Solve your Customers’ Perception of You with Mystery Shopping

I’m sure you’re aware of the term Mystery Shopping, whereby individuals visit shops/restaurants/leisure facilities etc. as a regular customer would, and then report back on various aspects of their experience.

Mystery shopping is commonly linked to retail and other business-to-consumer industries where the relationship between customer service levels and the sales process is widely understood. But, how can the concept of mystery shopping be applied to other businesses, what lessons can be learnt and how can the information be used to help improve your business?

What is Mystery Shopping?

Mystery shopping involves individuals visiting or calling a business to experience the process through the eyes of a prospect or customer. The mystery shopper provides feedback on aspects such as how efficiently processes have been followed, the politeness of staff and how they, as a customer were feeling after the experience.

Why Conduct Mystery Shopping?

Although mystery shopping only provides a snapshot of the customer experience, when used in conjunction with other research such as competitor research it can help clarify where your business is doing well and where it could improve. For example, mystery shopping can help your business to understand:

• How your business is seen by your customers throughout the sales process
• What first impressions are left with potential customers
• The level of service received by customers
• How your customers feel as a result of dealing with your company
• If all members of staff who interact with your customers (at any point in the customer journey) provide the same service levels
• If there are any bottlenecks or delays within the customer pathway that may influence the purchasing decision

How can you conduct Mystery Shopping?

The first step in all research is setting a clear objective so you understand what you are aiming to find out from the research and how you plan to use this information. From this objective, you then need to create a brief and checklist to ensure your mystery shoppers are asking the right questions, have a plausible back story and that their findings can be analysed effectively.

As customer service is a very subjective matter, it is advisable to conduct your research with a number of mystery shoppers and at different times of the day. This will provide a clearer picture and enable you to take into account any personality clashes, personal issues etc. when analysing the results. When using multiple mystery shoppers you can also include a scenario to assess how unhappy customers are dealt with giving a more comprehensive picture.

To truly experience the customer pathway and gain a fair representation of the sales process, it is important that your mystery shopper is treated like any other potential customer. It is therefore imperative that your staff are unaware that the process is taking place as they are likely to adapt their behaviour if they know they are potentially being monitored or reviewed.

During the process, your mystery shopper should act like a normal customer, asking the types of questions that are frequently asked and progressing through the sales process taking into account the objectives of the research. Feedback should be documented as soon as possible after the shopping experience to ensure no details are missed and the experience is fresh.

What do you do with the results?

Having conducted your research, you may be faced with a number of scenarios, with significant implications for how this would affect your potential sales:

• Everything is perfect – All processes are followed efficiently/effectively. The customer is 100% happy and is therefore likely to make the purchase from your business.
• Few areas of improvement are identified – The customer is mostly happy, however there are a few areas where they felt they weren’t being listened to or there were delays in the process. If they experience a better level of service from another company they may be more likely to purchase elsewhere.
• Variety of issues are identified – The customer is left feeling that they haven’t been listened to and/or there have been significant delays in the process meaning they are more than likely to take their business elsewhere.

Any issues identified should be investigated to understand if there is a fundamental issue with the process or whether it is a personnel / training concern. It may be that individuals are simply unaware of the impact their interaction with customers has on the sales process. This can be easily rectified through an employee briefing session focused on improving the customer experience. Alternatively, the research may identify that the processes involved are too complex. By simplifying the process and making it easier for customers to access information your business could instantly improve the customer experience.

Regardless of the outcome, it is important to communicate with all members of staff explaining how and why the research was undertaken, what the results have shown and what steps you are taking to rectify any issues identified. This should all be communicated in generic terms taking care not to single out individual team members. Having made these changes, a follow-up mystery shop should then be completed to assess how these have affected the customer experience.

If you would like to discuss how mystery shopping can help you understand the perceptions your customers have of your business, call us today.  

Karen Munson is Strategic Officer at Enterprise Marketing Solutions and contactable on 01296 695635 or Karen.munson@enterprisemarketing.co.uk. 

How to Achieve … Like Leicester City

At the beginning of the 2015/16 football season who would’ve believed that Leicester City would be crowned the Premier League champions. After all, the odds were certainly against them and they had only narrowly avoided relegation the previous season with a win in the final game of the season.

So how did they manage it and what lessons can your business learn from their success?

There are a number of contributory factors to Leicester City’s success which when applied to your business can help facilitate growth, encourage teamwork and ultimately help your business achieve success.

