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Business is about customers
The point of business is to create customers and to hold on to them.Customers are like guests in your business, some will stay longer than others, some are good and others will seem less so..Ultimately the business will have a better success and performance if time is taken to understand your customers.This process involves Customer Journey Mapping(CJM) which incorporates the use of mystery shopping amongst the disciplines used.
Good business is making sure that the customer journey is a positive one and that the customer experience is so good that they come back and tell others just how good you are..
This means more customers who have a great experience. They too come back, they tell others which means more customers…it would be too good to be true to expect this cycle to be always the case.
There are of course those customers who unfortunately have a less than positive customer experience and they will not come back and will probably tell others just how bad it was.It can’t be avoided.
There are various pieces of customer research out there that will tell you that disgruntled customers tell more people about their experience than happy customers do. No one can afford to spend time wondering just how accurate this research is, lets assume that it is and the task ahead is to minimise the impact of such poor reviews.
Recent research mentioned by Which has suggested that unhappy customers tell 17 people of their bad experience compared with happy customers only telling 8 of their great experience – over twice as much Negative PR …The important point to remember is that bad news travels faster than good news….
Customer Types
Given that all companies will have negative (Resistors)and positive (Generators) customers it becomes imperative to have an idea of how many of each your business is up against. The ideal situation is to encourage the numbers of Generators and discourage or convert the number of Resistors.
Generators represent the ideal. They outspend other customers, are more likely to try new product offerings and of most importance they promote your brand.The oft quoted research that says it costs more to recruit new customers than hang on to existing ones is the reason why this group is so central to success.
Resistors may well switch their allegiance to another company becoming someone else’s problem. The issue is that whilst still complaining as your customer they are not only draining your resources in having to deal with them, staff time etc, they are a negative PR campaign that is impossible to control. Should there be a few of these campaigns going on at the same time then reputation and standing in the market can take a potential knock.
What of the middle ground, the Acceptors? These are the customers that have mixed experiences and the ones that haven’t quite decided where they should put their cross. These are the very customers that every business should be attending to so that they are gently pointed towards the Generators and become your Brand Evangelists.
Mystery Shopping and Customer Groupings
Once the outline of the mix of your business is known then it is important to understand what makes each segment tick. Once that has been established then it is possible to market to them and to influence which camp they should lean towards.
Whilst a one off approach at discovering your customer types will give you a great bench mark a regular work out is needed to keep your brand in shape.
Mystery Shopping is one of the best ways to take the temperature of any business and helps in the identification of the above key customer segments.It gives your company, the brand, a work out that keeps it in the best possible shape to deal with all market conditions. A brand that can change pace fairly rapidly to keep up with trading conditions will have more chance of sustained profitability.
It is an early warning system giving the company time to make adjustments and change factors that would discourage Resistors and not give Acceptors cause to be woken into negative action.
Clear benefits arise in Cost Control – financial planning and resource allocation can be adjusted. Cost to Serve is reduced and the prevention of potential customer Walkaways are outcomes of a good Mystery Shopping programme.
Accountability, not only financial but Staff Accountability to make sure that customer service and presentation are top of their agendas.Training programmes are kept up to date and enhanced by good customer feed back mechanisms.
Strategy Development has to be on going and results of any feed back can be used to Predict what might happen and to plan for any “What If” situations. Resources can be directed to recruitment and training long before the need has passed into a crisis. All this improves the customer experience and the profitability of the business.
More Generators and less Resistors with the middle ground leaning on the desired side of the fence is a very achievable outcome. Mystery Shopping is one part of any customer feedback system but a vital one. Results can inform other aspects of research, online surveys and Focus Groups and even face to face interviews as exit polls or more structured feed back events.
