What's in store - Audit helps Moto get fit for the weekend

The motorway service operator Moto says an audit programme with the leading Mystery Shopping Company Retail Active to monitor stock availability during its peak summer trading period was a great success.

Moto, which has 43 sites, is one of the most recognisable brands on the UK motorway network

The audit programme named ‘Fit for The Weekend’, ran from Easter to the August bank holiday aimed to ensure that retail shelves were correctly stocked and brand standards were maintained.

Retail Active was asked to monitor Moto’s estate and to produce instant audit reports for their various branded retail offers.

Moto’s head or retail category management, Ed Sutton, hailed the exercise as a success.

He said: “It helped us as a business to protect the availability of our products at key trading times. The aim was to make sure the shelves were correctly stocked and to monitor changing displays, promotions and standards.

“If you haven’t got central stock figures daily or hourly, the only measure is to physically go in somewhere and have a look – then you have to wait for a stock statement.

“Using Retail Active saved hours of management time. We went from the not knowing - to the knowing about what was happening on the ground.

“Did our standards improve during the audit? Yes they did. We started in the red and moved into the black and pretty much stayed there.

“This is definitely something we want to continue.

“Retail Active are a great, positive, professional auditing company who deliver what they agree to do. You have only got to look at their client base to understand why.

“We operate in quite a unique sector and they adapted well to that. They came into a business like Moto and adapted themselves to work how we wanted them to work.

“The project was delivered to the brief.”

Retail Active’s managing director, Julian Chamberlain said: “Our speciality is the speed with which we report back to management, which means they can respond instantly to any issues, which arise.

“We were able to rapidly text scores back to senior managers so they can react to information as it happens.

“We announce our presence to staff and if anything is not up to standard we record it and encourage them to get it right while we are there. We are not out to apportion blame – simply to maintain and improve standards. Our aim is to ensure that the business is fit to trade effectively during busy periods.

“Our expertise means we can deliver fast, accurate information – which allows executives to understand the situation in real time in dozens of outlets – while saving hours of management time and costs.”

Your brand is a major asset - Make sure it stays consistant

A strong brand image is one of every successful company’s major assets – which makes maintaining its consistency across widespread outlets absolutely vital.

Brand Auditing is an established technique, giving senior management the ability to monitor the way in which the brand is being represented throughout the organisation.

It is a process of checking operational compliance of brand facilities, standards, procedures and policies.

The business intelligence and mystery shopping company, Retail Active, is one of the UK’s leading practitioners of brand auditing, with a vast experience of helping to maintain brand consistency for a wide variety of household- name brands.

Managing director, Julian Chamberlain says: “The idea for brand auditing came from the clients themselves. They wanted to ensure a consistent operational standard across multi-unit operations, to deliver flawless execution of the brand.

“Brand auditing creates a regular, structured process to identify compliance and non-compliance of brand essentials.”

This involves visiting entire chains in the space of only a few weeks to give a “State of the Nation” report on the execution of the brand.

It saves hours of wasted management time, resources and overheads and produces web-based data, with photographs, which can be views 24/7.

The brand auditors provide detailed and structured feedback to managers, giving assistance and expert advice, where necessary.

Julian Chamberlain says: “It is an excellent method of protecting capital investments, correcting any non-approved practices and maintaining the fabric of the business.

“However, depending on the brand, it only works effectively as part of an ongoing measurement programme.”

Brand auditing involves a regular monthly or quarterly structured audit operation – which is normally unannounced and which checks compliance against a pre determined and agreed criteria. Each non-compliance is fully recorded and backed up with evidence. It is recorded on a 24/7 reporting system – providing instant visibility of the brand delivery and performance. This approach if frequently used in conjunction with a mystery shopping programme.

Julian Chamberlain says: “Each programme is developed on a bespoke basis, to meet clients specific requirements – but the underlying process remains the same.

“The most common pitfall is to use the brand audit process to penalise unit managers.

“It should really be used in a more strategic way to uplift the performance of the brand, share information on best practice and reward great performance”.

Live the high life in top hotels - and get paid for it

Fancy staying in some of Europe’s top hotels and getting paid for it?

A top UK Mystery Shopping Company, Retail Active, is looking for people to work undercover to assess levels of service in a luxury hotel chain – with hotels in Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, Knightsbridge and Park Lane.

Retail Active’s managing director, Julian Chamberlain said: “This is the ideal opportunity for ordinary people to experience the High Life in one of the world’s finest hotel chains.
“You will be welcomed just like any other guest – but you will be secretly making notes on your treatment.

