Customer Success
Goodwill drives operational improvements across 500+ retail locations
12 Goodwill organizations · 500+ locations · 35,000+ audits in 12 months
At a Glance
- 12 independent Goodwill organizations across the US and Canada use GoAudits at 500+ locations, including stores, outlets, donation centers, warehouses, e-commerce operations and career centers.
- 35,000+ audits in the last 12 months, covering store standards, safety, loss prevention, donation intake and warehouse operations.
- Continually expanding usage, from one division to areas including retail, e-commerce, HR, IT and career services.
- Visibility across every location: dashboards let operations leaders compare results across stores, districts and location types, and spot trends without a site visit.
- Every finding tracked to a fix: failed items become corrective actions, assigned to a person and tracked until they’re closed.
The mission: improving lives by helping put people to work
Goodwill is a non-profit network that sells donated goods to fund community job training and placement programs. Its organizations receive a constant flow of donations, including clothing and accessories, housewares, furniture, books and appliances. That requires a structured way to receive, sort, clean, distribute and present goods in stores, in a way that boosts revenues. Efficient operations and a consistently great guest experience maximize the resources that go back into Goodwill’s mission: improving lives by helping put people to work.
Each local Goodwill is independent, with its own leadership and budget. Twelve have chosen GoAudits, one at a time. The first was Goodwill of North Georgia.
“Lots of time establishing plans, too little time executing”
Goodwill teams inspect their locations regularly against internal standards for store appearance, guest experience, inventory, financials, and health and safety. At North Georgia, this involves dozens of auditors, as well as collaboration across multiple teams with different objectives: stores, operations, marketing, compliance and HR.
Before GoAudits, North Georgia’s teams captured audit information mostly in Excel spreadsheets. “This was not the most efficient way to collect and analyze data to improve our business operations,” says Kartella Fuller, Sr. Director of Operations at Goodwill of North Georgia. “We used to spend too much time establishing plans and too little time executing them, which was not great for business.”
Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee had the same problem. “Before GoAudits, we relied heavily on Excel spreadsheets and manual processes to complete and aggregate our inspections and audits,” says Leisa Wamsley, Chief Operating Officer.
Leisa gives an example: “Store managers conducted daily safety walks using a checklist and then had to return to the office to manually enter the results. This created additional administrative work and made it more difficult to quickly identify trends or follow up on issues.”
North Georgia: from One Division to the Whole Operation
North Georgia selected GoAudits for its comprehensive platform, flexibility and advanced reporting tools, which met their custom requirements. “GoAudits enabled our diverse approach to capture and analyze data. Their support team has been very accommodating and took onboard our specific practices in reporting. That is a great plus when choosing a provider company,” explains Kartella.
After testing GoAudits in one division, the team saw its potential to streamline operations in many more areas. Very soon, it was rolled out to 5 additional divisions, with checklists for store appearance, merchandising, donation processing, stock management, fire safety, guest welcome, staff training and financial performance.
GoAudits has since spread across North Georgia’s operation. Retail and e-commerce were joined by HR, IT, legal and compliance, career services and facility services. Teams use it at 100+ locations for everything from e-commerce pickup checks and mystery shops to annual store assessments and closing checklists.
From one Goodwill to Twelve
Other Goodwill organizations followed, each with its own checklists and priorities. Twelve now use GoAudits across 500+ locations in the US and Canada.
Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee runs GoAudits across 100+ stores, outlets, donation centers and warehouses. The daily store safety walk is the backbone of its program, and the trip back to the office is gone. “Now, our safety walks and other inspections are completed directly in GoAudits using an iPad,” says Leisa.
The same approach covers the rest of the operation: 5S audits in the backroom, forklift inspections and operator evaluations, Leader on Duty rounds in outlets and warehouses, safety reviews at donation centers, asset protection audits, and HR site visits and 90-day check-ins.
What Goodwill Organizations Audit with GoAudits
- Stores: opening and closing checklists, manager daily walks, Leader on Duty rounds, district manager visits, quarterly store audits and mystery shops
- Donation centers: daily checks, area manager visits, intake and screening
- Warehouses and e-commerce: order fulfillment and pickup, sorting and processing, 5S, forklift and equipment checks, outlets and salvage
- Safety and loss prevention, everywhere: safety walks and drills, incident and near-miss reports, asset protection, and till and cash controls
“We appreciate the easy-to-use app, analytics & reporting”
Auditors get a mobile app that works on any phone, tablet or computer, with photos and corrective actions logged in one place.
Managers get visibility and control: dashboards compare results across stores, districts and location types, so trends show up without a site visit.
At North Georgia, custom summary and weekly reports let managers instantly view performance trends by period, area or type of location. “As the system administrator, I really appreciate the advanced analytics and reporting,” says Kartella.
Middle Tennessee uses the dashboard the same way. “Through the dashboard, we can easily view and analyze audits, inspections, and safety walks across our locations, helping us identify trends, address issues more quickly, and take a more proactive approach to safety and operational compliance,” says Leisa.
Closing the loop: 1,000+ hours saved on action plans
An audit only improves a store when someone fixes what it finds. In GoAudits, failed items become corrective actions, assigned to a person and tracked until they’re closed. North Georgia logged more than 4,000 in its first year.
“Using GoAudits saves us at least 20 hours a week across different teams, especially when it comes to writing action plans, because everything is now done in one place,” says Kartella. That’s over 1,000 hours a year, an estimated $20,000 in direct savings.
“GoAudits gives us consistency in collecting data, setting up action plans and driving their execution. Ultimately, we are much better equipped to improve results in our business operations,” says Kartella.
Kartella sums up the relationship: “I have thoroughly enjoyed working with GoAudits. The team has been very accommodating and consistently responsive.”
GoAudits for Multi-site Retail Operations
GoAudits helps retail operations teams run audits across every store, warehouse and back room, and follow each finding through to a fix.
- Start from the store audit checklists retail teams already use
- See how dashboards compare results across locations
- Book a demo built around your store visit program
Seeing is Believing
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