Unlock the Hidden Potential of Your Business with Mystery Shopping!

When it comes to running a successful business, excellent customer service is paramount. Poor CX can have a negative impact on your bottom line, leading customers to take their business elsewhere. In a Forbes article by Shep Hyken (7/12/2020), an astonishing 96% of consumers surveyed stated they would leave a company due to subpar customer service.

To ensure customer satisfaction and loyalty, businesses must prioritize their CX training and continuously evaluate its effectiveness. Implementing market research methodologies, such as mystery shopping, can help uncover hidden issues in your CX strategy.

Identifying CX Challenges: Your CX training implementation plays a vital role in retaining customers and building a strong consumer base. If customers encounter obstacles or difficulties while trying to access your services or purchase your products, they are likely to abandon your brick-and-mortar store or website. Losing 96% of potential customers is a significant concern that warrants immediate attention. When you experience a decrease in return on investment (ROI), make changes to your CX training, or bring in a new training manager, it becomes crucial to conduct market research to assess their effectiveness. In such cases, a recommended approach is to establish a mystery shopping program to identify hidden issues. For example, website code glitches may impede the checkout process, or staff members may struggle to implement new protocols. In some instances, customer service methods may have changed, resulting in representatives following convoluted processes.

Setting Realistic Goals: Setting realistic goals is vital for ensuring customer satisfaction. While it may sound appealing to guarantee a pizza cooked within two minutes in a brick oven, the reality may be different when there are numerous pizzas awaiting oven space. Similarly, fast-food establishments aiming to deliver food in under three minutes must ensure they have sufficient grills and fryers to support this claim. If your business offers product customization, breakdowns in the CX process can occur, such as customers waiting excessively for design proofs via email, causing production and shipment delays.

Impacts of Communication Breakdowns: Communication breakdowns in the workplace are detrimental to any industry. If customers face barriers when trying to make a purchase or encounter difficulties in selecting items, your business has a problem. Many dissatisfied customers will likely visit your competitors and will not return. The potential for negative reviews, social media posts, and word-of-mouth can compound the issue. Positive word-of-mouth is valuable, but negative experiences can significantly impact your bottom line. Losing a customer also means losing potential customers who hear about their negative impression of your business.

Leveraging Mystery Shopping for Insights: Mystery shopping is a powerful tool to identify breakdowns or hurdles that customers face, ultimately impacting your ROI. By analyzing reports and trends from mystery shopping evaluations, you gain valuable insights into the consumer's journey when interacting with your business. Viewing the process through the eyes of the consumer offers valuable perspectives on your business practices.

Although partnering with a market research company may seem daunting, trust your instincts and inquire about strategies and processes. In addition to evaluations, ask about quarterly reports, Net Promoter Scores (NPS), and the guidance you will receive. At Third Eye Insights, we offer various packages that include access to a dashboard for data retrieval, or we can provide quarterly, semi-annual, or NPS reports for a slightly higher fee. Our dashboard grants you access to widgets, Gantt graphs, and visual charts, allowing comparisons between locations or within a group. For those who prefer Excel sheets, we have those available as well. You can customize the system to send reports via email at your desired frequency. Whether you need a weekly report or one on specific dates, our system can accommodate your preferences. If you require a unique report or widget that is not readily available, our developers can build it to your specifications for an additional fee. Choosing the right market research partner for your project is key in your business success. At Third Eye Insights LLC, we offer customized services to fit your budget without sacrificing our customer service to you. Our clients receive answers and updates during every stage of the process; we are a true partner. We can build a package for your budget and needs and in most cases, have your project implemented within seven days for many enterprise clients. Of course, the roll-out does depend on the amount of locations, shops, and complexity of the project.

No worries, we specialize in projects with moving parts! You need mystery shops with specific employees targeted? No problem! Perhaps you need an employee evaluated for phone CX, then an onsite evaluation- no problem! Even if you need Mary phone shopped on Monday, Julie on Tuesday, Harry on Thursday, then each of them shopped onsite the following week during their work schedule- no problem! Whether you have a fast food restaurant with one dine-in shop or a senior living community with an internet inquiry, phone evaluation, and an onsite visit for one employee or 20- no problem! We will skillfully develop your mystery shopping program to fit your needs, then our scheduling team will link up with some of our evaluators to get them done. After all, we have over a million shoppers waiting for the green light for your project! Reach out to Third Eye Insights LLC today to book an appointment for a discovery call.

Source: Shep Hyken. Forbes. "Ninety-six percent of customers will leave you for bad customer service." 7/12/2020

https://www.forbes.com/sites/shephyken/2020/07/12/ninety-six-percent-of-customers-will-leave-you-for-bad-customer-service/?sh=181a496930f8