Developing creative ways to capture more sales and increase customer satisfaction is essential for retail companies during tough economic times, and especially during the holidays.   Borders Books recently announced an initiative to win more customers with its “Customer Commitment.”  In an effort to capture the sale, even if the store does not have the item in stock, Borders makes an offer to customers to find the item online and ship to them with free shipping.    A low-price promise is also part of the Customer Commitment, because Borders promises to match a competitor’s advertised, in-store price. 

While it’s easy to see how these initiatives win over customers, strategies such as the Customer Commitment are only as good as the employees who promote and communicate them. Companies desiring to measure employee communication of important initiatives can do so with mystery shopping.   A mystery shopping firm can devise survey questions, both closed and open-ended, which capture the shopper’s experience in very specific areas.  In the Borders example, a mystery shopping scenario could involve a shopper who brings in a local competitor’s ad for an item.  The shopper could then observe whether or not the employee mentions the Customer Commitment and offers the lower price.