My grinch-like last minute Christmas gift buying laziness means I buy a lot of ‘considerate’ vouchers. I know I’m not alone.

But most companies don’t help.

On the surface, the certificate below looks OK, but…..

They gave the option to email it to the recipient on a certain date. Makes sense, but as a Christmas or birthday gift, do I turn up empty handed and tell them the gift is ‘in the mail’

Do I send it a day early and then ruin the surprise? Either way it eliminates the social norm of handing over a gift.

So I send the eCertificate to myself. Then it’s plastered with ‘my’ email address.

The certificate doesn’t print well because the bottom is littered with disclaimers.

The certificate is poorly sized and needs to be trimmed with a guillotine (or crooked scissor cuts).

A transaction makes an experience not.

The post eVouchers are broken appeared first on Service Integrity Mystery Shopping.

Are we more efficient?

Is our service better?

Don’t get obsessed with benchmarks.

You are running your own race.

Except for rare circumstances there is no prize for being the most efficient, best service, or most admired stakes.

Each organisation has its own strategy.

A high touch, high price industry player should not compare to a low cost automated player.

A local council in one part of the city could have different priorities to another.

Elon Musk doesn’t compare his manufacturing costs to Volvo. How can he compare engine production costs when his cars lack a petrol engine?

Apple? Jobs? Enough has been written about them.

Your competitor won an award? So? We judge awards with criteria set by someone not even in the industry.

I see this all the time in mystery shopping and customer surveys. Measure your own strategy, not someone else’s.

When to benchmark

Now a twist. If you want to a comparison, do so according to “your” strategy.

If you want to attract high end high touch customers with genius service reps, then test how you are doing against your own criteria. Then mystery shop the competitors to see if anyone is implementing your strategy better (and thus attracting your target market).

Use your own criteria.

The post Don’t benchmark, except when…. appeared first on Service Integrity Mystery Shopping.

Why are people (me included) freaked out by spiders? Because they are so different to us. A dog has two big black eyes, whereas a spider has eight. Yuk.

The answer to that question also answers a question I often get asked by clients.

Exactly what should my staff say when serving customers?

When it comes to serving customers, don’t think of what to say, think of what to “be”.

Be a mirror.

Researcher Richard Wiseman studied whether mirroring or positive reinforcement was more effective at building customer connection.

One group of waiters used positive reinforcement by dishing lavish praise about the menu choice and encouragement with words such as “great”, “no problem” and “sure”. 

The other group mirrored their customers simply by repeating the orders back.

The results were stunning. The average tip of the mirroring group was 70% higher.

A mirror is the door to empathy.

So a mystery shopping question aimed at evaluating the welcome is more complex than it seems. 

Instead of asking:

“Was the staff member pleasant?”

ask

“Did the staff member repeat you request”, then ask
“Did the staff member adjust the conversation to follow your needs”.

Don’t be a spider, be a dog.

The post Don’t be the customer’s spider appeared first on Service Integrity Mystery Shopping.

I did it to complete a single mystery shop in a town called Walgett in the western outback on the NSW QLD border. 

I did it for $80. 

I impulsively decided on the trip the day before. It felt right. On reflection, there were 8 good reasons to do it. 

I’m not going to tell the client I did it myself.  To them it’s just one of many sites (jobs) ticked off for the month.

I had a good reason not to do it. It’s a hard job in a town in the middle of nowhere with only 2,300 people. Though the client wouldn’t be thrilled, I had an excuse, not to do it. 

But I did it for many reasons. 

1. It’s a long standing client (over 10 yrs).
2. We’ve earnt great money over the years so I owe them.
3. The contract renews every couple of years. Like they say about wives – Happy client happy life
4. It shows my staff we MUST deliver (and we do).
5. It helps me price future jobs because I can ‘feel’ the issues that come from its remoteness.
6. It helps me truly understand why my staff struggle with some jobs (they aren’t being lazy).
7. I tacked on a couple other remote jobs, which eases the stress on my scheduling staff and account managers. Its also marginally helps pay for my time.
8. I get to discover a new part of the country and I love driving (I didn’t need much pushing).

Did I just justify my gut feel, or confirm my gut was right?

The post Why I drove 1,500km for $80 appeared first on Service Integrity Mystery Shopping.

Sure consumers feel bombarded and it seems impossible any of it can stand out. 

But it works!

Why else would companies keep spending the money?

Today I was in an unfamiliar town looking for a coffee break during a long drive. 

On one side, KFC, on the other Hungry Jacks. 

I thought to myself. Do they even do coffee?

Then I saw a sign at Hungry Jacks advertising Barista coffee. 

I know there isn’t a barista in there but it was a signal. A signal that a) they sell coffee and b) that they sell coffee worth advertising. 

A sign is a signal. Same word, one is a noun and one a verb. 

