Mystery Shoppers

Featured Article August '09

Recession Resilience

With the recession successfully laying claim to many victims, how can you avoid the A&E that is the economic downturn?

Experian has estimated that we could see high street stores closing at a rate of 100 per day this year and with small and medium companies likely to be at the highest risk of failure, it seems that change is necessary in order to see retailers through to better times.

The obvious solution would appear to be price cutting and promotions, but whilst this may provide a temporary respite it is not the best strategy. Instead, we believe that the key to survival is the provision of exceptional service.

Prices can only be reduced to a certain point, but customer service is not constrained by the same limits and can also provide a greater return. Good service preserves customer loyalty and keeps customers coming through the doors.

Business Week revealed that many of the top performers in their annual ranking of ‘Customer Service Champs’ had avoided reducing their customer service budgets, choosing to concentrate on treating existing customers properly in an attempt to see the recession through.

With eminent companies such as Amazon still focusing on customer service during the downturn, it demonstrates the importance of the message we preach.

You should focus on providing customers with a first-rate experience. We suggest that service should be personalised, attentive to customer’s needs and memorable.

Crucially, the level of service provided should remain constant as disparate experiences can deter customers. Our mystery shopping services can help you to achieve such an objective and provide an insight into the customer experience which is so vital to endurance of the recession.

With Mr Mayfield of John Lewis crediting their con-tinuing profits throughout the recession to their prominent service ethic, it seems that customer service doesn’t just enable survival but can actually boost profits.

It can be easy to forget about the importance of service in these times. However, it should not be pushed to the back of the shelf. Far from becoming less important during the recession, service has actually become the bolster for small businesses.

So there you have it, the best way for you to ride out this wave of recession is on a service board.

 

 

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