Mystery Shopping

Customer Loyalty in Today’s Modern Retail World

AboutFace Team — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 11:00:00 +0000

Customer loyalty isn’t what it used to be.

In fact, research company Access Development reported that 79% of customers would take their business to a competitor within a week of experiencing poor customer service, while the estimated cost of customers switching their choice of businesses due to poor service is $1.6 trillion. Keeping this in mind, how can businesses strengthen their customer loyalty in a world where customer sentiment is constantly shifting and consumers have more options than ever before of where to spend their money?

Chris Luo, VP of Marketing of loyalty technology company FiveStars, believes that,

“From our experience, almost all retailers who generate some kind of repeat business have the opportunity to boost their ROI and profitability by increasing the retention of their customers. For fast casual restaurants, as an example, oftentimes 60% of customers never come back after their first visit.”

Retention – as Luo points out – is essential in maintaining customer loyalty. But many questions remain as to why customers aren’t being loyal. Are customers not returning due to bad customer service alone? Or are customers not returning because there are other options? Or possibly, however, are customers not returning because they have been given another reason to dismiss a specific business, including the possibility of preferring a competitor? Whatever the reasons are, one thing is for certain… customer retention is vital in sustaining a healthy business.

As a consumer myself – which of course, you can relate to – I know I make purchase decisions everyday based on a variety of factors. Among them include their proximity to my immediate location, as well their customer care and overall in-store experience. If all of these are positive, I lean towards their effort in keeping me loyal… because after all, I know there are a tremendous amount of other places I could spend my money nowadays. Preferring to shop local, I also consider this… and almost always end up somewhere that provides a loyalty program, as well.

Loyalty programs are proven to increase customer lifetime value by up to 30% or more by increasing visit frequency, increasing spend per visit, and winning back lost customers,” explains Luo.

Winning back lost customers, keeping customers loyal and helping to impact future spending decisions are all strong factors in why loyalty programs are influential to customers… and important for businesses to have. Starbucks, Ulta, Caribou Coffee and Sephora are among those merchants who already have loyalty programs in place, but interestingly some of the biggest brands out there do not.

Among them? McDonald’s. News recently emerged that McDonald’s is developing a loyalty program in the U.S., which will be built upon the chain’s smartphone app released in 2015. As Nation’s Restaurant News first reported, “McDonald’s USA president Mike Andres said that the program could be a big sales driver for the Oak Brook, Ill.-based burger giant.”

Based on what Andres shared at a UBS Global Consumer Conference in early March, it sounds as if this loyalty program will be strongly based on past consumer purchases, as well as designed to offer loyalty during a specific time-frame to help drive more immediate sales. But this model doesn’t work for everyone. Various loyalty programs exist nowadays, with many small businesses still leaning on punch cards for their frequent visitors while more and more businesses depend on technology to help them manage customer loyalty.

Either way, the goal is the same… to capture more customer attention, and specifically, more consumer dollars. As for some favorite programs that currently exist? Luo shares his thoughts on a few that others may be able to learn from.

Mac Cosmetics:

“I really like what MAC Cosmetics is doing. Like Sephora, they are rolling out an interesting 3-tier rewards structure that provides elite privileges for higher levels of spend. These elite levels provide strong incentives for repeat purchases and then drive ongoing engagement since the spend to access each level has to be renewed every year. From our data, we’ve seen that merchants with multiple tiers of rewards are generally more successful than those that have–usually we speculate because with multiple tiers you can really engage the true VIPs and drive out-sized impact in that group, which often drive over 80% of revenue,” shares Luo.

Starbucks:

“Starbucks had a very strong loyalty program that rewarded customers who prepaid for their visits. They leveraged two very strong loyalty program levers – prepayment and points per visit. We’ve seen that prepayment can increase return visits by up to 50%. Point per visit incentives can drive 20% increase in visit frequency among regulars as well. However, they weren’t taking advantage of how rewarding points for spend can also be an additional driver by increasing the average ticket size. After they make this change, I expect that overall Starbucks revenue will increase by 3 to 5% overall,” states Luo.

Finally, whether your business is big or small, it’s important to consider how you strengthen your own customer loyalty. To help, consider what makes customers come to your business in the first place. Is it out of convenience – such as a gas station being positioned in a prime location – or is your business more destination based and customers come specifically for a certain product or service? Identifying the existing strengths of your business, as well as identifying the existing weaknesses, can help you identify a loyalty program that may be right for you.

The original article to this blog can be found here.

