Mystery shopping helps improve sales

Office Depot’s President on How “Mystery Shopping” Helped Spark a Turnaround

The Idea: The office products retailer was measuring customer service using metrics— such as the cleanliness of bathrooms—that didn’t drive sales. Its new president is trying to fix that by retraining the staff and transforming the company. When I became the leader of Office Depot’s retail stores in the United States, in 2010, the first [...]

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Look at Your Business from the Customer’s Angle

From your customer’s point of view, your business practices may look a lot different than you think.

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Independent Evaluators Can be Key to Quality Customer Service

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.

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Mystery shopping and its importance for stores

Mystery shopping, also known as secret shopping, is the method by which a store or a company evaluates its employees’ performance. In this a person in disguise pretends to be a shopper, visits the store, interacts with the employees and assesses their ability to build a rapport with the customer in order to sell their [...]

Mystery shoppers help sales growth

Customer perception is reality. But what is a customer’s impression when he or she walks through the door of a store, a restaurant or bank? The answer is not in a crystal ball. Busting the gap between the promise of good customer service and the actual service customers receive in store is the job of [...]

Increase your sales by a simple Hi!

Internet marketing has taught us many new terms, one of which is conversion rate. Wikipedia states that that this is the “ratio of visitors who convert casual content views or website visits into desired actions based on subtle or direct requests from marketers, advertisers, and content creators”. In easy retail marketing language this signifies the [...]

Close That Sale Retail industry uses ‘mystery shoppers’ to check on customer service

At the first stop on a “mystery shopping” tour where we’re keeping tabs on customer service, we almost have to beg for attention. We’re in a Burlington store shopping for a digital camera. The sales person seems to know a lot about digital cameras, but never asks what we want to use it for. He [...]