Happy New Year Everyone! We are grateful for your continued support and help. We would like to welcome Marval Auto Glass in Denver, CO, who will be using our automotive service mystery shopping service to evaluate their customer service and sales for their windshield replacement service. Statesman USA located in Scottsdale AZ is utilizing our onsite mystery shoppers for their real estate property locations. We are pleased to welcome Salons by JC located in several states who will be using us to evaluate telephone, email and onsite customer service and sales for their retail leasing properties. A brand new TomKats restaurant is opening soon in Nashville, TN. We are proud to be adding the new Fin & Pearl to our list of restaurant mystery shops!
Showing posts with label telephone mystery shops. Show all posts
Showing posts with label telephone mystery shops. Show all posts
Monday, January 9, 2017
Wednesday, September 21, 2016
Welcome New Clients! September, 2016
A welcome to Cellular Sales of Indiana in Indiana, IN, evaluating customer service and sales with Advanced Feedback's undercover mystery shoppers. Greenway Auto Group in San Antonio, TX with SAR Automotive is utilizing phone shops, website secret shops and onsite mystery shoppers for their dealerships. Let us know if we can be of service to you!
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Welcome Salon Republic!
Advanced Feedback is proud to welcome Salon Republic, to our list of onsite mystery shop evaluations! Salon Republic will be taking advantage of our telephone and onsite mystery shopping services for their salon facilities.
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Boutique Hotels – Missing the Opportunity to Provide Personalized Services
(Archive - advancedfeedback.com - San Diego, CA July 18, 2011) One measure of personalized customer service, and perhaps its most objective indicator, is a hotel’s willingness to practice it over the phone. Being one of only two possible first impressions a hotel has to work with, the personalized phone call is so simple it ought to be automatic yet it is increasingly rare. Less than 5% by one measure!
In part one of an independent national study to measure customer service and sales in today’s web-based world, Advanced Feedback, Inc. called over 250 boutique hotels to see if this traditional line of communication was any more personable than an online search.
“The phone shop doesn’t lie” explains Zachary Hooker, President of Advanced Feedback. “Unlike customer surveys or feedback requests, there is no upset customer or buyer biases, just the facts. They either do it or they don’t”. Zachary is referring to whether or not the front line is tasked with and performing the niceties of good old fashioned personalized sales and service: “May I have your name?”, “Have you stayed with us before?”, “Would you have any special requests that I may help you with?”
The company began their study by focusing on a segment that should lead the pack in personalized services, boutique hotels, the popular personality or lifestyle brands of recent years. Using a simple mystery phone shop to check rates and availability, Advanced Feedback was able to objectively determine if the hotel is intent on providing service any more personable than an online reservation form.
The answer is no.
In fact, based on their results one could argue that today’s hotel agents ask fewer questions to personalize the service than found in a typical online rate inquiry where we know we’re at least asked to select room type or bed preference. One could also question if some properties have an objective to encourage guests to go online versus call their business. Looking at the data below tells us management is no longer committed to phone skills that include rapport and personalized services:
17% Asked for the caller’s name
31% Asked the caller if it was their first stay or reason for visit
9% Asked about specific needs or preferences
10% Mentioned any hotel amenities or benefits prior to quoting price
4% Covered all four areas of personalization
Boutiques might be well designed to cater to a particular lifestyle or modern trend, but the Advanced Feedback study shows a missed opportunity to turn a hotel’s charm and personality into a memorable first impression.
Furthermore, looking beyond the qualifying aspect of the call, one might speculate that specialty hotels would at a minimum embrace each incoming call as an opportunity to highlight something interesting about the property. Yet only 10% of those called mentioned even one unique feature or benefit of their boutique property!
“We started with boutique properties thinking this would be a benchmark for how good phone skills set the stage for a personalized hospitality experience. We didn’t necessarily anticipate better overall skills from boutiques, as the major well known brands often have phone training systems in place, but we did expect the personalization to be there” continues Zachary.
Comparing the overall phone skills performance of boutiques to a sample of well known brands, collected during a control group survey, the study shows no overall difference, boutiques 37%, majors 37%. In addition to the personalization aspects of inbound phone skills (rapport and needs assessment), the survey scored other phone handling and sales criteria such as the use of a professional greeting and asking for a reservation. These scores, shown below, are also roughly inline with a random selection of non boutique hotels.