So I bought it. 

These forms of advertising are expensive to buy and maintain. 

But in order for it to work the store must actually have the sign on display and it must be in good order. 

Maybe KFC should have had a sign on display and it wasn’t taken out for the morning? They should. 

Tardy signage signals tardy product.  Non existent signage signals non-existent product. 

These little things matter. So does the little matter of auditing signage, presentation and displays. 

Two minute video of how a flimsy sign changed my behaviour.

The post How a flimsy sign altered behaviour appeared first on Service Integrity Mystery Shopping.

I closed a bank account today, and the reason I had to close it IS relevant.

I closed it because my bank, Greater Bank does not have Apple Pay as part of their Visa card offering. 

I am now wallet free, digital license, apple pay, phone key, electric car driving child of the internet age. I don’t want to carry one single card, so I decided to ditch this last dinosaur by opening an account with another bank.

The staff member who closed my account could not have been more helpful. But she didn’t ask me why I was closing my account.

Now sure she couldn’t do anything about it but she could’ve done two things. Firstly, she could have asked me why I was closing my account, and second, she could offer to leave the account with a zero balance and no fees until such time as the function I was seeking would be available (which it will eventually).

Now another bank has got my transactions, and our banking does tend to follow our transactions. So they’ll probably end up getting the whole of my company’s banking.

Collect information from customers, even if you can’t do anything about it.

The post Why you should collect useless information appeared first on Service Integrity Mystery Shopping.

When you get on a plane (remember that?) you expect a safety briefing, the expected timing of the trolley cart, and precise announcements. It’s just the way it works.

The same with hotels and AirBnB’s. You expect the bathroom to have tissues and soap.

Here’s the anatomy of a private review of an AirBnB in the Southern Highlands of NSW Australia. I’ve avoided personal preferences, and none of these things were enough to detract from the 10/10 review. The place was (and is) amazing.

This is one of the best AirBnB’s I’ve stayed at, yet it too had room to improve.

First impressions were awesome

Fantastic communication with the owner over a few days. Instructions were clear, and they even suggested a shortcut which is better than Google maps.

The place itself is stunning, private, and gives a wow factor when you walk in.

They even had a detailed compendium highlighting the hidden treasures of the apartment.

But the devil is in the details

It was pouring rain and windy when I checked in. Rain exposes things.

The Entrances

A soaked front door mat – most of us respect other people’s property but I couldn’t avoid bringing wet shoes into the studio apartment. Another doormat inside the door would fix that.

The back door had no doormat. Again, wet shoes were dragged into the apartment.

The back door had no awning over the nice french doors, so there was no space between inside and outside.

Kitchen

Very well equipped but no salad tongs.

Noisy fridge

No table mats – we didn’t want to mark the table with hot plates.

The bed

Squeaky. Enough said.

Appliances

Complicated TV.

Complicated taps – took a while to work out how to get hot water.

Fireplace – yes it had one and it was pre-loaded (nice touch) but it didn’t have instructions on how to control airflow.

The stove exhaust fan just recirculated the air back into the apartment, without external exhaust.

Bathroom

No tissues

No powerpoint

Am I being picky?

There is always room for improvement. If elite athletes keep refining their game, so can a 10/10 AirBnB.

The point is that we can also improve and I’d always suggest an independent set of eyes to make things better.

The post How to improve a 10/10 review appeared first on Service Integrity Mystery Shopping.

Only 17% of people in the COVID-19 world are sanitising.

We’ll be releasing more details of our 2,521 observations in the coming week. Brands (Australian) observed were Bunnings, Coles, Chemist Warehouse, Kmart, and Officeworks. The brands are trying to do the right thing. But consumers are not.

We also look at whether staff were directing traffic to sanitise, what effect that has, and the effect of herd mentality (not in the immunisation sense).

Scary statistics.

Let those who have not sinned cast the first stone.

The post Scary hygiene statistics appeared first on Service Integrity Mystery Shopping.

Will there be a rush to malls?
Will there be a rush to other public places?

We surveyed 670 consumers and found they are more skittish than you’d think.

If you want the customers, make them feel safe.

• Make purchases quick
• Go over the top with prominent safety features
• Train your staff practice safety
• Monitor your CovidSafe practices

We’re starting mystery shopping of these practices all over Australia and look forward to sharing the results.

The post How confident are COVID consumers? appeared first on Service Integrity Mystery Shopping.

82% of our 700 consumers polled said they’d change their buying behaviours if not confident with the store’s hygiene.

In my previous post I shared a poll showing that 63% of people are not confident in crowded places.

Consumers reflect their caution in their expected buying behaviours.

If you thought things would trickle back to normal, think again.

Customers will vote with their feet if they don’t see excellent hygiene practices.

Click here if you want to see how you can be COVIDSafe with a COVIDAudit.

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