Strategy

Like business, success in football is pre-dominantly based on identifying a strategy and applying this strategy effectively. This includes the composition of your team, understanding your own strengths/weaknesses plus those of your opposition, and pinpointing and then exploiting any opportunities whilst minimising the threats.

It can be tempting to focus on individuals within your team and build your strategy around their individual strengths rather than looking at the team as a whole. But what happens if that individual leaves or the rest of the team aren’t able to perform effectively within your chosen strategy? By creating a strategy that encompasses the strengths of the whole team the impact of an individual leaving can be minimised and their replacement will be able to fit in to your strategy more easily.

Confidence & Self-belief

Although they had only narrowly avoided relegation in the previous season, Leicester ended that season in strong form, winning 7 of their last 9 games. It would’ve been all too easy for Leicester to focus on the negatives but by focusing on the positive end to the 2014/15 season Leicester began the new 2015/16 season with confidence and were able to continue this form into the season.

Success breeds success, and working in a positive environment that thrives on celebrating success will help promote confidence and self-belief and facilitate further success. Even when things go wrong, there are lessons to be learnt and positives to be taken from the experience.

Teamwork

One of the main headline grabbers throughout Leicester City’s success has been Jamie Vardy, their top goal-scorer, however the contribution made by other members of the squad cannot and should not be overlooked. For example, it doesn’t matter if an individual scores a goal in every match if the defence then concedes 2 goals per match, and it’s important to understand how many players contributed towards the overall outcome of scoring the goal – this could include all 11 players from the team, rather than the final goal scorer.

Each and every person in your team needs to be working effectively together to reach the team or business objective and understand their own contribution to the overall picture. By feeling valued and part of a team effort, individuals will be able to perform to their own strengths in the knowledge that they are being supported by the strengths of other team members.

Consistency

Leicester have maintained a consistent team throughout the season enabling trust to build between the players. They knew how each other played and how to bring the best performance levels out of the different team members which in turn translated to a consistent performance for the fans who began to expect the same week in, week out.

This level of consistency and trust can be brought about within a business through the introduction of processes. By ensuring consistency within your organisation you can manage your customers’ expectations and build levels of trust and brand loyalty by offering consistently high levels of service and/or product quality.

Luck

Finally, it’s fair to say that Leicester have experienced an element of luck in their run to the Premier League title – but a little bit of luck can certainly go a long way!

You may not think these elements have anything to do with marketing however everything here is actually what makes your brand live and breathe – both internally and externally. A clear strategy; a strong, confident identity; great customer service through internal communication, training and processes; consistency for messaging and branded communications – will all give you improved opportunities to win business … which is lucky!

If you would like to discuss how we can help your business succeed, give us a call today.  

Karen Munson is Strategic Officer at Enterprise Marketing Solutions and contactable on 01296 695635 or Karen.,munson@enterprisemarketing.co.uk.

How Digging Reveals Opportunity Treasure

Businesses are all too often caught up in day-to-day operations, ensuring existing customers and enquiries are dealt with effectively and not thinking too far into the future. But what happens when the enquiries stop coming in? Do you know why – is it because the industry has moved on?

What is Desk Research?

Desk research involves collating information from industry reports, articles in media publications, the internet and other sources of information on your chosen area of interest to form a clearer picture.

Why Conduct Desk Research?

There are many reasons why businesses conduct desk research for example:

·         To identify trends in your industry or market sector

·         To understand the current state of your industry and where it is forecast to go

·         To determine where your business fits into that future picture

·         To identify if your business could operate in a different industry or market sector

·        

How can you conduct Desk Research?

As with all market research, it’s important to have a clear objective; an understanding of what you want to find out from the research and how your findings will influence your business moving forward. Having determined your objective there are a number of steps to take:

·         Define your industry / market sector

Although you may be positioned in one particular industry or market sector, there may be other related industries and/or market sectors that will have an influence on your business. For example, a traditional print newspaper publisher will be affected by the online publishing sector.

·         Identify potential sources of information

As previously stated, there are numerous sources of information available, some free of charge whilst others would incur a fee:

·         Mintel Reports

·         Industry publications

·         Industry bodies

·         Thought leaders within your industry

·         Check information for relevance

Having identified potential sources of information, it is then important to check the relevance and authenticity of the data, opinions or facts stated. Any information you find could provide valuable insights for your business but it should be considered in light of the following questions:

·         When was the information published and what dates does it cover?