“It means you will rub shoulders with the rich and famous, be pampered, enjoy first class meals and wines – and be paid for it as well.

“All we ask is for an accurate and reliable report, which will provide inside information for the management on the standards of service.

“You will have a great time and help to improve customer service.”

Retail Active is one of the UK’s leading Mystery Shopping and Brand Audit companies.
It has prestige partners in the Automotive, Food and Drink, Government, Hotels, Leisure, Retail and Travel sectors.

The company, which is based in Oxford, sends out thousands agents, employing award-winning business methods to monitor standards and help companies maintain and improve their customer service.

Keep your brand strong without wasting valuable management time

A strong brand image is the key to the success for any company – which makes maintaining its consistency across widespread outlets absolutely vital.

However, according the leading business intelligence and mystery shopping company, Retail Active, too many senior managers are spending valuable time monitoring brand compliance at the expense of developing other aspects of the business.

Brand Auditing is an established technique, giving senior management the ability to monitor the way in which the brand is being represented throughout the organisation.

It puts the detailed process of brand management in the hands of professionals who will pick up and report back on non-compliance or erosion of standards in a totally transparent way.

It is a method of checking operational compliance of brand facilities, standards, procedures and policies, offering a failsafe way to put things right – once they have been identified.

The business intelligence and mystery shopping company, Retail Active, is one of the UK’s leading practitioners of brand auditing, with a vast experience of helping to maintain brand consistency for a wide variety of both globally recognised and local brands. They claim to help save thousands of hours of wasted management time by providing a brand audit solution that not only identifies non compliance but more importantly becomes the catalyst to rectifying poor performance.

Managing director, Julian Chamberlain says: “It is the perfect solution for retailers with multiple outlets, where consistency is essential.

“Our research in the industry has revealed that hundreds of hours of valuable management time is being wasted monitoring brand consistency, when there is a perfectly viable alternative, which would save money and free up managers.

“The push for brand auditing came from the clients themselves. They wanted to ensure a consistent operational standard across multi-unit operations, to deliver flawless execution of the brand.

“Brand auditing creates a regular, structured process to identify compliance and non-compliance of brand essentials.”

This involves visiting entire chains in the space of only a few weeks to give a “State of the Nation” report on the execution of the brand.

It saves hours of wasted management time, resources and overheads and produces evidenced web-based data. Crucially the system is designed to help resolve issues in simple cost effective ways.

In addition the brand auditors provide detailed and structured feedback to managers, giving assistance and expert advice, where necessary.

The Retail Active system is so sophisticated that it not only recognises poor brand delivery, it acts as the core solution to improve performance, saving hundreds of hours of wasted management time. The system tracks accountability and places automated orders, delivering training and acting as the central communications point for brand equity measurement.

Julian Chamberlain says: “It is an excellent method of protecting capital investments, correcting any non-approved practices and maintaining the fabric of the business.

Brand auditing involves a regular monthly or quarterly structured audit operation – which is normally unannounced and checks compliance against a pre determined and agreed criteria. Each non-compliance is fully recorded and backed up with evidence. It is recorded on a 24/7 reporting system – providing instant visibility of the brand delivery and performance. This approach if frequently used in conjunction with a mystery shopping programme.

Julian Chamberlain says: “Each programme is developed on a bespoke basis, to meet clients specific requirements – but the underlying process remains the same.

“The most common pitfall is to use the brand audit process to penalise unit managers."

“It should really be used in a more strategic way to uplift the performance of the brand, share information on best practice and reward great performance”.

Retail Active’s top five benefits of a Brand Audit programme are:

1. Management and staff quickly develop the culture of caring for the facilities and brand as if it were their own
2. Every programme is unique to the client and rapidly eliminates brand inconsistency
3. Provides a visual check of the brand 24.7, underpinned with complete management accountability
4. Nothing is left to chance, there is no room to ignore the programme – it measures compliance, recommends solutions and tracks accountability through to resolution
5. The brand wins, Customers win

Beating the Americans at their own game with customer service training

The Americans have a world-wide reputation for customer service – but they are lapping up a British-made board game – which helps to train staff.

The game – called Gamethingy – aims to make business training a pleasure and it is claimed that by making learning fun – memory retention can be improved by 70 per cent.

Gamethingy is the creation of Oxford-based Business Intelligence specialists and Mystery Shopping Company, Retail Active.

It teaches teams of players serious business realities in a light hearted and enjoyable way.

Retail Active’s managing director, Julian Chamberlain says: “It is very popular in the USA, where we have excellent sales. We sell to a wide variety of countries – including Russia – where it is also a big hit.