92% Answered within three rings
82% Used an appropriate hotel greeting
47% Asked to secure a reservation
24% Handled resistance to a reservation
33% Attempted to lead the conversation
37% Overall phone shop score
In general, it can be concluded that the front desk or reservations is adequately staffed and trained to answer the phone professionally and politely, but that’s where the training stops. It seems this is true across all brands, not just boutiques. The company will know for sure when a second phase of the investigation is complete. “Clearly when only 47% of hotel agents ask the caller to make a reservation, phone skills training is no longer front and center. Excuses include cuts in training, attention to online sales, etc. but as long as you’re paying people to answer the phone, they should be selling your service”, challenges Zachary.
The survey covered a wide variety of self proclaimed boutique hotels, ranging in size from only a few rooms to over 500. On average small boutique properties did worse in all areas. Those with less than 50 rooms had the lowest average overall score of 21%. Above 50 rooms, there is a weak correlation between a hotel’s size and practice of good phone skills, boutiques above 500 rooms faired best at 62%, but with a small sample size.
Rooms Average Score Calls
1-49 21% 46
50-99 34% 49
100-149 39% 59
150-199 44% 30
200-249 48% 27
250-499 34% 31
500 plus 62% 10
All Boutiques 37% 252
With regard to the drop in performance with fewer rooms, Zachary claims that it doesn’t have to be this way. “Our on demand phone shops give small hotels an incremental and low cost solution to training, one equally as effective as programs used by the large hotels and groups.”
“Again, what’s keeping the scores so low are the components of communication where boutiques should excel, namely the personalization of the call. Personalization as simple as asking for a callers name, asking if the caller has visited their property before, if there are any preferences, and mention at least one feature of the property that may be a benefit to the caller – on average, done less than 5% of the time” he emphasizes.
Advanced Feedback’s survey also looked at differences between specific cities, states and regions of the country. In part two of this study the research firm will investigate variations in service between brands, independents and hotel groups.
Go to THIS LINK for a copy of the full report, or to find out how your hotel fairs relative to others in your area, region or the national average.
In part one of an independent national study to measure customer service and sales in today’s web-based world, Advanced Feedback, Inc. called over 250 boutique hotels to see if this traditional line of communication was any more personable than an online search.
“The phone shop doesn’t lie” explains Zachary Hooker, President of Advanced Feedback. “Unlike customer surveys or feedback requests, there is no upset customer or buyer biases, just the facts. They either do it or they don’t”. Zachary is referring to whether or not the front line is tasked with and performing the niceties of good old fashioned personalized sales and service: “May I have your name?”, “Have you stayed with us before?”, “Would you have any special requests that I may help you with?”
The company began their study by focusing on a segment that should lead the pack in personalized services, boutique hotels, the popular personality or lifestyle brands of recent years. Using a simple mystery phone shop to check rates and availability, Advanced Feedback was able to objectively determine if the hotel is intent on providing service any more personable than an online reservation form.
The answer is no.
In fact, based on their results one could argue that today’s hotel agents ask fewer questions to personalize the service than found in a typical online rate inquiry where we know we’re at least asked to select room type or bed preference. One could also question if some properties have an objective to encourage guests to go online versus call their business. Looking at the data below tells us management is no longer committed to phone skills that include rapport and personalized services:
17% Asked for the caller’s name
31% Asked the caller if it was their first stay or reason for visit
9% Asked about specific needs or preferences
10% Mentioned any hotel amenities or benefits prior to quoting price
4% Covered all four areas of personalization
Boutiques might be well designed to cater to a particular lifestyle or modern trend, but the Advanced Feedback study shows a missed opportunity to turn a hotel’s charm and personality into a memorable first impression.
Furthermore, looking beyond the qualifying aspect of the call, one might speculate that specialty hotels would at a minimum embrace each incoming call as an opportunity to highlight something interesting about the property. Yet only 10% of those called mentioned even one unique feature or benefit of their boutique property!