·         Is the information based on the industry in the UK (or the geographical area you operate in) or is it a more general overview?

·         What sources of information have been used to create the report / article? Are these sources credible?

·         Does the information come from a voice of authority within the industry?

Review Findings

Once you have collated your information from the various sources you can build a picture of the history of your industry from the past through to the present and where it is forecast to go in the future. From these industry forecasts business decisions can be made regarding how to develop your business moving forwards. For example, if your research shows that the industry is forecast to decline in the near future, decisions can be made regarding whether to diversify your business to offer your existing customers something new.

·        Communicate

     Following any research, it is important to communicate with your employees to ensure they are aware of your future business plans. This will reduce the likelihood of employee unrest due to any changes made as a result of the research, especially where these changes have a direct impact on your employees.

If you would like to discuss how we can help you to better understand your industry /market sector through desk research, give us a call today.  

Karen Munson is Strategic Officer at Enterprise Marketing Solutions and contactable on 01296 695635 or Karen.munson@enterprisemarekting.co.uk. 

Keep Your Business Ahead of the Competition

We all know that we live in a competitive business environment. A simple internet search will reveal a multitude of possible companies locally, nationally and internationally, all offering the same or similar products/services.

The recent recession also changed several industry landscapes, with closures, mergers and acquisitions; so how confident are you about your industry landscape and where you are positioned within it? And, how can you use competitor research to stand out from the crowd, ensure you stay at least one step ahead of the competition and help protect the future of your business?

Why Conduct Competitor Research?

Competitor research involves finding out information to enable a clearer understanding of the market in which your business operates. This in turn can help to inform business decisions regarding the future direction of your business and how you communicate with your customers.

There are many reasons why businesses conduct competitor research for example:

• To understand who they are competing against (this could be locally, nationally or internationally)
• To understand how other businesses are positioning themselves in the market
• To determine how they will position themselves in the market going forwards
• To highlight any gaps in the market
• To understand the potential of launching new products/services

·    

Who are your Competitors?

The first step in competitor research is to define and understand who your main competitors really are. Whilst the most obvious competitors are those providing an equivalent product/service within a set radius of your business, there are a number of factors to consider such as:

• Geographical Area – This will be influenced by the type of business and the products/services provided. If the product can be packaged and distributed easily and cost-effectively the geographical area to consider will be wider.
• Size of Company – The size of a company may influence their ability or willingness to meet customer requirements efficiently and effectively. For example, it may not be cost-effective for a large manufacturer to produce a bespoke one-off product for a customer and therefore would not be considered a main competitor to a smaller manufacturer that focuses more on these bespoke products.
• Products/Services – Whilst there will be companies who offer an almost identical product/service to your business there are also likely to be companies who offer a small element of the same products/services as part of a wider or differentiated offering. This may not form a major part of their business at the current time but it is still important to understand where they fit into the market.
• Substitute Products/Services – Consider what your customers might buy instead if they don’t purchase your product/service. All forms of sporting activities could be classed as competition to each other but then so could watching television, arts and crafts, listening to music or simply relaxing at home as consumers will choose between these activities to fill their spare time.

How can you conduct Competitor Research?

Having determined the criteria for defining your key competitors, it is important to have a clear objective to ensure you are collecting the most relevant information through your competitor research. There are a number of factors to consider, dependent on what you are looking to achieve from your research, these include:

Factor	Rationale
Products/Services Offered	Is there a gap in the market? Is there an overload in certain sectors of the market?
Accreditations	Are there any accreditations that would benefit your business & help you stand out from your competitors?
Positioning	Is the company focused on price / product / the customer or is it customer-centric?
Guarantees	Offering a guarantee provides reassurance to customers that they are choosing a company that values customer satisfaction & quality
Machinery	What capabilities do they have? Will their machinery need to be updated in the near future?
History	Credibility & trust from customers prospective or new, dynamic and fast moving
Industries Covered	Are there any particular industries or types of work that the company focuses on?
Types of Work
Turnover/Financial Stability	To gain an understanding of where your company fits into the current market and if your competitors are in a position to invest in machinery/infrastructure if required.

There is also a wide range of information sources, each able to provide a slightly different perspective of your competitors. The selection of information sources to use for your research will depend, in part, on the customer type and how they are most likely to search for information.   

