Don’t make the same 10 mistakes Marriott made
Having a name like Di Pietro, with a space in the name can create problems. I made a hotel booking without a space and my membership account has the space. I tried to remove the space from my profile so they’d match. So I head to the Marriott website, where the problems start. Below is […]
The biggest (and hidden) reason customers leave.
Why do customers really leave? The answer is not as obvious as it seems. Dan Kennedy, the king of direct marketing explained the reason as follows. Customer leave for one of the following reasons: 1% die. There’s not much we can do about this one. 3% move. Offline, this is due to geography; online, it’s […]
Mixing apples and oranges – NPS and Mystery Shopping
We all try to save money wherever we can. The problem is when we just go for the cheapest option and only get part of the story. A dangerous new trend is to sacrifice Mystery Shopping for Net Promoter Scores. They do different things, and like apples and oranges, they are different but must live in […]
The State of Retail Lending in Australia 2018 – Infographic
We’ve put some of the legal and customer facing statistics together in the form of a customer journey for major Australian Banks
How customer service accidentally gets low priority
Everyone goes on about giving “great service”. But it still doesn’t have the profile of other job roles, especially at executive level. Look at these job roles on Linkedin. No mention of Customer Service. Scroll further. Nope — further? Nope — surely it’s in alphabetical order. Must be on the next screen right? Again No. Linkedin and so many […]
Augmented reality is a short step from retail
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. You could superimpose different colour […]
Customer loyalty for free
There’s no need to over-complicate customer loyalty. Often companies “expect” loyalty form customers, but don’t give it back in return. Customer loyalty is a two way street. Here’s a great example of how to provide loyalty for free. Even if you think it’s a cliche example, then I’d challenge anyone to tell me how it’s […]
A dumb or cynical question?
When surveying customers, make sure you get the questioning right. Optus Telecom in Australia got it wrong. Check out the question below. How would I answer if I received terrible service? “Has the use of [product] prevented you from…..” If you got bad service, you would expect to answer Yes, […]
The ROI of Mystery Shopping
Although a store may spend $10,000 a month on rent, it seems incredulous that a $100 per month spend on mystery shopping (1% of the rent) needs to be justified with ROI. If salaries and running expenses are taken into account (roughly to equal the monthly rent), then $100 per month equates to 0.5% of […]
Why Measure?
Peter Drucker famously said, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” Extract from my book – Mystery Shopping Mastery Time and time again I see companies trying to fix problems they have imagined while ignoring the problems that need fixing. Sure, management is an art and skill, but good measurement provides direction to […]
You can’t watch everything
Extract from my new Book – Mystery Shopping Mastery Let’s start with an extract from a mystery shopping report: The store was in immaculate condition with all the clothes put away and neatly stacked. But I waited eight minutes to be served. The staff were busy talking to each other but I couldn’t hear what […]
You are only one step from customer service disaster
United Airlines famously forcefully ejected a passenger because the flight was overbooked (to make room for 4 crew). It got quite violent. So was the public reaction. Your company is one misstep away form this treatment. Naturally, a twitter hashtag was born #newunitedmottos It’s hilarious and scary for any company. #NewUnitedAirlinesMottos Get off my plane […]