“We started with boutique properties thinking this would be a benchmark for how good phone skills set the stage for a personalized hospitality experience. We didn’t necessarily anticipate better overall skills from boutiques, as the major well known brands often have phone training systems in place, but we did expect the personalization to be there” continues Zachary.
Comparing the overall phone skills performance of boutiques to a sample of well known brands, collected during a control group survey, the study shows no overall difference, boutiques 37%, majors 37%. In addition to the personalization aspects of inbound phone skills (rapport and needs assessment), the survey scored other phone handling and sales criteria such as the use of a professional greeting and asking for a reservation. These scores, shown below, are also roughly inline with a random selection of non boutique hotels.
92% Answered within three rings
82% Used an appropriate hotel greeting
47% Asked to secure a reservation
24% Handled resistance to a reservation
33% Attempted to lead the conversation
37% Overall phone shop score
In general, it can be concluded that the front desk or reservations is adequately staffed and trained to answer the phone professionally and politely, but that’s where the training stops. It seems this is true across all brands, not just boutiques. The company will know for sure when a second phase of the investigation is complete. “Clearly when only 47% of hotel agents ask the caller to make a reservation, phone skills training is no longer front and center. Excuses include cuts in training, attention to online sales, etc. but as long as you’re paying people to answer the phone, they should be selling your service”, challenges Zachary.
The survey covered a wide variety of self proclaimed boutique hotels, ranging in size from only a few rooms to over 500. On average small boutique properties did worse in all areas. Those with less than 50 rooms had the lowest average overall score of 21%. Above 50 rooms, there is a weak correlation between a hotel’s size and practice of good phone skills, boutiques above 500 rooms faired best at 62%, but with a small sample size.
Rooms Average Score Calls
1-49 21% 46
50-99 34% 49
100-149 39% 59
150-199 44% 30
200-249 48% 27
250-499 34% 31
500 plus 62% 10
All Boutiques 37% 252
With regard to the drop in performance with fewer rooms, Zachary claims that it doesn’t have to be this way. “Our on demand phone shops give small hotels an incremental and low cost solution to training, one equally as effective as programs used by the large hotels and groups.”
“Again, what’s keeping the scores so low are the components of communication where boutiques should excel, namely the personalization of the call. Personalization as simple as asking for a callers name, asking if the caller has visited their property before, if there are any preferences, and mention at least one feature of the property that may be a benefit to the caller – on average, done less than 5% of the time” he emphasizes.
Advanced Feedback’s survey also looked at differences between specific cities, states and regions of the country. In part two of this study the research firm will investigate variations in service between brands, independents and hotel groups.
Go to THIS LINK for a copy of the full report, or to find out how your hotel fairs relative to others in your area, region or the national average.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Is Your Hotel Hurting, or Are You Hurting Your Hotel? – Small Tourist Area Sampling Returns Big Results
(Archive - advancedfeedback.com - San Diego, California, May 11th 2009) – Advanced Feedback, Inc. a nationwide customer survey and mystery shopping company, phoned ten hotels, over half the hotels in seaside Coronado CA, a popular tourist island just west of downtown San Diego. Part of a wider study on business and the economy, the mystery shoppers, posing as potential customers, simply called the front desk and asked “How far are you from Sea World?”
“I wanted to see if agents would make an attempt at a sale … with someone calling their hotel from out-of-town.” explained Geoff Gladu, Account Manager for Advanced Feedback. Perhaps not shocking to this group of seasoned mystery shoppers, but alarming to any business manager, the team did not find one hotel agent who attempted to continue the conversation beyond answering their initial question. “I was hoping to hear something along the lines of ‘would you like for me to check rates and availability?’ or “Is there anything else I could help you with?’ anything, really. Also, no one even thanked us for calling”, he added. Considering these businesses spend a good share of their marketing budget on getting travelers to call their hotel, Advanced Feedback’s survey uncovered pervasive missed sales and branding opportunities.
Perhaps the hotel agents ignored the sales opportunity because the scenario implied the caller wanted to stay closer to Sea World, 6 miles from Coronado? To test this possibility, the team conducted a second survey to the same properties with the question “what is there to do for fun in the area?” This time, all hotel agents did fine to sell the area but only two agents built value for their hotel and only two others thanked the customer for calling. Again, not one hotel representative attempted to continue the conversation or make a sale.
