It's good to talk, says supermarket chain

Somerfield has reaped the benefits of improved communication flow by upping its use of conference calls, including improvements in stock availability.

Up-to-date information on store-level performance is critical for any retailer and it's a two-way flow. When Somerfield was brought into private equity ownership in 2005, a bigger emphasis was placed on the flow of communication, with central managers and store managers having the responsibility to talk to each other about the issues of the day. Sales information flowed down to the store and stock management issues flowed up to HQ.

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According Somerfield's head of sourcing and IT services, David Heyes, conferencing was already being used from 2000, but after the change in ownership the scale of its use was increased. The retailer adopted what he terms "rumble calling", which involves 30 senior managers and six store representatives all in the same conference call.

He said: "The aim was to improve awareness of store issues and drive fast action." Meetings last up to 30 minutes, and individual store challenges and triumphs are aired in public, which provides incentives to stores to maximise their performance.

Heyes notes around 2,200 Somerfield staff use conference calling as part of their job. Around 1,000 store managers and 200 central staff use the system regularly, with another 1,000 trading managers, who report to store managers at branch level, also using the system occasionally.

Somerfield has recently upgraded its call conferencing services to Ring2 in February, following a change in its telecoms services provider to Vanco. The Ring2 service allows conference call organisers to control proceedings remotely through a PC or BlackBerry handset.

This control extends to seeing exactly who has joined the call, giving greater security from eavesdroppers. However, this is less important to Heyes, who attaches more value to Ring2's commitment to customer service and flexible billing.

Heyes said: "I couldn't quantify the benefits we get from using conference calling, but since we have used it extensively, we have seen percentage point improvements in stock availability. The improved communication focuses managers' minds on whether the initiatives they drive are working."