Tag: customer experience research

Elaine Buxton, president, has announced renewal of the Confero’s national certification as a Women’s Business Enterprise by the Women’s Business Enterprise Council – Southeast, a regional certifying partner of the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council(WBENC). WBENC’s national certification is a two part process which includes a site visit with the female owner, conducted by one […]

Elaine Buxton, president, attended the Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP) Conference held on October 9-10, 2013 at the Hyatt Regency Washington in Washington, D.C. Â The event was intended to include a legislative fly-in, however it occurred during the federal government shutdown. Attendees were able to connect with staffers within the Small Business Administration and […]

Do you worry about lost sales opportunities and less than perfect customer experiences when your associates interact with customers? Does it worry you even more to think of situations when customers visit with a specific item in mind, only to find the item not on your shelf? When customers visit your location with a product in mind and don’t find it, negative customer experiences are not the only result. After experiencing this frustration, customers may return; however some opt to shop at another store where they feel more confident about finding items on the shelf. In fact, fifty percent of those who encounter an OOS will visit another store to find the item. The most frustrating piece

We recently saw a communication from one of our grocery store clients. A store manager received his mystery shopping report and reminded his employees, “Remember, exceptional service is our best weapon. WalMart is right across the street!”

In the war among grocery retailers, competition for new customers remains fierce. Grocery consumers remain store-loyal and non-traditional grocery stores continue to enter the grocery playing field. Giants like Wal-Mart and Target add even more intensity to the competitive mix. Given these challenges, it’s no wonder that many grocery store chains have mystery shopping in their arsenal. For some grocery retailers, mystery shops go beyond

Last year, we wrote a well-received article about 25 business types for mystery shopping programs, drawing from our years of experience with a variety of clients in many industries. From convenience stores to upscale retailers to restaurants and medical practices, mystery shopping reports go a long way toward revealing how well employees interact with customers on a daily basis.

So, how do our clients use mystery shopping? Mostly, mystery shopping is used to find out about those things customers won’t tell you in surveys or social media comments, or issues you can't discover by asking customers. If our client has a customer service delivery process or set of procedures in place for fulfilling a brand promise in front of a consumer customer, chances are the process can by mystery shopped.

We’ve compiled our top ten list of mystery shopping uses here.