Deciding to make it as simple as possible for the front desk agent to recognize a sales opportunity, without saying “I want to make a reservation”, the mystery shoppers called the same hotels a third time asking, “How much are your rooms?”
Only one out of the ten properties that were called received a passing grade; the agent qualified the caller, built value for both rates and property and even offered to make a reservation. All others failed. One property attempted to qualify the caller, another spoke well of their property, but all of them were quick to provide the rate and let the potential customer off the phone – never once asking if the caller wanted to stay there!
“With beach weather soon approaching, there’s no better time for these seaside hotels to learn how to recognize and pursue the sales opportunities given – this usually starts with phone skills via a mystery phone shopping program”, said Geoff.
In a challenging economy like the current one, Advanced Feedback’s research is a wake-up call to companies not to overlook the training and monitoring of front-line employees.
Friday, April 26, 2013
Mystery Shoppers Knock on Healthcare's Door!
It discusses increasing use of research initiatives such as mystery shopping by Healthcare industry and various ways in which it is being utilized as a customer service tool by different segments of the healthcare sector.
(Archive Advancedfeedback.com SAN DIEGO, CA, Aug 22, 2006) – Mystery shopping has been used to enhance customer engagement initiatives in most service industries, such as Hospitality, Retail, Automotive, and Financial Services for a very long time now. Is the Healthcare community finally embracing the benefits of this vital service and sales improvement tool as well? The answer appears to be yes.
Healthcare has traditionally limited itself to long-term approaches such as customer surveys or physician surveys. However, due to the competitive nature of today's technologically savvy and demanding "shopper", it seems the industry as a whole has woken to more aggressive techniques for fast acting monitoring and feedback such as mystery shopping.
Zachary Hooker, President of San Diego based Advanced Feedback, a leader in mystery shopping says, "Though we have been servicing almost all areas of the service industry for more than a decade now, this is the first time we have seen some activity on the Healthcare front. It looks to be pretty promising and long term."
"Mystery shoppers" posing as patients evaluate the facility by placing appointment calls, information calls for pricing, visiting the facility, faking symptoms, making special requests and sometimes staying in the facility overnight. The medical centers and facilities who have undertaken the services lately, believe that a number of changes have been made as a result of the practice including improvement in employee behavior, change in ambiance of waiting room and reception areas, more concern towards patient privacy and lesser wait times.
While like most other research techniques, mystery shopping gives insights into ways to improve patient interaction, identifies problems in service, and increases customer loyalty, one of its most effective uses is the aid it provides in explanation of customer survey results, that is, its ability to explain the customer feedback or response.
The "Mystery Shopping" approach seems to be particularly popular amongst mid size and small size segment of the industry. This is possibly due to the stiff competition and evaluation the smaller clinics and nursing homes face. Larger organizations also benefit from the service by using mystery shoppers from within their patient database, as well as those out-of-plan. Certainly, the fast turn around time, immediate results and comparatively lower cost of service makes it an attractive feedback and training tool.
"The foray of Healthcare into the Mystery Shopping arena is a welcome move and we look forward to the customer service initiatives it will promote in the sector." Comments Zachary Hooker from Advanced Feedback.
Advanced Feedback has over 15 years of experience in doing mystery shopping and customer engagement surveys. For more information, please visit www.advancedfeedback.com or write to Zhooker@advancedfeedback.com.
(Archive Advancedfeedback.com SAN DIEGO, CA, Aug 22, 2006) – Mystery shopping has been used to enhance customer engagement initiatives in most service industries, such as Hospitality, Retail, Automotive, and Financial Services for a very long time now. Is the Healthcare community finally embracing the benefits of this vital service and sales improvement tool as well? The answer appears to be yes.
Healthcare has traditionally limited itself to long-term approaches such as customer surveys or physician surveys. However, due to the competitive nature of today's technologically savvy and demanding "shopper", it seems the industry as a whole has woken to more aggressive techniques for fast acting monitoring and feedback such as mystery shopping.
