriptions help you match the right candidates to the right roles.

Training: Employee engagement, retention, and support starts on day one. Make sure your onboarding process is welcoming and comprehensive.

Supervision: Each employee needs to know where to go when they need help. Managers are responsible for communicating clear expectations and providing ongoing support.

Development: Employees are more likely to stay when they have room to grow. Managers should provide training and development opportunities and offer feedback about areas for improvement.

Recognition: Many employees don’t feel recognized at work, so make sure you’re offering praise for outstanding performance.

Departure: When an employee leaves an organisation, management should take the time to conduct an exit interview and understand their reasons for leaving. Exit interviews can provide valuable insights that will help improve your engagement strategy.

Improving Employee Engagement and Retention

Once you have a solid engagement plan, you can focus on ways to improve and refine your engagement tactics. Every franchise is different, so your employee engagement and retention strategies should be customised to your industry and business — this can get as granular as each individual store. But in general, you’ll want to focus on training, support, and communication. Consider the following four practices:

1. Start with the basics

Before you dive into retention strategies, start by clarifying your value proposition: what attracts employees to your franchise? Take a look at your competitors and ensure your wages and benefits are competitive. Review your typical work schedules to make sure that shifts are divided equitably.

2. Gather insights

Your current employees are a big resource – if you want to retain them, you need to understand their perspectives. Consider implementing a staff satisfaction survey to gain insights into what works well and isn’t. Ask employees if they’re receiving meaningful support from their supervisors, and collect data on what would help them stay. This may include more opportunities for advancement, a bonus program, or more schedule flexibility.

3. Track performance

Quantitative data is just as important as the qualitative feedback you collect from staff. Many retail and dining establishments already have the camera and video systems in place. These can be excellent training tools for staff, especially when it comes to implementing health and safety practices or tracking customer engagement.

4. Support your managers

While your retention efforts may be focused on frontline employees, don’t overlook staff members in middle-management roles. Make sure you have the proper training in place to help them do their jobs well and maintain open lines of communication.

Top management won’t have day-to-day contact with entry-level employees, but supervisors do. They’re in a powerful position to communicate your company culture and give on-the-ground insights into employee engagement.

See How Tools Like DTiQ’s Video Surveillance Can Help to Track and Improve Employee Engagement

Looking for ways to improve your employee engagement? DTiQ can help.  As a global leader in intelligent video-based surveillance tools, DTiQ serves over 45,000 retail, restaurant, and convenience store customers. We offer customised cloud-based video solutions and comprehensive managed services with subscription-based pricing, so you can efficiently track employee engagement and productivity and instigate positive change.

These days, users can expect their video solutions to offer insights, track key metrics, and generate reports on transaction times, customer conversion, employee behaviour and other trends.  With insights like this at franchise owners’ fingertips, analytics can be used to improve business operations, objectively. Often there is no need to upgrade your current CCTV or EPOS to get on board with intelligent video, as the latest tech can work with existing infrastructure.

DTiQ even offers SmartAudits to evaluate team members remotely and provide data-driven insights to improve employee performance.  Contact Gareth at: gbakewell@dtiq.com to book a no obligation online demo today for more information about improving employee engagement and retention with DTiQ.

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Read more at https://www.whichfranchise.com/

Siesta Coffee is to use DTiQ’s next-generation ‘Big Sister’ surveillance software and data analysis in stores across the North East, with the aim of enhancing customer journeys.

DTiQ works with some of the leading QSR brands in the USA and Europe including Burger King, Subway, Starbucks, Domino’s and the Hard Rock Café and now also works with QSR firms including Siesta in the UK.

Ryan Stainsby and Carly Moir, Directors of Siesta Coffee confirm: “We always like to be ahead of the curve and use the best technology to ensure our locations run smoothly and cost-efficiently. Working with DTiQ now means we can be proactive to spot trends or any issues faster and take action to create an even better customer experience.”

DTiQ’s advanced server technology records video surveillance of stores and software maps this to EPOS data. Integrated Artificial Intelligence (AI) automatically picks out and alerts operators to any anomalies which need highlighting so there is no need to view hours of video footage. It also provides the option to search for precise time slots or incidents, and footage can be stored for the duration of the contract so QSR operators can check past events easily if needed.

