Customer Satisfaction Services

A secret shopping service may be of many types. It usually involves finding out the consumer satisfaction measures taken by a given firm. Agents may be employed for conducting market surveys, internal auditing, employee performance appraisals, and office cleanliness inspection programs. They work under different profiles and use different media for communication. The primary mode of communication is through personal contact with the people concerned. The other modes are telephonic and electronic mail communication. Whatever the mode of communication, the feedback that is obtained is of utmost importance for the firm to improve the quality of its performance.

When a firm hires a secret shopping service to get information about the level of consumer satisfaction it is able to give to its consumers, it asks its agents to pose as consumers and interact with other consumers and the staff members to extract information. By interacting with other consumers an agent gets the general impression that people have about the products and the consumer satisfaction levels of a given firm. The agents interact with the store staff members to assess their attitude towards their clients. The agents collect the information and make reports. They submit these reports to their employers who work on these reports to understand whatever is happening in their front offices and take the necessary steps accordingly.

A secret shopping service can be used by the top managers of the firm to assess the general performance of their employees. The agent can observe the knowledge of an employee regarding the products that he sells and about any competing products available in the market. The employees should be able to convince the consumers about the superiority of their products over all other similar products available in the market. The employee should be able to retain an existing consumer and attract more and more new ones with his consumer relationship prowess. He should not indulge in any unfair practices, such as keeping some products aside for personal use, without paying for them or taking the permission of seniors. He should be reliable in terms of financial matters of the firm and he should not try to make any personal profit from while doing his job.

A firm can use a secret shopping service to find out about its major competitors in the market. It can send agents to the stores of its competitors to understand their marketing strategy, the grade of their products and the consumer satisfaction techniques employed by them. With this information, a firm can understand its own strengths and weaknesses and act accordingly to improve its position in the market in comparison to its competitors. Sometimes agents are sent by organizations to different departments for conducting internal audits. These agents interview the personnel from different departments about their style of working, and inspect their files and other office documents for the standard of maintenance.

A secret shopping service can be used to assess the efficiency of maintenance of the premises of a retail outlet. Outlets that are shabbily kept or in a dilapidated condition do not attract consumers even though the products that they sell may be of very good condition. The outlets that are maintained in top condition are the ones that attract a lot of consumers and retain them for a long time. A store that is well maintained and that has a friendly ambience about it leaves a lasting impression on the visitor.

Huntington Beach Self Storage

Indio Self Storage

Tweet This Post 

Disclamer: This entry is intended to promote our partner StorageMart and some or all participants received compensation.

View Staff's Profile      Subscribe via RSS