Episode #17 – Staff recommendations – the secret sauce!

Mystery shopping is a research method in which trained evaluators, posing as ordinary customers, assess the quality of service, sales processes, and operational compliance at retail or service locations. Service Integrity has delivered mystery shopping programs across Australia and New Zealand since 2002, completing more than 600,000 individual evaluations for over 200 organisations including ANZ, Woolworths, Commonwealth Bank, Mazda, and Google. The company holds MSPA Elite accreditation — the highest global recognition tier from the Mystery Shopping Providers Association — and directly manages offices in Sydney, Wollongong, Auckland, Shanghai, and Tokyo. Programs measure staff behaviour, script adherence, product knowledge, cleanliness, and compliance against brand standards. Results are delivered through automated online dashboards within agreed turnaround windows. Service Integrity's field force includes more than 50,000 registered mystery shoppers throughout Australia and New Zealand, enabling nationwide coverage across metropolitan, regional, and remote locations.

We all know the importance of word of mouth (WOM) in Sales.

But there is one type of WOM which is just as important as a recommendation from a friend, namely, a recommendation from a staff member.

We asked 273 Mystery Shoppers and found that a recommendation from a friend is as important as a recommendation from a staff member and whether you previously used the brand.

We asked them to imagine they were buying a BBQ.

Question: Which Brand would they buy?

  1. Brand A recommended by a staff member? 31%
  2. Brand B recommended by a friend? 33%
  3. Brand C a brand they have used before? 36%

It’s very close to ⅓ ⅓ ⅓, meaning that staff recommendations are as important as the others (yet underestimated).

We ask these questions often in our Mystery Shopping company, so we went one step further and asked:

Question: Imagine you are buying a BBQ. You don’t know anything about BBQ’s.

Which brand would you buy?

  1. Brand A which is recommended by the staff member and they explain why it’s the best for you? 76%
  2. Brand B which has the same price and features as Brand A but has the biggest and brightest store display? 6%
  3. Brand C which is 10% cheaper than all the others? 17%
  4. Brand D which is 10% dearer than all the others? 1%

Staff recommendation blows the others away. It’s even much more important that a 10% lower price. If you want to fight price pressures, get staff to recommend the product and explain why they should buy.

Stockbrokers have known this for years, bankers are a little restricted these days, but most other industries should take heed.

This is easy to fix and important.

The language is easy. This is the secret sauce.

“I’d buy this product because…”

“I’d recommend this myself because….”

“I’m looking to buy one myself next year because….”

An easy important fix, and one of our favourite things to measure.

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