Increase your sales by a simple Hi!

Internet marketing has taught us many new terms, one of which is conversion rate. Wikipedia states that that this is the “ratio of visitors who convert casual content views or website visits into desired actions based on subtle or direct requests from marketers, advertisers, and content creators”. In easy retail marketing language this signifies the percentage of customers that enter a store and actually make a purchase. The subtle or direct request corresponds to a simple greeting, a smile or any other sign of noticing the customer.

Nowadays, if a business owner asks his salespeople what kind of day they had in the store, the regular response is calm and/or quiet. In their eyes, there is no immediate self cause for the empty order books. The big originator of poor sales performances is caused by the current economic crisis. Or isn’t it?

Mystery shopping results show that even during these hard times, sometimes not every customer who enters a store is greeted or noticed. Of course the numbers vary per type of business, but the most remarkable point is that the greeting percentages are not increasing even though fewer customers are entering the stores, thus less busy.

The customer of today is self-informed, price conscious and over-sensitive for arrogant or “not listening” salespeople. This type of customer will not wait patiently unlike yesterday’s customer. Relatively more today customers enter a store with the intention to buy. However, if the customer is not greeted or noticed by a salesperson, their intention to buy remains present but they will be more likely to make the actual purchase online or at a competitor. With this knowledge it is beyond belief that not more efforts are made to at least notice or greet every customer who enters the store.

Of course it is not always unwillingness by the salespeople. In the past, during busy times, salespeople still had plenty of time to go to a quiet office room outside the show room and finish any outstanding orders while their colleagues would handle new customers. Now-a-days there are less colleagues who can assist , which means that they should immediately move from behind desk to the show room and show their presence. Another solution is hiring hosts who welcome all customers and provide them with a drink to make the waiting more pleasant. There are many good and easy solutions which allow customers to feel welcome and acknowledged.

In old sales manuals it was forbidden under any circumstance for an employee to stop and acknowledge another customer in the middle of a sales conversation. Times have changed and if there is no colleague available to assist a waiting customer, a simple “Hi, I will be right with you” or a “sign of notice” will provide just a little bit more time and prevent walkouts.

Truth be told that even a simple “Hi” is too much for some employees. Mystery shopping can be the perfect valuable tool to increase the conversion rate and help employees understand the importance of greeting ALL customers. It makes the actual sale one step closer, more about that in my next column.

Article by Thomas Kascha courtesy of MysteryShoppingLive.com

Getting the Maximum Output off a Mystery Shopping Agency

Mystery shopping is gaining its popularity day by day- especially in the US and UK markets. It can be an excellent tool for getting a detailed insight to customer feedbacks and evaluations- only if they can be properly designed and utilized. It helps any organization to refine their customer care services and link the evaluation with the quality assurance department.

The success of any mystery shopping program is a function of the following two factors:

1. The choice of an efficient provider
2. Choosing the proper foundation while setting up the system.

Choosing the Appropriate Mystery Shopping Agency:

There are many mystery shopping firms currently operating in the market. They are available in all formations, sizes and offerings. While some are really honest and stay dedicated to the clients’ needs, employ qualified people and provide skilled services- a good numbers of frauds and inefficient are there as well. Without having a good knowledge in the field anyone may have the chance of being deceived. Here are some guidelines on how to choose the proper agency:

• Checking the previous record of the agency: As a general rule, any pro in the industry will tell you not to go for any agency which has a track record of not more than three years. Three years is the minimum time that takes for improving the shoppers’ quality to an excellent level, and it takes more experience to design effective surveys, reports and questionnaires. All of these factors contribute greatly to the level of accuracy and coherence of the report which will reflect the measures you require.
• Look for references: References are important. Before signing up with them, ask for some contacts of their regular customers who will be willing to provide references for them. Make a few phone calls and query before signing the contract. A note of caution here: it is very natural for the agency as well as the clients to be unwilling to provide detailed information on their mystery shopping experiences. This emotion must be respected.
• Providers with experiences in the similar field are better: When you are to shortlist the agencies from which you will choose the one for your organization, give preference to those who have prior and most experience in the similar field, i.e. if you are in a pharmaceutical business, ask for agencies who have previously worked with such companies. Thus you stand better chances of getting a good evaluation.

  Also remains the fact that, each agency has its own fields of expertise. Choosing the one which have better hold in your background- is undoubtedly the best option. Usually, the most professional agencies will tell you their expertise and advice you your best shot.

  Note that, if any agency is claiming they are expert at everything- that will sound just way too good to be true. So will be if an agency claims they’ll provide 24/7 services at the lowest rates. Always remember- good stuffs have a price to be paid for.

Setting up a proper foundation:

• Be candid with the agency: After you have singled out the agency to go for- do ask them to fax/mail you the signed copy of the agreement- which will be explicit and non-disclosure. Once this has been done- now you can go and share the internal information of your organization. The information should include details on the following issues:
  1. list of locations
  2. product and service details as well as the upcoming strategies
  3. A thorough explanation of the key areas where the organization seems to have weak links. They should be told the key points and how you want to be evaluated. The best practice is to send them a list of bullet-pointed issues, which requires feedback. Being specific and concise is necessary hence so that the agency can easily and clearly prepare the survey tools.
• Prepare a thorough location list: The agency will be sending their contractors in different locations for the surveys- so it won’t be wise sending them a location list which is not updated. Make a thorough list of the locations to be covered- if possible include a summary of each location describing their ambiances, what to seek etc. Hence, sending soft copies are better ideas- it will save the agency from giving manual input in their system.
• Report considerations: Explain it to the agency at the beginning that who’ll be the receiver of the report. Also they need to know to what channel the report will be distributed along the organization- whether it will be kept to the directors only or will be distributed to the regional managers as well.
• Scoring systems: Reports can be prepared using different quantifying methods. The criteria required can be ranked or scored. Which one is your preference- clarify it to the agency. If your requirement is the scoring model than its better if you assign the points for each factor. The points or the weights should be assigned according the level of importance each factor has with respect to your organization.

Interpretation of results:

A nicely designed mystery shopping system won’t be enough if the results are not read and analyzed properly. After all, it is for the results for which so much hassle has been taken. Most of the times, reports are presented with a comparison of the industry average- this help the organization come up with strategies that will improve the scenario. Every business needs to go for perpetual innovation in order to survive- and mystery shopping helps them to achieve that.

Article courtesy of MysteryShoppingLive.com