“After seeing what the DTiQ video management system offers, we were impressed. It means we now have a proactive way to help us maintain customer satisfaction and excel at loss prevention while getting a great overview of each store in real time. It has the potential to help us become more energy efficient, improve our staff training, increase speed of service, order accuracy and impact our customer journey positively at every step of the way too,” adds Stainsby and Moir.

Gareth Bakewell, Head of UK Business Development DTiQ comments: “In today’s challenging market conditions with QSR operators facing continued pressure due to increases in energy and supply costs, DTiQ’s intelligent surveillance solutions can help operators gain as many operational efficiencies as possible. If you can see it, you can measure it and DTiQ’s software and our analysis services, which are available from just £3 per day, can provide a cost-effective option to conduct remote audits that drive consistently improved performance across multiple locations.

“We are now delighted to be working with Siesta to help them transform the way they manage costs, optimise revenue and drive operational excellence.”

DTiQ’s video, data and analysis have been able to deliver an unparalleled performance improvement solution to over 45,000 customers in the retail, restaurant, and convenience store industries around the world. Collectively, DTiQ’s customers have realised a reduction in voided transactions of 22%, a reduction in operating costs of 1-2% and an increase in sales across their brands.

This was posted in Bdaily’s Members’ News section by DTiQ.

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Read more at https://bdaily.co.uk/

Machine Learning and Video Analytics empower business owners to manage their occupancy levels by accurately counting and displaying occupancy rates in real time

Boston, USA – 5 June 2020: DTiQ, the leading provider of intelligent video-based surveillance and data analytics solutions, announced today a product that manages occupancy levels in business owners’ locations. The DTiQ solution alerts both customers and employees when occupancy levels meet a certain threshold. These alerts can be automated to the businesses, team members and also alert customers on site through various means of digital messaging.

“We have brought a number of recent innovations to market to address immediate needs of today’s operators, many in response to COVID-19. Having a live occupancy solution is just another way our platform reduces costs for operators” Said Joe Mignone, Chief Customer Officer at DTiQ. “No dedicated employees are required at the door, and the technology works in real time, analyzing video footage at intervals to ensure compliance with local codes.”

“This occupancy management solution is part of the DTiQ Video Analytics architecture. It measures occupancy and speed of service today and is being continually advanced to measure operations in restaurants and stores in real-time. Areas such as cleanliness, merchandising, and operational items are measured with real-time Artificial Intelligence.”

“Measuring occupancy is critical right now to owners/operators that must comply with COVID-19 and distancing restrictions but will continue to add tremendous value even beyond the pandemic.” Said Joe Mignone, Chief Customer Officer at DTiQ. “Our solution brings visibility to peak traffic times, team member behavior by zone in restaurants, and more that will allow managers to make smarter staffing decisions that will maximize sales.”

For more information, visit https://www.dtiq.com/products/occupancy-tracking/

I continue to hope that you are safe and healthy and that you are successfully navigating today’s business challenges. As mentioned in my first and second letters to you, we have continued to set-up our business to support you while innovating for your future challenges. We are committed to be your best vendor during these challenging times.

Our industry needs are evolving every day, sometimes every hour, and the battle of cleanliness and safety has never been more apparent. Major brands are demonstrating their views that convincing consumers to return will be won at least in large part by being the cleanest and safest establishment they can choose. For example outside restaurants and retailers, a look at hotels shows Hilton “Hilton Revealed The Sad Way We’ll Choose Hotels In the Future” (Hint: it’s about cleanliness)

I believe this provides an opportunity for you as operators. You can literally define YOUR establishments as cleaner, safer, more hygenic than those around you – you are committed to being the best. This also reduces loss – ultimately whether theft, liability, inventory erosion – all lead to margin loss in your P&L. I now encourage you to consider the loss from safety, cleanliness, and the potential brand and reputation impacts from the public consumer in an increasing world of COVID-19 impacts.

I want to share that we’ve launched our new COVID-19 SmartAudits® here. You see, we believe that video (whether ours or someone elses) represents the single best technology to measure PPE, social distancing, and mannerisms (face touching) and we have now developed the capability to do just that.

