Blank Street is a thriving coffee chain with 60 stores across the United States and the United Kingdom. We spoke with central operations manager, Ilona Miller, to understand how Avenue has helped her team manage operations at a fast growing business.  “Our mission is to make operations at Blank Street scalable as we grow so that we can keep our operating costs low and grow our store count.” 

Before Avenue

1. Lack of Structured Communication: The team relied on scattered direct messages (DMs) and one-off communications via Slack, making it difficult to track responsibilities and follow up on issues effectively.

2. Delayed Issue Resolution with Third-Party Services: There was no way to streamline issue reporting for in-store issues like broken coffee machines or buggy point-of-sale systems.  

3. Inconsistent Operations Oversight: This includes misunderstood operating hours, record days, inventory count submissions, misuse of discounts, and late audit submissions.

Avenue addressed the challenges faced by Blank Street and significantly improved their operations with:

1. Streamlined Issue Reporting: Avenue's forms enabled general managers to file tickets directly from their mobile devices, reporting in-store issues like broken equipment, point-of-sale issues, and maintenance problems. Blank Street experienced faster resolution times, reducing equipment downtime and associated maintenance costs. The ability to track and address issues efficiently improved overall operational efficiency.

2. Self-Service Ticketing Methodology: Blank Street implemented a self-service ticketing methodology with Avenue. Field operators can follow troubleshooting playbooks and acknowledge following standard operating procedures (SOPs) before escalating an issue. This streamlined the resolution process and ensured efficient handling of issues.

3. Enhanced Store Operations Monitoring: Avenue's monitoring capabilities were utilized by Blank Street to track essential metrics such as net revenue records and open/close times. The data collected through Avenue empowered the central operations team to make informed decisions and proactively manage store operations. This resulted in significant revenue savings as stores opened on time and followed correct operating hours consistently, minimizing loss due to inconsistent store hours.

Future Plans with Avenue

As for what’s next, Ilona reports that Blank street has “a long list of Avenue alerts that we'd like to incorporate, including monitoring inventory management.”

Interested in hearing more? Speak with our sales team today!