Good customer service is key to your business’s profitability.  In a recent study, the  American Express Global Customer Service Barometer, showed that two otherwise identical businesses fare very differently if one is lacking in excellent customer service and the other has it.  The one with excellent customer service might make $10.93 million compared to $10 million for a business where customer service is lacking.

Further, 70 percent of Americans surveyed said they would spend up to 13 percent more at companies that had excellent customer service.

So, are you providing excellent customer service?  One of the best ways to find out is through the type of independent evaluations that “mystery shopping” services such as Customer Perspectives can provide.  A mystery shopper  is trained to be unbiased and look at specific areas of customer service. Customer surveys are nice, but they provide feedback based on opinion and emotions.

Another nation survey, the Consumer Reports July 2011 edition, showed that in the last year, 64 percent of respondents had left a store because service was poor, and 67 percent had called a customer service line without getting satisfaction. Rude sales people and multiple steps to reach the right person on the telephone were chief complaints listed in this survey.

According to Lynn Saladini, president of the Mystery Shopping Professionals Association” href=”http://www.mspa-na.org/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>Mystery Shopping Professionals Association (MSPA)in response to American Express’ recent study, “Mystery shopping enables businesses to measure the extent to which they are delivering on their brand promises through the customer experience and to identify and correct deficiencies.