J & H Supports Staff and Augments Labor with Cobi 18
J & H Family Stores is a family-owned convenience store retailer with 80 locations across West Michigan. J & H is committed to providing its guests with exceptional customer service by providing clean, safe, well-stocked, and modern facilities that serve the communities that support them.
“For our guests, good customer service is a very clean store,” says Loren Hoppen the COO of J & H Family Stores.
He goes on to point out that goals for his teams include stocking shelves and coolers and keeping counters and floors clean.
Many of the J & H stores are open 24/7 and require constant cleaning and stocking to keep up with the busy C-store environment.
One location in particular, the Coopersville Travel Center, located just off a busy highway, is nearly 15,000 square feet. The location is open 24/7 and includes two sets of restrooms, showers, a laundry facility, a lounge, and there is a restaurant on site. The Coopersville location is always busy.
As the COO, one of the biggest challenges Hoppen faces is having enough staff to keep up with the busy C-store environment. Turnover and labor shortages are an ongoing battle for convenience store retailers, and this can result in daily tasks left undone.
Tom Leo, a Store Associate at the Coopersville Travel Center location, echoes that sentiment, noting that the busy store environment can be challenging.
Leo highlights that trying to complete tasks while working around customers can make it hard to get the job done well, especially during peak hours of the day, and he notes that staff attempt to accomplish the daily tasks when the store is least busy.
The busy store environment coupled with labor challenges can make it difficult to deliver the quality experience and service that J & H is committed to providing its customers.
J & H decided to bring on Cobi 18, an autonomous floor scrubber by ICE Cobotics, to support staff in accomplishing daily tasks while also freeing them up to focus on customer service.
One key component of that customer service is a clean, safe store. Hoppen notes, that by having Cobi on staff he is reassured that floor cleaning is completed no matter how busy associates are helping guests or if the store faces unexpected absences that day.
While some autonomous solutions can be difficult to use, one of the deciding factors to bring on Cobi for J&H is that the unit is extremely easy to use.
“Cobi 18 is very user-friendly for our staff,” says Hoppen. He points out that staff can get out and use it and not be afraid to break anything.
“The people at ICE Cobotics are great at training our staff and coming out and working with our teams,” says Hoppen.
“It is very easy to use, and the maintenance time is minimal,” says Leo. When Cobi needs regular maintenance, the team wheels it to the back sink, empties the dirty water, adds fresh water or solution, cleans the parts, and plugs the unit in so it’s charged and ready for the next route.
With Cobi on the team, Leo and his co-workers have been freed up to focus on other important tasks.
“Since adding Cobi to the team, I’ve been freed up to focus on other things that need to get done in the store like stocking the food cooler, maintenance on coffee machines, and more; it’s definitely been a plus,” says Leo.
Hoppen has tracked results too and notes, ‘’Depending on the store size, we’ve saved 2-4 hours a day for our team members to focus on other tasks.” He goes on to point out that they can augment labor when dealing with unexpected absences as well.
“Cobi has helped us with unexpected absences because we are still able to perform a lot of the duties in the store with less staff. If someone doesn’t show up that day, I still know my floors are going to be cleaned,” says Hoppen.
In addition, bringing on Cobi has helped J & H with retention rates. Mopping floors is not a favorite activity of store associates and using automation makes coming to work that much more fun.
“Since adding Cobi to the team, I’ve been freed up to focus on other things that need to get done in the store like stocking the food cooler, maintenance on coffee machines, and more; it’s definitely been a plus.”
“Cobi has helped us retain staff because it allows them to do other tasks they enjoy more,” says Hoppen. In fact, quite a few of the store associates have been at the J & H Coopersville location for over a year and the store manager Dave just celebrated his fourteenth anniversary.
Hoppen points out that if he asked his staff who enjoys mopping floors, probably zero would say they do, and when they don’t have to mop the floors “they enjoy coming to work more,” he says.
Cobi has become a part of the J & H team, and the Coopersville store has named their unit Wall-E.
Leo points out that customers enjoy Wall-E, “The adults even more than the kids,” he says.
J & H has also been able to improve its customer service and in-store experience since adding Cobi to the team.
“Our customer experience has been better. Our customers know that when they come into a location that has Cobi, the floors are going to be clean, the store is going to look inviting and the store is going to be cleaner because our staff has more time to focus on other areas than the floor,” says Hoppen.
Ready to Explore Automation? Talk to an Automation Expert