Have you seen How To SELL Anything?

This incredible sales handbook distils an expert's lifetime of sales and marketing experience and hands it to you on a platter, in a simple, easy-to-follow format. With existing customers being the most valuable source of income for any business, this book will teach you how to increase your return business and make more profit from your most loyal customers - and even how to reduce the costs of dealing with your least profitable customers.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)

Mystery shoppers are outdated, expert reports

For many years retailers have tried to reach into the minds of consumers and gain a clear understanding of the customer experience through mystery shopping or qualitative attitude studies. But, while mystery shopping clearly has its place in capturing basic information - such as monitoring queue sizes and product availability - it often fails to dig deep enough and reveal the customer's real perception of the retail experience, Michael argues.

Similarly, even though qualitative attitude and quantitative telephone studies provide individual personal accounts of the customer experience, both are limited and relatively expensive methods that offer only a snapshot of the experience, rather than making meaningful comparisons and supporting strategic decisions.

A mystery shopper programme allows an organisation to monitor and assess the perceptions that are generated from paid-for customer interactions, which include factors such as customer service levels, adherence to standards and policies, and the of course the ability to identify weaknesses in current processes. Many supporters claim that it answers whether the customers' needs are being satisfied and whether or not that's done in an appropriate manner to encourage repeat business. But SMG found that this is not necessarily always the case.

Part of the difference between mystery shopper programmes and alternative research approaches is the setting of requirements and timelines for gaining data. It is important that the research approach ensures a steady stream of reliable and helpful data. Mystery shoppers are often asked to report on such features as tidiness, the quality of the service, and the ease of finding specific products or details. But these programmes are often run in 'bursts', and it can be questionable whether or not the views of a few mystery shoppers each quarter can provide a meaningful volume of reliable data that truly reflects the average customer's real experience.

With the complexity of modern retail and the leisure industry operation to consider, Michael finds hard to imagine that this approach takes into account the challenge of multi-unit management, the need for continuous feedback, the different product/service range, and the varied customer expectations.

Technological advances and an integrated approach breaks away from the compromises of what has become for many a common route to source customer feedback. As a result, several UK retailers (such as Superdrug, TKMaxx and Pets at Home) are now turning to a newer method of customer insight management that provides credible feedback from thousands of paying customers each week.

The customer insight management technique measures and analyses feedback from real customers and enables companies to better understand their shopping experiences and desires for improved service. By using this research methodology, retailers are then able to drill down into minute detail and study customer reactions in lots of different ways - by area of the store, by region, or by time of day, for example.

At a glance, this table shows a quick comparison of customer insight management compared to traditional mystery shopping programmes:

So, not only does customer insight management provide a cost saving alternative to mystery shopping, but several retailers have already uncovered previously hidden insights into customer reactions based on quantitative real-time data that has helped identify new opportunities, resulting in a real difference being made to customers' service experiences.

One successful example of a retailer's integrated approach to gaining actionable data through customer insight research is the high street health and beauty shop, Superdrug. Superdrug confirmed that customer satisfaction frequently dropped during the busy lunchtime shopping hours (12pm to 2pm). Through effective research and the accumulation of actionable data, the retailer was able to respond positively and made a simple change of workers' shift times to improve service and increase customer satisfaction.

By employing customer insight management tools, Superdrug also realised a significant opportunity in improving its customers' on-till experience, which had previously threatened the overall satisfaction levels of its customers. With more meaningful and continuous data, it discovered that while the business had focused on the presentation of its stores, it had not given enough attention to staff attitudes and their interactions with customers.

The phrase 'the customer is king' remains true in the retail and leisure industries, so it is of paramount importance that retailers really understand their customers to ultimately secure and retain their loyalty. By continuously capturing and analysing feedback from real customers in real time, marketers can more clearly understand the whole journey of the customer experience and reap the benefits of meaningful improvements.

Consequently, Michael suggests the following checklist of questions to find out whether or not you are getting the most out of an existing customer feedback programme:

1. Do I have a representative sample of my customer base?
2. Am I getting value for money?
3. Does the programme drive profit?
4. Are the results from the programme an integral part of the business plan?
5. Does the report tell me what is really important to my customers?
6. Are the results providing the front line staff with actionable information to improve areas of the business?
7. Do I know where else my customers go... and why?

Have you seen How To SELL Anything?

This incredible sales handbook distils an expert's lifetime of sales and marketing experience and hands it to you on a platter, in a simple, easy-to-follow format.

With existing customers being the most valuable source of income for any business, this book will teach you how to increase your return business and make more profit from your most loyal customers - and even how to reduce the costs of dealing with your least profitable customers.

You'll learn to sell yourself, sell your products, and sell your brand on the internet, writing high-conversion landing pages, social media posts, and more. You'll start attracting customers you didn’t even know existed, and learn the top trade secrets for customer retention.

You'll become a lean, mean selling machine. See how the experts do it and learn to adapt what they've done for your own profit. You'll learn to write strong, powerful, effective sales copy, whether it's for a sales script, sales letter, flyer, insert, advert or just about anything else.

You'll learn how to sell whether you're selling by telephone, by mail, or even meeting prospects face-to-face. You'll find out how to size them up, present yourself, nail down their true needs, close the sale, and learn to tackle the tricky ones.

You'll discover the biggest secrets of successful direct mail sellers, sales letter writers, and how to segment and choose the right prospects for each campaign.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)