The challenge
I’m the main contact for two US mobile phone dealer organizations that run 13 retail stores between them. The dealers depend on clear daily, weekly and monthly numbers to see which stores are doing well, where the gaps are, and who needs coaching.
Doing that by hand means repeating the same steps for every store, every day: collecting figures, working out the KPIs, comparing them with targets and turning them into something a dealer can read in a minute. It’s slow, it leaves room for copy-and-paste mistakes, and it has to be ready before the dealers start their day in the US.
What I did
My rule is simple: if I do the same task more than a few times, I build a tool or an automation for it.
- One standard format for every store. Each store reports the same KPIs — foot traffic, conversion, average ticket, accessory attach rate and sales per staff hour — so stores can be compared fairly.
- Formulas and automation instead of manual maths. The KPIs and the gaps against target are calculated automatically, so the numbers are consistent and the same every time.
- Small web tools for quick checks. When I need an answer on the spot, a simple tool beats a spreadsheet, so I build small calculators for the checks I repeat most.
- Built so the team can use it too. The tools are simple enough for my remote team to run, so the process doesn’t depend on one person.
The result
- Reports are consistent across all 13 stores, so dealer reviews start from numbers everyone trusts.
- Less time goes into repetitive data work and more into the parts that need a person: coaching staff, planning with dealers and fixing what slows a store down.
- The same approach now powers the free tools on this website — built for problems I had myself, then opened up for everyone.
Want the same for your business? If your team repeats the same task every day, there’s usually a tool that can do it in a minute.