Mystery Shoppers

Featured Article June '09

Seasalt Surging On

We recently caught up with Seasalt, one of the many exciting companies we work with, to see how retail’s faring for them.

After predictions that ethical retail would take a hit we thought this Cornish based, family-owned business that emphasises their ethical values would provide some insight.

They say people ‘aren’t placing less emphasis on ethical products but are buying with more discretion’.

Seasalt provide long-lasting quality and ethical choice at competitive prices. They absorb much of the extra cost, so that  ‘customers can choose us over a similar product with the added benefit of our ethical stance’.

This strategy is clearly working. Seasalt have seen like-for-like growth in all areas of the business. Their online business is ‘thriving’ and their wholesale business is experiencing ‘dramatic growth.’

Seasalt are a family owned business and won the Yell UK Best Family Business award a couple of years ago.

There is no CEO or MD, rather leadership is shared between the three Chadwick brothers and all major business decisions are made by consensus. The management has a strong family commitment to the business and a shared vision.

This commitment and vision led to the three brothers once being named “Directors of the Month” by the Institute of Directors.

One of the elements of this business vision is the belief that customer service is a key factor in providing a pleasurable shopping experience. Customers, they say, ‘expect and deserve good service.’

The company uses mystery shopping because, as the ‘business has grown and we have opened more branches … we can’t personally visit our stores as regularly as we used to.’

They emphasise the importance of responsible mystery shopping: it is not a tool to be used against shop floor staff. Seasalt and Insight Retail both believe that it is a useful tool as long as the results are responded to constructively: to highlight staff training requirements, or indeed reward particular achievements.

Seasalt are ‘very excited about the future. They ‘want to continue to do what we do best – making and selling the best clothes in the most responsible way – and, of course, keep enjoying it!’

At Insight Retail we look forward to helping Seasalt’s growth continue and, of course, we’ll keep enjoying it.

 

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