The Retail Active Difference

In order to be the best you need to learn from your mistakes.  Retail Active is the leading British Mystery shopping company and there is a reason for that.  We review and improve our techniques constantly, staying a step ahead of the competition and providing a high-quality mystery shopping and customer research service for all of our valued clients.  It’s important to be quick to recognise mistakes and just as important to fix them quickly.

Lack of Communication

From the client to us, from the secret shopper to the proof-reader, communication is key.  Too often, companies will come to us with complaints about breakdowns of communication and one of their key requests is an Account Manager that will be with them throughout their engagement with us.  We have built our Account Management around this ideal to ensure that all of our clients’ needs are listened to and met.

Managing Change

Every client is important to us and we go to exacting lengths to ensure complete client satisfaction.  Our own research tells us that clients want meaningful and lasting relationships with their service providers, so we don’t change any of our key relationship contacts without carefully checking first.  As we grow and gain new clients we continue to recruit new secret shoppers for new, exciting mystery shopping jobs.  All of our mystery shoppers are graded after each and every assignment. 

Lack of Groundwork

You wouldn’t promise to build a skyscraper without laying the correct foundations. All of our client projects run on a tried and tested system that is proven to provide reliable secret shopping and brand auditing results so when we make a promise, you can trust that we can deliver it.

Inconsistency of service

Secret shopping is a very different to brand auditing, or any of our other products and services.  We have a graded and profiled International panel where it is possible for someone different to be assessing your business at every interaction.  Our reporting style means that our processes are consistent, but our mystery shopper’s opinion is relevant, fresh, considered and timely.

If you would like to learn more on how we can help you, contact us on 01235 438413.

A BIG Thank you to our mystery shoppers all over the world

A BIG Thank you to our mystery shoppers all over the world.

Thank you to Leslie from Gwent:
You are always happy to help with our visits in South Wales and complete reports to an excellent standard.

Thank you to Barry from Aberdeenshire:
Your attention to detail is superb and your recent reports have been spot-on – thank you.

Thank you to Emma from Cheshire:
We can call on you for anything and we can trust that you will complete anything to a high standard, and on time. 

Thank you to Justin from London:
Your hard work on our stations project is unrivalled. You are a credit to secret shopping, and we are glad to have you on the team.

Thank you to Anoop from London:
You were allocated three last minute, high-priority test visits and completed them the same day with zero proof-reading queries, and you only joined us last month – you’re a star!

Thank you to Carole from Oxfordshire:
You joined us in July and have completed assignments varying from calls to detailed visits and we are grateful for your excellent reports. We managed to fit you in a hotel stay as a ‘thank you’ and we hope you have a lovely break away with your husband!

Thank you to Elin from Edinburgh:
You always manage to fit in our in-the-middle-of-nowhere mystery shopping jobs, and your help on our most recent project has been greatly appreciated throughout the scheduling team.

Thank you to Martin from London:
You’ve helped out on so many last-minute visits over the past few months for us and we truly appreciate your dedication – you’re our perfect mystery shopper.

Last but not least...
Thank you to all of our secret shoppers – you help to make Retail Active the leading British mystery shopping company.  For more information about becoming a secret shopper, or to make an enquiry about mystery shopping or brand audits, please visit www.retailactive.com

Client Account Manager Vacancies

Client Account Manager Vacancies -  £28,000 per annum, Company car (or annual car allowance of £6,000 per annum). Bonus scheme and performance incentives.

We are actively recruiting Client Account Managers to join our team, based at our headquarters at the International Space Innovation Centre in Oxfordshire.

Working within the Operations Team you will ensure that your client’s requirements are delivered to their complete satisfaction.  This will involve regular meetings with clients to give feedback, share best practice and recommend improvements to their programmes

Retail Active is a fast growing business, with opportunity for those with enthusiasm and ability to develop their career to the highest level.   You will have previous experience as an Account Manager, be willing to travel extensively and looking for a challenge.  Those with specific mystery shopping or market research related experience will be considered favourably.

You will be responsible for proactively identifying further new business opportunities and promoting Retail Active through presentations and analysis.

This is a challenging and rewarding job requiring excellent organisational skills and ability to manage multiple projects.  Applicants will need to be confident with the ability to communicate effectively at all levels.

Retail Active has exciting plans for the future and it is essential the right team is in place to help us to become the mystery shopper company of choice.  If you would like to apply for this position please send your CV to info@retailactive.com, together with a covering letter, detailing why you believe you should be considered.

Retail Active sends thousands of mystery shoppers each week to conduct assignments and is one of
Europe's leading Mystery Shopping Companies.  We are also one of the fastest growing brand audit companies, working with some of the world's best known brands sending specially trained secret shoppers to assess the quality of service and products.

Closing date for applications is 28th September.

In addition to the Client Account Manager vacancies we are actively recruiting mystery shoppers of all demographic profiles. Those wishing to apply for mystery shopping jobs should apply at www.retailactive.com.

Mystery Shopping Alert

Over the past few weeks we have been made aware of honest mystery shopper applicants being targeted by tricksters.  Retail Active does not recruit mystery shoppers through an email, club, agency or list and advises those wanting to work for a Mystery Shopping Company never to part with cash in advance.  If you do then there is a very high probability that you will be defrauded.

Unsuspecting people, wanting to earn extra money, risk being scammed by bogus market research companies, who are trying to cash in on this increasingly popular activity.

