The Future of Customer Service 14 July 2017

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.

1. The power of Mobile

Google have released research showing that 89% if people are likely to recommend a brand after a positive brand experience. More here

Implication: Mobile is everything. All the data is pointing the same direction. Overinvest.

2. Augmented Reality is 5 minutes away for retailers

Facebook (through Instagram) recently introduced face filters to let people add all manner of things on their face, like glasses.

The glasses are superimposed on your head and they move with your head, like in the video. Sure there are fun applications for kids, but imaging the application for retailers. More here Augmented reality is a short step from retail

Implication: Keep an eye out for opportunities to use other Augmented Reality applications. Practive the technologies to know them, or you miss out.

3. Live prompting for Sales staff using A.I.

Israeli startup gong.io is has “a real-time processor that is listening to and “reading” all the audio from interactions as they take place. Then it uses language processing and speech recognition to make suggestions on the fly to help steer the conversation. There is also a secondary analytical service that processes the call, along with many others, to parse the conversation and figure out what is going on later for more detailed training and reports.”

Imagine having a trainer in the ear of sales staff every minute of the day, at no cost.

More here

Implication: Live on-the-spot training is being redefined to be even more granular.

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