This will be the first of several innovations you see from DTiQ around COVID-19, as this has impacted us all in so many ways and many of you have asked us about analyzing drive-thru improvements, thermal cameras, integration with temperature sensors, occupancy counting, these COVID-19 Audits, and much much more. Thank you for these, please keep them coming.

We are here to say that we are in this together and we continue to be here for you.

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Best,

Mike

Chief Executive Officer, DTiQ

As a valued customer of DTiQ, we take our mission to support you very seriously, and wanted to share our COVID-19 preparedness plan with you.

First, as we have been following the COVID-19 developments very closely, we have a webinar to share our learnings this Friday, March 13 at 1pm EDT. We recognize that this is a challenging time and want to help our customers find the right resources to make the necessary business decisions. If you can’t make it, don’t worry, it will be recorded and is available via a registration link here.

Second, we want you to know that we are well prepared operationally. We know that loss and theft can skyrocket during times of turmoil, and our goal is to ensure we always protect your assets at all times.

We have a geo-redundancy plan that consists of multiple geographically diverse operational centers. Additionally, as I write this, we have already moved 40% of our team to remote work across two continents.

All of our team members entering your stores or restaurants are subject to our COVID-19 policy (found here). This involves simple things like wash-in, wash-out procedures and reporting/notification requirements.

Lastly, we will continue to work with you on scheduling during this challenging time, as availability of technicians, auditors, and field personnel combined with geographic travel restrictions remain an area we are closely following.

Most importantly, we know that your number one job is attracting consumers to your locations and ensuring a safe and successful consumer experience. By utilizing our technology and services, we are launching two new services to assist this, free for any existing audit or awareness subscribers that wish to adopt these:

We are launching today a new video based SmartAudit® product focused on Hygiene, Cleanliness, and operational procedures. We have taken the best policies from leading operators and turned them into a best practices video audit, OR we can use your brand-standards. We perform over 30,000 monthly audits and we can turn these on immediately for you. This is free for any of our technology audit subscribers that wish to swap their current audits out. We are a third-party certified auditing company that can help give you comfort that you are remotely monitoring and measuring locations against strict guidelines regarding cleanliness and hygiene. We also have consumer notices you can share that support this third-party auditing. We know that publicizing these can be huge to consumer confidence.

We have new customer/employee awareness campaigns for the second quarter that are focused on employee cleanliness and hygiene and can be resent to any customers and used in your locations. These campaigns are free for any existing awareness campaign subscribers.

For more information on these, please reach out to your account executive, program director, or info@dtiq.com.

Lastly, we understand that your businesses are critical to you – they provide your income, growth, passion, and incredible consumer experiences all at the same time. We want you to know that we treat our obligation to assist you in the highest regard and that we’ll be there for you.

Best,

Mike Coffey

Chief Executive Officer, DTiQ

“We deliver critical insights to our customers – giving them the key metrics to maximize profit, create a better work environment and improve their customer experience.” Security is imperative for any business; after all, how can you be profitable if you can’t protect your assets? Luckily, video systems are moare intelligent and effective than ever. The best solutions now offer computer-like functions and features, like motion sensors and automatic mobile notifications. Some even let you automatically contact law enforcement instantly if need be. Technological development has also lead to more efficient ways of managing recording and storage, as well. Now business owners have access to immensely powerful solutions that can even drive proactive business improvement at affordable prices.

Executive Team Mike Coffey CEO

Mike Coffey, CEO

In light of the above-mentioned scenario, we’re thrilled to present DTiQ.

DTiQ provides intelligent video-based solutions and loss prevention services for the restaurant and retail industries. They combine state-of-the-art equipment with advanced, cloud-based analytics and managed services. They provide data driven insights to their customers via their industry leading Smart Audit™ reports.

The company has moved beyond “static video” to a new way of harnessing intelligent data via video and audio. DTiQ leverages video and audio feeds to monitor things like store safety, temperature, back door and safe door triggers and smart device integration. The company uses its advanced analytics to integrate directly with third-party POS systems and provide insights. Additionally, the company has a services arm that offers forensic investigation, pre-employment screenings, background checks and even an employee tip line.