• Website - For many customers, both Business-to-Business and Business-to-Consumer, the internet provides the initial source of information and therefore company websites provide the opportunity to view your competitors and your own business through the eyes of a potential customer. The information available from websites varies dramatically between companies but will often prove to be a good initial source of information.
• Company reports – If you are making business decisions regarding significant investment in machinery, infrastructure etc. company reports can provide a good indication of how your competitors would be able to react to this.
• Social media – How are your customers/prospects interacting with your competitors? Social media is often used as a tool for sharing experiences with others, both positive and negative, and can therefore provide valuable insights into how your customers/prospects view your competitors.
• Trade publications – How is the industry portraying different companies? Trade publications often feature case studies highlighting how companies have approached a particular issue.
• Mystery shopping – Sample your competitors levels of customer service, product knowledge and processes by acting as a potential customer.

What do you do with the results?

The analysis of the results will depend in part on the nature of your competitor research, the quantity of information and the initial objectives of the research. For example, the presentation of the results may take the form of a matrix through which it is possible to identify a gap in the market or areas that your business is not currently capitalising on, such as company accreditations.

Following analysis of the results of our research, a number of questions can then be assessed to help form the basis of future business and marketing strategies. For example:

• How are we positioned (customer perception) in the market? E.g. Are we Lidl or Waitrose?
• Are we offering the correct mix of products/services?
• Is there another product/service we could offer?
• How do we compare with our competitors with regards to pricing?
• Do we communicate with our customers effectively?
• Are our customers (and competitors) using the same social media channels as us?
• Are we offering our customers something different to our competitors?

Having conducted competitor research and acted upon it accordingly, it is also important to reassess your competitors on a regular basis to ensure you stay aware of any changes they make which could impact on your business.

If you would like to discuss how competitor research can help your business, give us a call today.  

Karen Munson is Strategic Officer at Enterprise Marketing Solutions and contactable on 01296 695635 or Karen.munson@enterprisemarekting.co.uk. 

How Happy Clients Can Make You Money

Many businesses rely on their existing clients for repeat business. However, do you truly understand what your customers think about your business? Do you know why they chose to come to you in the first place? Or what, if anything they think makes you different from your competitors?

Research has shown that it costs 6-7 times more to acquire a new customer than retain an existing one (Bain & Company). By understanding your existing clients you can work towards building upon and improving their experience by ensuring you keep them happy. This in turn will improve the experience for new clients who will benefit from the improvements and recommendations implemented from the client research.

What is Client Research?

Client research provides a means for your clients to express any concerns they may have, how they feel about certain areas of your business and gain feedback on any proposed changes within your business. And if it’s independent, they will be more honest than if you conduct it yourself. Client research can include areas such as:

·         Their understanding of the services available

·         Levels of customer service

·         What your company is doing right

·         Are there any areas they feel your company could improve upon?

·         Their thoughts on a proposed new product range

Why Conduct Client Research?

As a business it’s easy to become complacent, thinking “our clients keep coming back to us so they must be happy”. But what happens if there’s something they think you could improve upon, or you make a change thinking it will improve things for your clients when in reality it makes things more difficult for them?

Whilst a happy customer is likely to return for repeat business and may give you the benefit of the doubt when they first encounter a negative experience, if this negative experience is repeated they may go elsewhere, without giving you the opportunity to correct this.

You may have some aggressive competitors or new entrants to your market that are marketing heavily to your clients. Client research can tell you whether those competitors are addressing issues that your clients have and that you are not currently taking into consideration.

By conducting client research and acting upon the feedback you will be able to demonstrate that you value your clients and their opinions, therefore creating a more open business relationship whereby they feel they can discuss issues with you. 

How can you conduct Client Research?

As with all research, it’s important to have a clear objective; an understanding of what you want to find out from the research and how you will act upon this information.

Once your objectives have been identified, there are a number of consideration:

·         Sample Size – The closer you get to the total market number, the more robust your sample will be (and thus, the validity of the results typically increases too). The general rule of thumb is 100 responses or a minimum of 10% of your total targeted market. So, if you have 300 clients, 30 is a minimum base to use, or if you have 20,000, you may opt for a smaller survey of around 100 clients.

·         Representative Sample - In order to gain a fair representation of your clients’ views it is important to ensure you speak to a variety of contacts within your database. A long-term client who has used your business for over 10 years is likely to have a different opinion to a client who has only recently started to use your business.

·         Question Design – The questions can be quantitative – box ticking answers – qualitative – asking their opinions with open ended questions that allow them to say whatever they like or it can be a combination of the two.

