Service where it matters

Businesses rely on ensuring that their customers and clients keep coming back. As a mystery shopping company, our entire business is set up around this fact. We keep our clients coming back by helping them keep their customers. Because we spend a lot of time thinking about this, we can sometimes be quite startled when others don’t appear to agree. A recent experience particularly got us thinking about how a business gets (and keeps) new customers. There are a myriad of techniques employed to get new customers into your business, but once there, they’ll only stay if you provide a service that is good enough.

Our experience went like this: we decided to get pizza.  Because one member of the group did not want to get pizza from the usual company, we tried a different pizza company. A simple quirk of fate has got us through their door, a good opportunity for them to win some new repeat customers (or not). When we arrive to collect our pizza, our name was already listed as being ready, which pleased us.  Unfortunately, we then experienced a series of customer service 'do-nots' that had us wondering whether they had any customer service training at all. The short list being:

• They did not acknowledge us. This may not appear to be much of an issue, but certainly exacerbated the problems which were to follow.
• They left us waiting for 10 minutes while they took phone orders.  This, again, wouldn’t matter so much if we had received the acknowledgement, but instead just made what was to follow worse.
• They did not have the pizzas ready.  This was pretty bad, but mistakes like this happen and how you handle them can occasionally win you life-long customers.  This did not happen though.
• They misled us.  Two of our pizzas were ready, while one had either been forgotten or accidentally given to another customer.  Instead we were told that it was “nearly ready”, whilst we watched the preparation from start to finish.
• They did not acknowledge or apologise for our extended wait.

As might be assumed, we decided to never again venture from our usual pizza place. However, this had very little to do with the initial mistake, we’ve waited for pizza before and were hardly in a rush.  Instead, it was to do with the apparent attitude of the staff towards us.  The feelings a customer has towards a company define whether they will return.  If a customer feels undervalued or unwanted, then they are very unlikely to come back.  Of course discovering how your business makes your customers feel can be very tricky, but then this is where selected mystery shoppers can make a world of difference. So, when in doubt, call the experts at Retail Active Mystery Shopping.

Welcome to the team, Kimberly!

The UK’s leading Mystery Shopping and business intelligence company, Retail Active, is proud to announce the recent Client Account Manager appointment. 

Kimberly Morgan, from Oxfordshire, has been in the industry for over five years with more than two years in Account Management.  She has a background in finance and marketing and an MBA from the University of San Diego. Working with us for some time, she has impressed us to make recent developments in her role and this important appointment due to her deep, grass-roots understanding of the industry.

Julian Chamberlain, Director of Retail Active, adds, “We are very excited to have yet another brilliantly conscientious and client-focused individual on the team and I’m sure that Kimberly will delight our clients just as she has us at Retail Active.”

Retail Active is one of the leading and fastest growing Mystery shopping companies in the UK and now is a great time to join us.  See what we can do for your company by clicking here, or ask us at info@retailactive.com.

We are always looking for brilliant and driven individuals to join us as Mystery shoppers and you can via our Shopper Academy at www.retailactive.com.

Retail Active Pioneers New Mystery Guest Programmes Within The Hotel Sector

Exceptional levels of customer service are vital to the success of any leading hotel brand. Hotels need to continually monitor and evaluate the service their staff offer their customers and are turning to Retail Active Mystery Guest programmes as a means to measure that service.

The benefits of Mystery Guest Programmes within hotels are endless. Not only do the programmes measure and monitor the levels of service the hotel provides, but helps to improve sales and customer retention. Continual measurement ensures standards are constantly achieved.

As the hospitality industry moves toward achieving higher standards than ever, the measuring and defining of customer service standards is essential.

The customer journey can start months ahead of a visit and the initial contact is vital to set the right impression. Mystery Guest Programmes tend to cover every aspect of the hotel visit from a customers perspective. This can be from the reservation process right through to check out and in some cases after sales follow up. Advanced Mystery Guest Programmes also review the hotels website and advertised features and offers.

Increasing staff awareness about the importance of customer service for each department helps to ensure that staff are clear about the standards required and how to achieve them.

Many hotels use customer surveys and satisfaction questionnaires as a method of collecting customer data but find that this does not give them the whole picture of the service they provide their customers.

Every customer touch point should be measured against set company standards. There are a wide range of service elements that can be measured and evaluated in every hotel department.

Hotel Mystery Guest Programmes prove to be most successful when every member of staff is involved in the process.Organisations who ensure staff are trained to understand the expectations of the customers they serve are rewarded with improved sales and increased customer retention.

Mystery Guest Programme reportage should always be shared amongst all staff within every department. This is so staff can see how they are performing against the criteria set. It is vital that reports are presented in a positive manner and wherever possible staff are rewarded for their achievements.

Hotel Mystery Guest Programmes are sometimes referred to as Mystery Shopping, Secret Customer and even Mystery Dining Programmes.