This article is brought to you by Ready Training Online, part of the 360training family of brands.

C-store operators have an overarching goal: operational excellence. According to Tom Hart, senior account executive of business development at Ready Training Online (RTO), that happens when a store’s mission, program execution, customer service and brand expectations all come together.

According to Hart, operational excellence comes to fruition through small, continuous improvements. “You can’t just have a store meeting—or any meeting—get all your points across and then call the job done. Experiencing operational excellence takes focused determination throughout the day. And once you reach that standard, you need to work just as hard to stay there.”

The first step to achieving operational excellence, Hart said, starts with inspiring employees. “If you reinforce good behavior and celebrate small wins, employees start to connect the importance of their contribution to the performance of the store—that’s when the inspiration kicks in. People want to be part of a high-performing, winning team,” he said.

Inspired teams take pride in their work and strive for results, Hart noted—the merchandising has to be perfect, the coolers impeccably organized and the foodservice has to not just be well presented, but enticing at first glance.

Another benefit to having inspired teams? It leads to retention. “Most turnover happens in the first 30 days. People that are motivated by high performance teams will make their decisions quickly on whether this is the right job for them,” Hart said. “If they are surrounded by lack of organization, poor communication or teams that lack direction, talented employees will go elsewhere, and you may then end up retaining the ones who have less interest in achieving excellence.”

One way to inspire employees is by investing in them. “Training frontline employees is crucial to retaining the best. Lack of training leads to confusion, lack of confidence and moves [the store] in the opposite direction of achieving operational excellence,” Hart said. “Through the journey of achieving operational excellence, it can be hard to take the extra time to train, coach and mentor employees. But most people can remember at least one person in their career who took the time to help them along. I’ll bet that made the world of difference at the time. Taking that extra time can be the difference between retaining that talented employee or letting them slip away to reach for the stars with someone else.”

This is part one of a two-part series brought to you by RTO. Look for part two on Thursday.