The DTiQ services team combine all this data to deliver a proactive managed service to the customer. So, the customer receives specific actionable intelligence that can add value to their business.

The company was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in Boston. It has additional offices in Las Vegas, Pasadena and Gliwice, Poland. Mike Coffey, DTiQ CEO, spoke exclusively to The Silicon Review. Below is an excerpt.

Rewind: Taking Flight

DTiQ was founded by Sam Naficy two decades ago. The company began to grow quickly, attracting outside investment. After introducing intelligent video solutions, DTiQ expanded beyond the restaurant market, securing customers in the c-store and retail industries.

Recently, the company has  expanded through acquisitions in addition to organic growth, which has added significant scale and technological capabilities as well as over 15,000 retail locations. Finally, DTiQ is beginning to build an international footprint, particularly in the EMEA region.

First Project Roll-on: A Terrific Feat

Given that DTiQ has a 20-year history, its early days of the business were actually performing a very different service than it provides today. Like many startups, DTiQ evolved and eventually found a lot of traction with the restaurant group – Subway – in trying to help run its restaurants using video, sensors, and data. The company evolved that as well and now supports over 45,000 live locations across restaurants, retailers, and convenience stores.

DTiQ: ‘Building a Culture of Sustainability’

DTiQ’s products are designed around driving sustainability for its customers. The services it provides help operators run more efficient and healthier businesses with lower levels of waste. The company is simultaneously allowing businesses to maximize financial and environmental sustainability by providing them with better business practices.

“Our product truly establishes a win-win partnership with our customers. By helping them run healthier and more sustainable businesses, we are enabling them to grow and expand their offerings; which in turn leads to new business development for us.”

“As a result, I really see our culture of sustainability as a core of our business that will allow us to continue growing in the coming years.”

DTiQ: ‘Going Above and Beyond’

DTiQ is unquestionably a leader in this industry. In fact, DTiQ’s business offering was the first of its kind and it has consistently rolled out new innovations that have become industry standards. In addition, The company has led the way in establishing industry best practices and values that have helped define standards of service for the entire industry. “We take pride in having gone above and beyond for our customers.”

Factors: ‘That Make DTiQ Stand Out From the Competition’

The people at DTiQ are the greatest asset it has. Unequivocally! “We’re successful because our team is outstanding and works incredibly hard to take care of our customers. The second factor that I would say has been pivotal to our recent growth is our technology. At the end of the day, your business is only as strong as your core product, and we’ve been able to demonstrate that the business intelligence technology we sell delivers a strong ROI for our clients.”

Third, DTiQ has also been able to demonstrate to its customers that the services it offers are the best in the business. “We are able to remove time consuming tasks from our customer. We allow them to focus on their business, while we deliver data-driven insights on specific areas for improvement.”

The fourth asset DTiQ has is its economic moat. “We have a significant market share in the restaurant and retail industries that comes from having done very well by a lot of big brands, and that has made it harder for our competition to break into the market. As we’ve rolled out new products and technology, this competitive advantage has only widened.”

Finally, the fifth asset is DTiQ’s leadership team. “We’ve assembled an executive leadership team with decades of leadership experience and institutional knowledge so that we can successfully deliver value to our customers and help them expand their business.”

DTiQ: ‘We Consistently Deliver Value to Our Customers’

DTiQ has been able to forge a positive relationship with its customers by consistently striving to deliver on its promises to them. “When we occasionally do miss-the-mark, we work hard to make things right as quickly as possible.

I think our reputation benefits from the tight-knit community of the industry we serve. To date, a lot of our business has been referral driven. That business model only works if your reputation is strong.

DTiQ’s reputation is strong because of its products. “We consistently deliver value to our customers. That’s paramount to building a positive reputation in the industry we serve. You can do everything else right, but if your product doesn’t deliver ROI, your reputation will falter.”

Future Arrangements: Sky’s Limit

DTiQ’s space is incredible and it plans to continue to do what it does best, which is “to take great care of our customers”.

