Dawson Chambers is a young, dynamic and fast growing research agency that is spe
ID: 448166 • Letter: D
Question
Dawson Chambers is a young, dynamic and fast growing research agency that is specialized in Mystery Shopping, Market Research, and Customer Service Training. It is located in Geneva, Switzerland from where it provides national and international organizations with customized performance improvement programs. Dawson Chambers has a considerable network of specialist mystery shoppers operating from regional hubs across Switzerland. These mystery shoppers provide service organizations with the tools to develop, train and re-train their teams to improve customer service and sales performance. Dawson Chambers has recently been approached by Sebastian Koch, manager of Swiss-tell, a Swiss mobile phone provider headquartered in Basel. Sebastian has asked Dawson Chambers to assess the quality of service delivery to customers of Swiss-Tel mobile phone shops across Switzerland.
Like in many other countries, the mobile phone industry in Switzerland is huge and despite the rapid growth of online shopping, brick-and-mortar business is still dominant in the mobile phone industry; most people interact with a mobile phone provider va a phone shop. According to many however, the quality of service delivery in these phone shops is poor. A participant in a preliminary study described the quality of service delivery in phone shops as follows: “While it would be unreasonable to expect every sales assistant to know the complete ins and outs of each phone - although it would be rather nice if they did - you do expect good advice. Most of the time however, shop assistants do not offer anything near to advice; they try to shove certain products down your throat and they are always trying to up- sell.”
Sebastian Koch believes that it doesn’t have to be this way. He thinks that consumers should get sound advice without being belittled and patronized. He also thinks that mystery shopping can provide an excellent insight into his team's ability to interact with customers and that it is therefore a valuable tool to improve both sales and customer service. That is why Sebastian has asked Dawson Chambers to develop and launch a mystery shopping program. Sebastian has explained that the aims of this program are to:
• highlight if company processes are being followed;
• provide a comprehensive evaluation of the service process; Sebastian wants to know what works in the customer service process and what does not;
• identify training needs for the stores to improve their service.
With these objectives in mind Dawson Chambers has developed a mystery shopping program. The research agency has drawn up a survey model and - after a thorough discussion with Sebastian – decided that its mystery shoppers have to collect the following information:
speed of service;
the questions asked by the shop assistant to help the customer to find a suitable product;
the types of products shown by the shop assistant;
the sales arguments used by the shop assistant;
whether or how the shop assistant attempted to close the sale;
compliance with company standards relating to service;
whether the shop assistant suggested any add-on sales;
They have also agreed upon the following. A number of mystery shoppers will be given instructions to make the transaction atypical to test the knowledge and service skills of the shop assistants whereas others will try to return previously bought merchandise. Not all mystery shopping scenarios will include a purchase.
Two months later.
After visiting one or more phone shops the mystery shoppers have submitted the collected data to Dawson Chambers, which reviewed and analyzed the information. A report and a presentation of the results was produced, identifying strengths and weaknesses of the company’s performance. Points on which improvement was required were identified and recommendations made as to how to achieve these improvements.
QUESTIONS
1. Define observation and explain (based on your definition) why mystery shopping is a form of observation.
2. If you were Sebastian Koch, would you inform your shop assistants about the mystery shopping program before it actually takes place? Why (not)?
3. (How) would the mystery shoppers benefit from a coding scheme?
4. What are the benefits of mystery shopping over other methods of data collection such as interviews or questionnaires?
5. Sebastian is relying solely on mystery shopping to improve the company’s performance. What are the dangers of this? In other words, what are the limitations of mystery shopping?
Explanation / Answer
1 .
Observation is a means of describing the actions customers take in a realistic situation. More importantly, observation research data can assist in the effective planning of marketing strategies and in the monitoring of strategic marketing decisions.
It can shed light on questions such as: What can be done to enhance the sales of a product or a retail store department? What factors are apparently deterring the customer from making a decision to purchase an item? What important and feasible decisions can be made to enhance the customer’s shopping trip?
Observation procedures involve:
Observation involves several alternative techniques. The project described in this article involved the following:
2 . Based solely on thecustomer feedback Sebastian had already received about poor customer service, I would not haveinformed the employees of the pending observation.I saw this in the military for years when wewould be notified of an upcoming inspection and everyone suddenly wanted to do things by thebooks rather than business as usual.By concealing the observation the employees would act and perform in the same mannerthat resulted in the bad customer review.The concealed observation also gave Sebastian and the researcher’s unbiased reactions and responses by limiting the reactivity, resulting in valid results(Sekaran, 2013, p. 133).If the employees had been aware of the observation, the results wouldlikely be invalid because people react differently (on best behavior) when they know they arebeing observed..
3 .
The process behind most mystery shopping programmes is that mystery callers are briefed with a certain scenario to ring about. Then, using a special number and entering a personal code, the call is automatically recorded by the mystery shopping company.
The caller completes the scenario, which may include asking certain questions or enquiring about certain products. He or she then completes a questionnaire online about the information provided and what their experience was like. This questionnaire is linked to the call recording and made available via a dedicated online website to view and analyse – all of which can be done within 48 hours of the call taking place.
In the past, mystery shopping has often been restricted to inbound contact only. However, this need no longer be the case. Utilising predictive dialler technology, mystery shopping calls can be discreetly streamed in to outbound programmes. The shopper is made aware of what the call will be about, when it will be and is typically provided with a scenario to follow, again completing the questionnaire in the same manner as if it were an inbound mystery shopping call .
4 .
The Benefits of a Mystery Shopping Program?
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Enforces employee integrity (The Mystery Shopping Provider’s Association strongly recommends using licensed private investigators for integrity related shops)
5 .
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Monitors and measures service performance•
Improves customer retention•
Makes employees aware of what is important in serving customers•
Reinforces positive employee/management actions with incentive-based reward systems•
Provides feedback from front line operations•
Monitors facility conditions - asset protection•
Ensures product/service delivery quality•
Supports promotional programs•
Audits pricing & merchandising compliance•
Provides data for competitive analyses•
Compliments marketing research data•
Identifies training needs and sales opportunities•
Educational tool for training & development•
Ensures positive customer relationships on the front line•
Enforces employee integrity (The Mystery Shopping Provider’s Association strongly recommends using licensed private investigators for integrity related shops)
5 .
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