Zachary Hooker, President of San Diego based Advanced Feedback, a leader in mystery shopping says, "Though we have been servicing almost all areas of the service industry for more than a decade now, this is the first time we have seen some activity on the Healthcare front. It looks to be pretty promising and long term."
"Mystery shoppers" posing as patients evaluate the facility by placing appointment calls, information calls for pricing, visiting the facility, faking symptoms, making special requests and sometimes staying in the facility overnight. The medical centers and facilities who have undertaken the services lately, believe that a number of changes have been made as a result of the practice including improvement in employee behavior, change in ambiance of waiting room and reception areas, more concern towards patient privacy and lesser wait times.
While like most other research techniques, mystery shopping gives insights into ways to improve patient interaction, identifies problems in service, and increases customer loyalty, one of its most effective uses is the aid it provides in explanation of customer survey results, that is, its ability to explain the customer feedback or response.
The "Mystery Shopping" approach seems to be particularly popular amongst mid size and small size segment of the industry. This is possibly due to the stiff competition and evaluation the smaller clinics and nursing homes face. Larger organizations also benefit from the service by using mystery shoppers from within their patient database, as well as those out-of-plan. Certainly, the fast turn around time, immediate results and comparatively lower cost of service makes it an attractive feedback and training tool.
"The foray of Healthcare into the Mystery Shopping arena is a welcome move and we look forward to the customer service initiatives it will promote in the sector." Comments Zachary Hooker from Advanced Feedback.
Advanced Feedback has over 15 years of experience in doing mystery shopping and customer engagement surveys. For more information, please visit www.advancedfeedback.com or write to Zhooker@advancedfeedback.com.
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Telephone Mystery Shoppers Find Hard Times Drive Hard Tactics
Good phone skills should be obtained by building a level of rapport with a prospective client before asking for their business.
(Archive - advancedfeedback.com - San Diego, CA, Feb 19, 2009) – With the country now officially recognized as being in a recession since December of last year, businesses are scrambling to adapt. Many are simply trying to hang on, abandoning, at least for now, visions of increased market share. Thus it perhaps should come as no surprise employees who deal with the public over the phone have become more aggressive, says Kurt Adams, Senior Accounts Director of Advanced Feedback, a leading provider of telephone monitoring services. "It used to be we were asked to measure items that tended to make the customer feel warm and fuzzy, such as using their name. Now it seems the sole focus is how many times we get asked for our business", commented Mr. Adams.
While employee interest in getting or retaining a customer's business is undeniably an aspect of good service, how and when this is manifested can be of equal importance. Specifically, Adams' cites asking the customer for the business in the first 10 seconds of the call. "I know it's a bit of an exaggeration, but isn't that like asking someone for a date before knowing their name?" he asked. Good phone skills suggest building at least some level of rapport with a prospective client before getting to the proverbial bottom line. Showing interest in a customer is more than asking repeatedly for an appointment or reservation; other elements include using the customer's name or asking how they happened to be in the market for the company's services. Moderation, as Ben Franklin reminds us, is a good thing.
(Archive - advancedfeedback.com - San Diego, CA, Feb 19, 2009) – With the country now officially recognized as being in a recession since December of last year, businesses are scrambling to adapt. Many are simply trying to hang on, abandoning, at least for now, visions of increased market share. Thus it perhaps should come as no surprise employees who deal with the public over the phone have become more aggressive, says Kurt Adams, Senior Accounts Director of Advanced Feedback, a leading provider of telephone monitoring services. "It used to be we were asked to measure items that tended to make the customer feel warm and fuzzy, such as using their name. Now it seems the sole focus is how many times we get asked for our business", commented Mr. Adams.
While employee interest in getting or retaining a customer's business is undeniably an aspect of good service, how and when this is manifested can be of equal importance. Specifically, Adams' cites asking the customer for the business in the first 10 seconds of the call. "I know it's a bit of an exaggeration, but isn't that like asking someone for a date before knowing their name?" he asked. Good phone skills suggest building at least some level of rapport with a prospective client before getting to the proverbial bottom line. Showing interest in a customer is more than asking repeatedly for an appointment or reservation; other elements include using the customer's name or asking how they happened to be in the market for the company's services. Moderation, as Ben Franklin reminds us, is a good thing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)