Mike Coffey: An Entrepreneur at Heart

Mike Coffey was named CEO of DTiQ in January of 2018. He manages day-to-day operations at the company and develops strategic initiatives to grow the business. Mr. Coffey has extensive experience as a technology executive, having successfully led multiple companies in the IoT, M2M, and SaaS spaces. Mr. Coffey holds a BS in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

“DTiQ combines intelligent video, advanced analytics, and expert services to deliver an unparalleled performance improvement solution to over 45,000 customers in the retail, restaurant, and convenience store industries.”

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Read more at https://thesiliconreview.com/

Features DTiQ with cover story about retail operations and loss prevention

Boston, USA – 11 February 2020: For a second consecutive year, CIOReview included DTiQ, the leading provider of intelligent video-based surveillance and data analytics solutions, to its list of the “20 Most Promising Retail Solution Providers.”

The annual list of companies is selected by a panel of experts and members of CIOReview’s editorial board, recognizing and promoting technology innovation.

“This nomination is an acknowledgement of DTiQ’s operational and loss prevention expertise, management focus and engineering talent,” said Deanna O’Donnell, Vice President for DTiQ. “We are proud to be recognized for our passion and user-friendly technology.”

For more information, visit www.dtiq.com.

Nearly two decades ago, a popular specialty retailer began to weigh the benefits of supporting an internal loss prevention department versus shifting to an outsourced model for the same. Like most players in the space, the retailer struggled with a high associate turnover rate and limited internal resources. These issues quickly escalated into massive losses, which were beyond acceptable levels. The need to re-evaluate their existing loss prevention practices was evident, as visibility into their stores and associate activities was limited, and their shrink rate was unacceptable. After research, the retailer concluded that a fully internal department would cost the company at least millions of dollars annually. Not only was this option expensive, but it would prevent them from providing consistent, proactive coverage for all of their nationwide locations. In addition, the landscape of technology had changed dramatically—from POS systems to Exception Based Reporting (EBR) to analytics to inventory and back of house systems. When the situation started getting out of hand, the retailer came across LP Innovations (now rebranded DTiQ), a company that literally wrote the book on a more proactive and technologically advanced way to manage loss prevention.

DTiQ deployed a low-cost, fully-customized, full-service loss prevention program for the retailer at all store locations within the U.S. In addition to the many benefits of the solution, the retailer also leveraged DTiQ’s nationwide presence that enabled them to respond faster to idividual stores. Working together with the retailer’s district managers, DTiQ developed action plans, including frequent audits using Exception Based Reporting and in-store audits that reduced the shrink rate by 50 percent. By the end of the program, the retailer witnessed earnings improvement of approximately $3.6m annually after the cost of the program, which was a big win for them.

In this example the vision for DTiQ is clear—by combining state-of-the-art surveillance equipment with advanced, cloud-based analytics and managed services, DTiQ strives to improve how retail locations are managed. “We at DTiQ always say: smarter store better results” asserts Mike Coffey, the CEO of DTiQ. “As such, we offer retail-specific business intelligence solutions that help retailers transition to a smarter store and transform their business. We’ve done this with a big focus on loss prevention, which is an under-served area for the speciality retailer, and we’ve rapidly expanded into guest experience and employee engagement programs. Retailers today are concerned about total loss and top line as much as shrink.”

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Read more at https://retail.cioreview.com/

DTiQ team won the award distinction for creating the “Bite The Click” application in 24 hours.

The DTiQ Boot Camp team won the award distinction for the “Bite The Click” application that was created in 24 hours.

This was part of their participation in the Hackathon organized by the faculty of Automation, Electronics and Computer Science of the Silesian University of Technology in Poland.

Team members Rafal Dziarmaga, Jakub Woch and Grzegorz Cudok created a Chrome browser plugin, which changes the color of the hyperlink (from green to red – 5 degrees) depending on the probability of Clickbait used in marketing.    In addition, after hovering on the link, it was possible to mark in a manner known from facebook (like / dislike) whether the information is true or not. The entire application is based on the provision of information by the community and some algorithms.

DTiQ participation in this Hackathon was apart from being a partner of this event.

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Congratulations to the DTiQ Boot Camp team!