Genuine mystery shopping companies like Retail Active advertise their contact number and can be called directly.  Always apply directly to mystery shopper agencies, If in doubt phone.

 Internet tricksters have angered genuine mystery shopping companies, like Retail Active, which is one of Europe's leading Brand Audit and Mystery Shopping agencies. The company gets calls from people all over the world worried that they have been duped - or are about to be.

 Retail Active's managing director, Julian Chamberlain says:

 "We are very angry that fraudsters are trying to exploit mystery shoppers who genuinely want to earn some much-needed extra income, as well as help improve customer service.

"We have received reports of people being asked for personal details when applying for mystery shopping jobs, which are then sold off to use on marketing lists - or for other uses, such as fraudulently accessing people's bank accounts.

"No reputable Mystery Shopping Company would ever ask for money in advance- so that is one  good way to establish if a company is genuine or not.

 All reputable mystery shopping companies provide training, so if there is none, the likelihood is that you are being conned.

The easiest way to be sure you’re application is safe is to register with a secret shopping company like Retail Active, at www.retailactive.com.

Mystery Shopping Training

"I work in retail and my company realised we needed to improve our customer service and the way we were treating our customers, we just didn’t know how to go about it. I did a search on the internet and found a mystery shopping company called Retail Active.

Retail Active specialise in using customer research as the basis of their mystery shopping training. They are based in Oxfordshire in the UK and knew exactly how we could improve the way we treated and looked after our customers. In this economic climate it is more important than ever to be fully aware of what our customers were thinking. Our customer’s satisfaction is very important to us, we wanted to act on their feedback straight away to avoid losing those precious pennies and customers.

Retail Active not only offered us a Mystery Shopping Training programme, they also offered us an award winning Customer Service Training programme, where they were able to help our staff improve on their customer service skills. Within this programme they identified some minor customer service issues we had and compiled us a plan of action on how we could improve. The changes that we have seen are amazing and we are already getting comments from our customers saying that they have noticed the difference in the way our customer service has changed.

Retail Active also supplied us with customer service training games which were available at gamethingy.com. These were innovative training games that all of our staff thoroughly enjoyed. No more falling asleep in meetings and training rooms for our staff. These games transformed the way we thought and felt. With Retail Active at the end of the phone to help with any queries, we could and still can guarantee to be the best and stand out from our competitors.

This is the best business decision we have ever made, so if you are thinking about customer service training or mystery shopping training within your business, I would definitely recommend Retail Active."

For more information on Retail Active Mystery Shopping services or Retail Active Customer Service training sessions or materials, then you can call them on 01235 438413 or visit their web site at www.retailactive.com.

Mystery Shopping – What is it and how does it work?

Mystery Shopping is a service offered by market research companies to measure the quality of customer service. Mystery Shopping began in the USA during the early 1940’s where it was then used to measure employee integrity, but these days Mystery Shopping is used to improve the quality of customer service and to evaluate the performance of their staff.

Today companies are using Mystery Shopping programmes to help improve their business and to get a more in depth view of how their staff interact with their customers.

Any company wanting to learn more about customer satisfaction, advocacy and operational execution can use a Mystery Shopping programme. Typical businesses using this type of consumer insight information are:

* Petrol Stations
* Restaurants
* Travel Companies
* Supermarkets
* Leisure Operators
* Automotive Companies
* Spas
* Banks
* Cruise Lines
* Many more

Customer service is an important aspect in any business as it lets the company keep up with its competitors. Ensuring satisfaction in every shopping experience is vital to success. Mystery Shopping facilitates your company to ensure that the efficiency of your customer service meets the requirements set out by yourselves.

Mystery Shopping not only looks at how well your staff are doing, but also at how you can maximise the strategic value of your business.

With each Mystery Shopping programme, mystery shoppers are employed and given an assignment where they collect information about your business in a professional and objective manner. The results are then recorded and used to create detailed consumer insight. This raw data is returned to the market research company where they will report the detailed findings back to the client. Often the reportage is created using sophisticated software to highlight information of a strategically important nature.

Mystery Shopping programmes can range from simple questionnaires to elaborate market research projects, supported by cutting edge metrics and business tools. Research can be captured using written word, audio or video recording depending on the requirement of the client.

A Mystery Shopping company that makes a real and lasting difference to your business is hard to find. One company worth mentioning is Retail Active.

Retail Active is a Mystery Shopping Agency with a difference. They will help you to define measures that will drive you and your people to do the right thing. Retail Active Mystery Shopping programme makes a critical business contribution to some of the world’s most recognisable brands. All of their clients have seen significant, measurable and cost effective improvements by working with them. Retail Active will help you take your business to the next level of success.

With Retail Active’s Mystery Shopping programme, the information gathered is extensive and can be gathered in a number of ways.

* Employee Satisfaction Surveys
* On-line Customer Satisfaction Surveys
* Video Mystery shopping
* Retail Audits
* Brand Audits
* Telephone Mystery Calls
* Facilities Audits
* Price Surveys
* Competitor Benchmarking

If you would like to know more about Retail Active Mystery Shopping Programme, you can visit their web site www.retailactive.com, alternatively you can contact them on 01235 438413.

Retail Active
Sequential Solutions Ltd
Start Electron
Fermi Avenue
Harwell Science and Innovation Campus
Oxfordshire
OX11 0QR
www.retailactive.com