·         Interviews / Surveys – Consider whether telephone interviews or printed surveys are the best option. The use of telephone interviews will enable the interviewer to probe for additional information on answers where necessary but this can also be a more time-consuming exercise.

·         Timing – Your clients will have their own work to complete which will take priority over completing your client research. Allow your clients to choose a time that suits them best, and give them the opportunity to rearrange if necessary.

·         Set Expectations – Tell your clients approximately how long the survey will take to complete so they can plan their time accordingly.

·         Communication – To encourage your clients to participate, tell them why you are conducting the research, what you are hoping to learn and how you will act upon the results. Make it clear that you will be listening to their views and will feedback to them once the research has been completed.

·         Appreciation – Thank your clients for their opinions and make them feel appreciated.

·         External Input – Your clients may be more likely to give an open and honest opinion if the research is conducted by an external person. The results from the research can then be reported anonymously.

What do you do with the results?

This will depend partly on the actual feedback provided through the research process.

If feedback from your research is positive, it shows that you are doing a good job and making your clients happy. However, it is important that the business understands what it is that the client says you are doing well so that these factors are not overlooked in the future. It is also unlikely that your research will show that every single client is 100% happy with every element of your business and there is always room for improvement.

Client research may also identify areas for improvement such as:

·         A lack of consistency in the application of processes within your business

·         Personality clashes between clients and employees

·         A lack of client understanding of other products/services offered by your business

·         Clients not fully understanding how a process works

·         Clients feeling that they aren’t communicated with

Regardless of the outcome it is important to communicate the results of your research both internally, so your employees can act upon the feedback and externally, to demonstrate to your customers that you care.

If you would like to discuss how client research can help your business, give us a call today.  

Karen Munson is Strategic Officer at Enterprise Marketing Solutions and contactable on 01296 695635 or Karen.munson@enterprisemarekting.co.uk. 

Getting Inside Your Clients’ Head

We are all individuals with our own views, expectations and limitations. As a business have you stopped to consider things from the perspective of your clients, prospects and employees? How are they likely to react to your latest news, marketing campaign, product launch or any other activity?

On Friday, my 5-year old came running out of school with a massive grin; Max the Bear was coming to stay for the weekend. Max is the class bear and each weekend he goes to a child’s home to join in with their family activities which are then reported in Max’s diary through a combination of photos, drawings and writing.

Whilst discussing this with my son, we decided that as it’s Max’s diary, it should be written from Max’s perspective. After all, how a bear views the world could be very different to a 5-year old child. I wasn’t entirely sure how well this would work, however, after a couple of activities I can honestly say that Max started to express his own opinions about whether he wanted to join in. For example at a birthday party Max was scared that the other children would hurt him as he was smaller than them, so he sat on the side watching until he was happy to join in.

The same principal needs to be applied in your business.

“Getting inside your client’s head” helps you understand what makes them tick, how they view your business and how they are likely to respond to various events. When you create an avatar for your “ideal client”, all of your marketing activity can then be created with this person in mind. This is all about them, not about you!

Consider an IT company providing support to small businesses. Let’s say their ideal client is “Bob”, the owner of a small company who is involved in running all aspects of the company. Bob is always rushing around making sure the business is operating as efficiently as possible and has very little time to spend understanding how the IT works, he just needs to know that it works. As a small business owner, Bob often works outside normal office hours, so he is concerned about having IT issues and not having support available. He is therefore looking for a company to look after all his IT requirements and get his business back up and running if and when anything goes wrong with his IT.

Bob has been told about 2 local companies that offer IT Support for small businesses so looks at their websites to find out more. Which company do you think Bob would be more likely to approach regarding his needs?

Company A

The website looks professional and includes lots of technical information. The case studies and testimonials focus on larger companies and how the company has helped to support IT departments within organisations.

Company B 

Uses clear and easy-to-understand language and includes case studies and testimonials from companies of a similar size to “Bob’s”. The site looks clean, is easy to navigate and each page displays clear contact details including an out-of-hours number for 24-7 support.

It’s clear to me that Bob would choose to contact Company B. They have understood the main concerns for small business owners like Bob such as lack of time and the need for 24-7 support and demonstrated how they have helped similar businesses.

If you would like to discuss how Enterprise Marketing Solutions can help you “get inside your client’s head” to help your business grow, give us a call today.  

Karen Munson is Strategic Officer at Enterprise Marketing Solutions and contactable on 01296 695635 or Karen.munson@enterprisemarekting.co.uk.