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#Brags: Our Case Study on Bass Pro Shops

AboutFace Team — Mon, 02 Mar 2020 11:00:00 +0000

Case Study | Continually increasing 3% year over year

Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World has established itself as a cutting-edge innovator in the highly competitive world of outdoor retailing. With cavernous outlets selling boats, campers, equipment, and apparel for most outdoor activities in cozy hunting-lodge themed stores, their employees not only promote, but live an active outdoor lifestyle. Features such as in-store archery ranges, waterfalls, fish tanks, snack bars, and video arcades make each store a must-see attraction.

The Challenge

Whether you are in the flagship store in Springfield, Missouri or a newly opened location, Bass Pro Shops expects the retail experience to be the same. The challenge is the uniqueness of each store within its community. Shopping scenarios must reflect the environment and shoppers needed to be sporting enthusiasts. A one-size-fits-all approach would not work.

The Solution

Create a program that delivers the right type of information to each group. Executives need comprehensive trending, while stores need detail, detail, detail to coach each and every associate on performance. Provide incentives and tools to enhance the goals of the program. Reward desired behavior and behavior change.

Results

Over the 6 years we have worked with this vendor, they have consistently improved an average of 3% per year.

What they say

“We developed a new secret shopping program using AboutFace. We changed from a quantitative report that was not easy for our people to understand, to one that gives loads of information on the sales process and allowed accountability for each department monthly. Our executive team still receives all the numbers we need, but now the associates and managers at retail have the information they need to improve as well, and they have improved. Over the 6 years we have worked with this vendor, we have improved an average of 3% per year. They act as a true extension to our team.” – Rick Hanson, Director of Retail Operations, Bass Pro Shops

What we say

“Bass Pro Shops is an organization that takes its service seriously. They have helped us grow as a company, pushing us to be better all the time. Each year we work on a plan to help the program evolve so managers and associates become stronger and Bass Pro Shops takes its place as #1 in the industry.” – Paige Hall, CEO, AboutFace

Let us show you how we can help you grow 3% consistently, year over year, with our Mystery Shopping programs. Contact us for a free consultation.

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Mystery Shopping 101: Basics of a Customer Experience Assessment Plan

AboutFace Team — Tue, 28 Jan 2020 14:21:00 +0000

Let’s start at the very beginning–Mystery Shopping 101.

If you’re hearing the term mystery shopping for the very first time in your life, you might picture a shadowy character darting around the aisles of a department store looking for a clue to some kind of important crime case. Although a riveting idea, this is not mystery shopping.

The mystery in this case doesn’t mean some type of unsolved problem, but rather the shopper themselves. Mystery shopping, essentially, is just one of many ways a company typically involved in product-based commerce of some sort can get an idea for the kind of company they are from the customer’s perspective.

First, a dialog is established between the company interested in putting together a program and the mystery-shopping provider itself. After a plan is in place based on the goals of the client, a mystery shopper survey is constructed and given to experienced consumers who enter stores and evaluate the experience as a regular consumer. The results are compiled, compared and then analyzed to create the starting point for an adjustment plan. Gathering data from this perspective gives companies a much more accurate picture of what’s working and what could use improvement. When it comes to creating the best experience for customers, entering a store and interacting with both the products and the larger brand is critical.

Mystery Shopping 101: Why a Mystery Shopping Program?

A well-designed and executed mystery shopping program provides you with information a company representative could never gather themselves. It sheds light on what your business is to your customers in an unfiltered, (and most importantly) measurable way with the ultimate goal of adjustment to right any wrongs that surfaced during the assessment.

It’s very much a gift that keeps on giving. When designed correctly, mystery shopping will:

Increase sales and profitability via more engaged and comfortable customers
Provide a practical way to improve and optimize services
Motivate employees to better represent the brand and create an enjoyable atmosphere for customers
Generate enthusiasm among customers by meeting and then exceeding their expectations

Mystery shopping is all about valuable customer feedback. While email and in-store surveys on the backs of receipts can give your company a broad picture of customer satisfaction, mystery shopping goes further by providing unbiased information about the “feel” of your company at a deeper level.

Mystery Shopping 101: Where to Start

Once you’re on your way to creating a program for your own company, make sure you tailor the strategy to fit your company’s needs. However, you still still need a place to start. Many professionals experienced in creating such programs agree it almost always begins with employee training. Don’t think for a second that a mystery shopping program lives on a colorful whiteboard on the wall of an executive boardroom.

Instead, success requires relationship building, idea implementation and investment plans that actually result in noticeable changes. In-store employees are the human link between your brand and your customers. Have an effective team to represent your company through careful engagement, brand and product knowledge and effective communication skills. These are the foundations by which customer experience is built.

Companies whose employees provide consistent, complete and friendly service to customers of all kinds will find their brand growing in ways previously unachievable using other methods.

