Automated audits and keeping quality control for multi-site businesses

Reduce costly site visits with this tool.

Numerous QSRs are having a difficult time running their restaurants effectively while still maintaining food quality, cleanliness, and good service. For franchisors, this is an even bigger undertaking. A franchise audit involves many factors that can be tough to manage, such as routine travel to distant locations to check on franchisee performance firsthand.

This is where automated self-audit software, like Audit Central, comes into play. Developed by Op Central, Audit Central helps QSR franchisors ensure that all quality control standards are being met by franchisees without stepping into any restaurant.

What’s a self-audit?

A self-audit is the process of a business inspecting itself for compliance with internal policies and external regulations. Self-audits are conducted by businesses of all sizes in a variety of industries. In the QSR industry, self-audits are important for maintaining compliance with food safety regulations. They are also helpful for ensuring that franchisees are adhering to franchisor policies and procedures.

Op Central's Audit Central software makes it easy to conduct self-audits. The software is designed to help QSR franchisors manage their franchisees' compliance with food safety regulations and franchisor policies. Audit Central provides a centralised platform for storing audit information and results. The software also includes tools for creating and managing audit schedules, assigning audits to franchisees, and tracking audit progress.

How does Audit Central work?

The whole process is quick, simple, and easy. It only takes a few minutes to complete. Each week, franchisees receive a self-audit task from Audit Central. They simply open the audit form, answer the questions, and attach photos so that franchisors can assess what they see.

Audit Central can be set up to force franchisees to take a new photo for each audit, eliminating the possibility that they will use an old photo from their phone’s photo library.

The system helps franchisors maintain the highest standards in product presentation, safe practices, and anything else they need to help the franchisees with. Audit Central allows businesses to save on-site visits and improve quality control.

One of the franchisors that successfully implemented Audit Central is The Cheesecake Shop which uses the system to empower its 225 franchisees to conduct their own self-audits. The company used the said technology to improve quality control and reduce the number of costly field visits.

How to use Audit Central?

Using Audit Central, franchisors can audit their franchisees just like The Cheesecake Shop does. Here's how to do it:

Step 1: Creating the self-audit checklist

• Create a new audit questionnaire
• Where possible, use the "file upload" question type to ensure that the franchisee attaches photos.
• Set the recurring frequency at weekly/monthly/quarterly depending on how regularly franchisees should complete this self-audit
• Assign the responsible auditing party as the 'Franchisee' role (instead of area manager)

‍Pro tip: In the questionnaire settings, toggle "Restrict File Upload To Camera" on, to ensure that franchisees don't upload old photos from their camera roll!

‍Step 2: Franchisee audit submissions

• Franchisee will be able to complete the entire process in a couple of minutes from their phone
• They will receive a task at the pre-determined recurring frequency
• They go through the audit form, answering questions, ticking boxes and uploading photos as they go
• Once they reach the end, they submit it through as a time and geo stamped recorded entry

‍Step 3: Reporting

• Results can be assessed using Audit Central's standard submission reporting functions
• Alternatively you can 'pull' these audit scores into a centralised reporting using Op Central's custom report builder. This also allows them to be separated by location, region, state, etc. or any other way you split your data.

Work with a trusted partner

It is nearly impossible to keep track of all the franchisees in a franchising company through on-site visits alone. To improve quality control, it is then recommended to work with a partner who specialises in maintaining quality control in the QSR industry. Op Central has a team of experts that can help you develop and maintain internal standards, as well as train your team on the importance of compliance. Visit Op Central's website or contact them today for a live demo at 1800 954 145.