“The Americans have a well-deserved reputation for excellent customer service – but our British-made game is teaching them a thing or two about learning the art.”

“Gamethingy packages critical business information and re-presents it in a non-threatening way. Using business training games as part of your training and development programme tackles the most difficult training and development topics and present the content in a fun and enjoyable way.

All of the business training games come with simple instructions allowing trainees to start playing within minutes.

They are available in a variety of subjects

Health and Safety Training Games can be used to support in-house health and safety training and development programmes. Play the business training games regularly to confirm understanding of key topics e.g. manual handling, fire safety.

First Aid Training Games support first aid training and development programmes and . check trainees understanding of the key principles of first aid. The first aid training games are a great way to prepare first aiders to carry out their important role.

Hygiene Training Games support the training and development of care workers in care homes. MRSA is a hot topic, confirm that your teams are aware of why hygiene is important and the consequences of poor hygiene.

Customer Service Training Games deliver customer care training and development programmes or can be used as a stand-alone programme. They stimulate debate and encourage trainees to improve their customer service skills. Trainees also explore ways in which they can maximise sales opportunities within the business.

Food Safety Training Games covert all food safety training and development programmes. Prepare trainees for their food safety certificate in a fun and non-threatening way.

Julian Chamberlain added: “In a recent survey of the worlds top 500 companies 135 intend to adopt business training games for learning.

“The USA, UK and Germany are leading the way with the use of business training games to support their training and development programmes.

“Business training games help people gain a deeper understanding of their subject and the challenges they face. There is little doubt that business training games are serious training tools.”

Glass Shape Can Make People Drink More

By Lesley Foottit

The shape of the glass people drink from can cause them to pour and consumer more than they think, according to a new report.


Business intelligence and mystery shopping company Retail Active found that drinkers poured up to 80% more into a short wide glass than a tall slender one, although both held the same volume.

A study by leading Oxford University psychologist Professor Charles Spence found that people drink 88% more when consuming drinks from short wide glasses.

In the study even veteran bartenders poured 26% more alcohol into tumblers than highball glasses.

He explained the results as the “vertical-horizontal illusion” in which people focus on heights rather than widths and over-estimate the vertical.

Spence also found that people’s perception and enjoyment of cocktails is affected by the shape of serving glasses. For example, Martini should be served in a flat glass.

Retail Active managing director Julian Chamberlain said it is of particular interest to those who offer self service. “But there are also health implications for alcohol drinkers and there is evidence that even experienced bar staff pour more alcohol into tumblers when estimating a shot of spirits,” he said.

“People who pour their own drinks will be doing the same. Customer behaviour and their response can be greatly influenced by their perception of the way things are served.”

Queues Are Getting Slower Says Europe-Wide Survey

A Europe-wide survey says it now takes twice as long to reach the front of a queue as it did in 2008.

Researchers in 24 countries were asked to join queues in a wide range of businesses and services, including banks, grocery stores, travel ticket offices and fast food outlets.

They reported back on the time taken to reach the front of the queue and the response they got from the member of staff.

Only half of staff could manage a smile when they got there.

The survey was organised by the European branch of the Mystery Shopping Providers Association and resulted in 2000 completed queue report forms – making it the largest survey of its kind.

Comparisons with previous surveys show that, on average, it takes just over ten minutes to reach the front of a queue – twice the time taken in 2008. It is believed this could indicate changes due to the recession could be having a real impact on customer service.

Julian Chamberlain is the managing director of Retail Active, one of Britain’s leading Mystery Shopping companies and an MSPA member.

He says: “This is a fascinating piece of research and demonstrates the value of Mystery Shopping in helping businesses to discover the way in which customers experience shopping in this country and in continental Europe.

“Retail Active’s experience in the UK fully supports the comments of MSPA President, Cristiani Oliveira, that the survey indicates that in difficult times for retailers, lowering standards may be having a detrimental effect on customer service. Mystery shopping is the only way organisations can measure how well or badly customers are being treated.”

The survey found:

• Post offices had the longest queues.
• Post offices had the most dissatisfied customers, closely followed by banks.
• Russia had, on average, the longest and slowest queues
• Only half of the serving staff could manage a smile – but Belgium and Ireland came top of the “Smiles league”.
• Clothing stores came top for best quality of service.
• The Bulgarian Passport Office had the slowest queue – taking six hours to process just 36 customers.

Julian Chamberlain added: “In terms of overall performance the UK came out well.

“Like everywhere else, people are having to spend longer standing in queues – but for satisfaction in the quality of customer service received, we came in the top five, along with Ireland, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands.”