Tag: secret shopping

Gathering competitive business intelligence is an important step in retaining and gaining new customers. To help businesses get the information they need, Confero often executes competitor studies on a large scale and over a considerable length of time. However, there are ways for individual stores to conduct competitive analysis locally and effectively. One way is to use your existing employees as mystery shoppers. Here are simple steps to put a competitor evaluation plan into action:

About a year has passed since I commented on the ever present phrase, “No problem.” We have all heard the phrase, whether it is after thanking a server for bringing our drinks, or thanking a teller for processing our transaction. In any situation where the phrase is used, it continues to shed a negative tone on what could be an opportunity to wow the customer at the end of an interaction. So, I am not surprised that the number of times that I have heard “no problem” over the past year has not diminished my dislike of it!

Many companies spend significant effort in evaluating, selecting and preparing for a mystery shop program. They invest this effort because they know that the information they gain can be used to improve company performance and top the competition.

We are preparing to celebrate Confero’s 25th year in business in 2011. Naturally, I have started to look back on our years in business. I’m often asked how we got started in the mystery shopping business. Here’s my favorite “how it all started” story. It’s the story of how our local firm became national, quickly, by doing small things right.

Confero is best known for mystery shop services , which report on specific performance observations made during on site visits or phone calls. Our other services can add vital elements to your company’s customer experience knowledge. Not all research methods will benefit every business, but for some, these can provide valuable knowledge and more in depth insight into the customer experience: