Case Study
Once Mountain Source administrators saw how effective the GoSpotCheck platform was and how much time their field teams saved, they expanded it to all frontline employees.
The current brick-and-mortar retail landscape is certainly filled with its fair share of rivers to cross and mountains to climb, but Mountain Source is more than game to tackle whatever obstacles come its way.
Partnered with well-known brands such as Smartwool and Chaco, Mountain Source has made a name for itself as one of the premier outdoor sports sale agencies in the United States. Having such a close working relationship with brands and retailers on the ground level has given the company a unique view of the trends shaping and reshaping the outdoor industry.
There's plenty of concern regarding the rise of e-commerce channels and what that means for traditional brick-and-mortar operations. To be sure, there have been store closures for both small, independent shops and larger, established chains, but these conditions only confirm the need to optimize merchandising and put brands in the best position possible to drive in-store sales.
Mountain Source representatives travel all over the Rocky Mountain region to conduct in-store visits on behalf of their brand partners. Their field team's footprint extends across Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico, and Nebraska.
That's a lot of ground to cover, especially with each store necessitating four visits every single year. To stay one step ahead of market conditions, Mountain Source needed a fast, easy, and reliable way to gather field intel.
Mountain Source is synonymous with the rugged outdoors, and never shies away from a challenge.
Brands represented
First year of operation
Field team members
Retailers served
On top of the prevailing industry concerns regarding e-commerce merchants cutting into brick-and-mortar revenue, Mountain Source also had to contend with its own field management inefficiencies.
Sales teams were also interested in seeing more up-to-date field data to capture a better understanding of the state of their retail and brand relationships and identify opportunities for improvement.
Administrators attempted to introduce several different formats to make filling out field reports as uniform and seamless as possible. They tried using Excel spreadsheets and the Evernote application—among other platforms—to facilitate field reporting and improve turnaround times, but to no avail.
The variety in data collection, and related lack of structure, decreased efficiency. Some staff members submitted their reports over the phone while others sent information via text messages.
Many frontline employees needed to spend a considerable amount of time back in the office at the end of each day compiling reports. Others would file their daily reports from home after they got off work. Either way, completing and sharing reporting was tedious, cumbersome, and time-consuming.
Company decision-makers like Mountain Source Partner Bruce Gordon prioritized three major criteria when selecting a software solution to provide more insight into retail store conditions. The platform needed to:
Facilitate communication between Mountain Source and its brand partners
Streamline field management capabilities so Mountain Source could keep frontline employees on task
Open communication channels with retailers that needed information about current brick-and-mortar market trends
GoSpotCheck checked all of these boxes and more. Because the software is fast and intuitive, field teams were able to capture more store-level data than ever before. Where sales managers might have previously expected to receive reports on only a handful of locations each day, GoSpotCheck users can submit dozens in a single shift—leading to a heavier influx of powerful data.
GoSpotCheck is actually a great tool for collecting sales data. It’s an aggregate of a lot of information.”
—Bruce Gordon, Partner
From the very start, GoSpotCheck provided responsive functionality that really resonated with Mountain Source’s team. On-boarding was a breeze—requiring only an initial meeting to introduce employees to the software.
Because of GoSpotCheck's flexible mobile interface and navigable dashboards, frontline staff members had no trouble integrating it into their daily routines.
The Mountain Source field team expressed relief at the sheer convenience of GoSpotCheck's mobile application. Laptops and spreadsheets were not necessary to create a field report. Every step could be completed entirely through the mobile dashboard.
Moreover, frontline employees said goodbye to those arduous end-of-day office visits filing reports. With GoSpotCheck, they documented store conditions in real time while in the field.
Sales managers are also happy with the addition of GoSpotCheck to their mobile tech stack. Internal teams can compare retail performance metrics for different brands across various stores to spot trends and identify opportunities to increase revenue.
Brand advocates can quickly check that all retail locations abide by their specific messaging guidelines and feature marketing material for the latest campaigns. In one instance, field representatives flagged outdated signage for a particular brand using the GoSpotCheck app—decreasing the possibility of both lost sales and unhappy customers.
In the near future, Mountain Source officials have plans to expand GoSpotCheck's internal footprint by integrating it with critical business software.
Whatever challenges arise in the retail industry, Mountain Source can continue relying on GoSpotCheck to help compile critical data, glean valuable insights, optimize in-store shopping, and drive sales.
GoSpotCheck was such an easy plug-and-play solution. We've had zero issues.”
—Bruce Gordon, Partner
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