Find the Right Mystery Shopping Company & Get It Right the First Time

Of course, before you can start formulating the initial steps of a mystery shopping program, you need to find a provider who gives you what you need. Try to compare and contrast each provider based upon a standard set of questions so you narrow your list to the best mystery shopping company for you.

The following three questions are a great place to start:

How will this mystery shopping company conduct their program?
How will this mystery shopping company gather and analyze their data?
How will they present the data in a way that drives real results?

After fleshing out the broader aspects of a particular company, dive further to narrow your search. Start by comparing how their methodology relates to your specific objectives. These questions can start along the lines of:

What will this program do for my business’ bottom line?
In what ways can you customize the program to align with my company specifically?

Mystery shopping is evolving quickly alongside constantly shifting trends in the retail world. As consumer expectations grow and shift to more complicated models through a number of new channels, accurately gauging the quality of customer experience is a vital part of any company’s sustained success.

Get to know our team at AboutFace and get in touch with us to learn how our Mystery Shopping Programs can help you today.

This content was originally posted here.

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#Brags: Our Case Study on Dyson

AboutFace Team — Thu, 23 Jan 2020 14:26:00 +0000

CASE STUDY Dyson Demonstrator Sales Compliance Program

Dyson Ltd is a British technology company, founded in 1992 by Sir James Dyson, which designs and manufactures vacuum cleaners, hand driers, bladeless fans and heaters. It sells machines in over 50 countries and employs 3,100 people worldwide. The company prides itself on engineering products which work in different and better ways than their predecessors. Dyson’s founder, James Dyson, famously created 5,127 prototypes of his first machine, vacuum cleaner, in a workshop behind his house, before developing one that he considered worked perfectly, the DC01.

The Challenge

Dyson believes relentless invention sets them apart, and they created an engaging experience that help consumers see, feel, and understand the difference in Dyson’s products vs. those of competitors within mass retailers.

The objective for using a mystery shopping program is to assure Demonstrators:

Work as scheduled
Perform the educational experience they learned in training
Improve sales

The Solution

A targeted shopping program was developed to assess and coach Dyson employees across the country. Smart phones are used to enable verification of site visits, plus detail how best practices are being executed.

The Results

The program has allowed supervisors a first-hand view into the customer’s experience. Each visit provides specific examples of the demonstrator/customer interaction. Quantitative reporting, also, enables managers to clearly identify and respond to performance trends individually and collectively. Finally from a compliance stand point,” It has been important to know that our people are present and helping us with our investment in these stores.”

What We Say

These types of programs are becoming more and more important to companies that provide solo contractors or employees who act as guests within another company’s retail environment. This applies to kiosks, dealers, distributors and demonstrators. Clients have a solid compliance tool plus a means to improve the experience through training and coaching. -Paige Hall, CEO, AboutFace

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Hitting 2020 in Strides

AboutFace Team — Thu, 02 Jan 2020 21:39:00 +0000

It’s officially the start to a new decade –

Our team at AboutFace is hitting this new decade with a fresh, new stride. After over 20 years in business, we know now, more than ever, that innovating and changing is critical for growth. Our brand underwent a significant and exciting change last year, which is evident by our new logo and website. Don’t you worry though – our signature smiley is still there and will always be a part of our identity!

We were also proud to launch the first (ever) customer experience subscription service, called ARCHIE, for B2B brands, and we’ve already seen a 400% ROI utilizing this new business model. Mystery shopping is a long-standing, reliable research method to viewing your business through the eyes of your customers. Now with ARCHIE, we are able to help our client move the deeper bigger, and faster.

As a top-tier customer experience research firm, AboutFace has always focused one simple mission: To improve the business of our clients in profound, specific, and measurable ways.

Even with all of our internal growth, this remains constant for our work and for our team. We do this by partnering with leadership teams to conceive clever, customer-centric strategies that engage customers in new and exciting ways. Because we are equally proficient in strategy and research, we deliver robust financial wins for our clients. We help our clients not only understand their customer data, but ultimately improve their brand presence across all areas of their organization. Our staple services include:

Mystery Shopping
Competitive Intelligence
Advanced Customer Experience Strategy (ACES)
Employee Engagement
Customer ForensiX
Compliance and Auditing
Loyalty Driver Solutions
…and a lot more

“There are only three measurements that tell you nearly everything you need to know about your organization’s overall performance: employee engagement, customer satisfaction, and cash flow. It goes without saying that no company, small or large, can win, over the long run, without energized employees who believe in the mission and understand how to achieve it.” –Jack Welch, former CEO of GE

So as we hit our biggest stride ever in 2020, we invite you to follow our journey, notate our mission to improve our client’s success in profound, specific, measurable ways, and join us in continuing to provide exclusive and ground-breaking growth for our clients.

Click here to view our top-tier research services.

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