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April 2010

Greetings!
Welcome to the Confero Connector Newsletter! It is delivered free to your e-mail address. This publication offers insight into customer experience measurement best practices and initiatives. You may subscribe or unsubscribe at any time.
In This Issue
Coaching: Maximizing Mystery Shop Reports
Why "No Problem" Is Still a Customer Service Problem
Confero's WayBack Machine & Life Lessons
Coaching: Maximizing Mystery Shop Reports
By Janet Morrison

shopping bagsMany companies spend significant effort in evaluating, selecting and preparing for a mystery shop program.  They invest this effort because they know that the information they gain can be used to improve company performance and top the competition.

While the effort at the start is critical, companies need to spend equal effort to ensure managers use shop results to foster success among front line employees.  Improvement levels are highest when managers act on results quickly and consistently. Here are three ways to make sure that you capitalize on the critical employee behavior data that you have gathered:
  1.   Share  Reports:  At the financial institution where I used to work, we shared mystery shop results consistently, weekly and monthly, and in many ways.  We found the best methods to ensure accountability for shop results included:
o    Discuss reports on a regular basis.  For example, a region can share reports showing how the region compares with the bank as a whole, and how the branches compare to each other.   Managers communicate shop reports at meetings, on conference calls and through emails. This fosters friendly competition and keeps shop expectations top of mind. 
 
Read the full article here.
 
Why "No Problem" Is Still a Customer Service Problem
By Elaine Buxton

shopping bagsAbout a year has passed since I commented on the ever present phrase, "No problem."  We have all heard the phrase, whether it is after thanking a server for bringing our drinks, or thanking a teller for processing our transaction.   In any situation where the phrase is used, it continues to shed a negative tone on what could be an opportunity to wow the customer at the end of an interaction.  So, I am not surprised that the number of times that I have heard "no problem" over the past year has not diminished my dislike of it!

In challenging economic times such as these, companies who are not content with remaining at par with the competition are asking themselves how they can continue to keep a step ahead.  They are considering and evaluating all parts of the employee -customer interaction to ensure the experience overall is one that clients will remember - and will keep them coming back.  These companies want to ensure that employees use the most effective wording throughout the customer conversation, and perhaps most importantly, at the end of the conversation. 
 
Read the full article here.
Confero's WayBack Machine & Life Lessons
 
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How Small Efforts Paid Off Big in the Late '80s
By Elaine Buxton

We are preparing to celebrate Confero's 25th year in business in 2011.  Naturally, I have started to look back on our years in business.  I'm often asked how we got started in the mystery shopping business.  Here's my favorite "how it all started" story.  It's the story of how our local firm became national, quickly, by doing small things right. 

Back in 1986, my company specialized in training and needs assessments, and we did not yet offer mystery shopping services. We were conducting needs assessments to determine training needs. Our clients loved the needs assessments.  Realizing the impact that this type of service could have on an organization's effectiveness at selling more services and retaining more customers, we decided that this mystery shopping "needs assessment" service would be a perfect fit with our mission.  By 1988, we were marketing the mystery shopping service very simply - by performing a complimentary mystery shop for a company at one of their locations, recording our observations, and then reporting the results in a complimentary mystery shop report package.

Read the full article here.
All of us at Confero hope you enjoy this newsletter. Feel free to share this information with colleagues and friends. We would appreciate your comments about the articles and suggestions for future issues.  
 
 
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Elaine Buxton
President & CEO
Confero Customer Experience Research
800-326-3880
 
 
 
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