We forget that thermometers don’t cure anything

Thermometer to take temperature

You wake up in the morning feeling slightly off; what’s wrong? You have a cup of coffee and try to shake it off, but it doesn’t leave you. What do you do? What you don’t do is reach for every pill and syrup in your medicine cabinet. Of course, that would be stupid. So you […]

Why this survey doesn’t work

Image of Survey form QR code

Dan Murphy’s is Australia’s biggest liquor chain. You’d think they’d know how to do a survey. I found a pile of these paper slips at the counter. Whilst it’s admirable to “do something”, Its got problems. 1) The staff member is supposed to enter their name, but they didn’t do that. 2) Staff members may […]

How confident are COVID consumers?

How confident are COVID consumers?

It’s one thing to be “coming out of restrictions”, it’s another thing for customers to ‘want’ to be spending money. 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 […]

Surveys don’t tell the whole picture

I was just completing a report for a new banking client and noticed two measurements heading in opposite directions. Their mystery shopping scores were low, but their customer satisfaction from exit surveys was high. So what’s going on? This highlights the problem with reliance on one measurement. The customers are woo’d by the nice branch, […]

The biggest (and hidden) reason customers leave.

Why do customers really leave? The answer is not as obvious as it seems. Dan Kennedy, the king of direct marketing explained the reason as follows. Customer leave for one of the following reasons: 1% die. There’s not much we can do about this one. 3% move. Offline, this is due to geography; online, it’s […]

A dumb or cynical question?

When surveying customers, make sure you get the questioning right. Optus Telecom in Australia got it wrong. Check out the question below.           How would I answer if I received terrible service? “Has the use of [product] prevented you from…..” If you got bad service, you would expect to answer Yes, […]

The ROI of Mystery Shopping

Although a store may spend $10,000 a month on rent, it seems incredulous that a $100 per month spend on mystery shopping (1% of the rent) needs to be justified with ROI. If salaries and running expenses are taken into account (roughly to equal the monthly rent), then $100 per month equates to 0.5% of […]

Why Measure?

Peter Drucker famously said, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” Extract from my book – Mystery Shopping Mastery Time and time again I see companies trying to fix problems they have imagined while ignoring the problems that need fixing. Sure, management is an art and skill, but good measurement provides direction to […]

You can’t watch everything

Extract from my new Book – Mystery Shopping Mastery Let’s start with an extract from a mystery shopping report: The store was in immaculate condition with all the clothes put away and neatly stacked. But I waited eight minutes to be served. The staff were busy talking to each other but I couldn’t hear what […]

Episode #19 Customer Service is overrated

Guess what. Customer service is NOT necessarily the most important driver of sales. That might sound strange coming from someone running a Mystery Shopping company, but I see it time and time again. Companies focusing on the wrong things. Sure service is important, but it’s also important to ensure that: 1) your products are on […]

Episode #18 – Mystery Shopping is not a Customer Service Measurement

Everyone seems to confuse Mystery Shopping with Customer Service measurement. The typical Mystery Shop involves sending a pretend customer into a store, call centre or a website/app. They then evaluate different aspects of the service experience. But measuring aspects of the service experience is NOT a measure of customer service. Mystery Shopping takes measurements as […]