Roamler provides retailers and businesses with detailed information and photos by using a smartphone community. By doing so, the company rapidly communicates exactly what is happening in shops in the field of shelf presentation, said a source. “Over the past five years we have acquired a great deal of expertise in data collection within the fresh produce sector. With tens of thousands of users, or Roamlers, we have already given many consumer reviews in the retail channel. Clients have often asked me if we could also check quality. However, our Roamlers are not professionals, so we haven't been able to provide a professional QC audit up to now. This is going to change now that we have developed a ‘Remote Fruit and Veg Quality Checker’ with expertise agency HDG, formerly Harmsen & De Groot,” says Christiaan Rijnhout.
“This Fruit and Veg Quality Checker allows retailers, cultivators and suppliers to perform actual quality checks done by one consumer and two separate professionals of HDG. We believe that this combined proposition is unique on the market,” Rijnhout continues. “With this proposition we can meet a large need. Furthermore, we can do it on a European scale, because we have Roamlers all over Europe who would gladly perform quality checks for us. Finally, we can supply high quality because the assessments are done by three different people. In short, it is the first quality check that bridges the gap between consumers, experts and product presentation.”
Stijn Verstijnen (HDG) and Christiaan Rijnhout (Roamler)
Process
The first step is ascertaining which products will be checked. Then the experts from HDG decide which parameters will be tested by consumers. After this comes data collection. Consumers will enter the shop to take photos, which will later be used for the expert’s report. For this, the two best fruits, or bunches of fruit, and the two worst are photographed. The consumers also mark the product on the above-mentioned criteria. This is the first part of the quality check - the consumer’s assessment. They indicate the positives and negatives of presentation and quality. For this, Roamlers visit at least one hundred unique locations.
By now, hundreds of photos have been collected from relevant retailers. Subsequently, the experts of HDG will assess the quality of the fruits. They do this using the Roamler Shift - Roamler’s photo analysis service. It is predetermined how often the photos pass to the various experts. The objective of this is so that the data of each photo can be taken multiple times, allowing the data quality to be checked later by comparing the answers given. By the time HDG has assessed everything, three people will have checked for quality: the consumer (20% of the final mark) and both of the quality experts of HDG (who together represent 80% of the final mark). Based on these particulars, a report is written indicating the current level of quality. The report also provides advice regarding product presentation.
Tests show that the consumers’ opinion and that of the professionals from HDG are often flatly opposed to one another. “We test according to commercial and EEC standards, and that is often done on location with the importer. Now that we are also testing in actual shops, we can consider things such as placement within the fresh produce aisle and the impact on, for example, ethylene. Perhaps this might also lead to standards changing, which could lead to a decline in food waste in the chain, which is a noble goal,” says Stijn Verstijnen of HDG. Although this would mean more work for the quality experts, he is not worried about it. “We are the largest expertise agency for fruit and vegetables in Europe. We are now researching whether we should carry out the work internally, in a Roamler-like manner where our employees can assess the photos during extra hours and in random locations, if so desired.”
Verstijnen and Rijnhout are not worried whether the new Fruit and Veg Quality Checker will be successful or not. “We introduced this new service to a number of customers. They were immediately enthusiastic, and supermarket organisations have already given us quite a number of assignments. One large nationwide retailer is immediately starting with it. To them, this is the solution to a large-scale understanding of the quality of the stores, with the goal of improving execution and reducing losses. Management will thus be able to get a grip on quality.”
For more information:
Stijn Verstijnen
Expertisebureau HDG B.V.
Marconistraat 33
3029 AG Rotterdam
The Netherlands
T +31 10 2441414
www.hdg.nl
For more information:
Christiaan Rijnhout
Roamler
M: +31 642417720
www.roamler.com