We are improving the quality of customer service!

Good quality customer service is constantly crucial to the customer experience (customer experience). I've already written about this in the post-covid context. Customer experience in (post)COVID times – nice to have or must-have? However, building quality service is no easy task. At Quality Watch, we use proven mechanisms that, when implemented periodically, allow us to achieve truly excellent results.

Therefore, today a little more, but based on a specific example from our cooperation in monitoring the quality of customer service (Mystery Shopper). One of our clients is a corporation with a network of several hundred branches throughout Poland. Our mission was to improve the quality of customer service. Thanks to our collaboration, we achieved this goal. So, how did this happen?

Step 1. Clearly define your goals
Initially, it's crucial to accurately define the requirements for the branches. At this stage, we detailed not only what we expect from employees, but also what consumers expect from them. Our client had Customer Service Standards in place, so this task was easier. It only required verification of the authenticity of the provisions to avoid artificial behavior toward consumers and current trends in customer service.

Stage 2. Monitoring and competition.
Properly trained mystery shoppers (Mystery Shopper) visited facilities to check whether all customer standards were being met. What did we gain from this? First of all, cyclical feedback. Each point was assessed quickly to ensure consistent conditions were maintained. A diagnosis was made – whether the service was at an appropriate level and what aspects of customer service needed improvement. This stage of the project was designed to enable the implementation of corrective actions (action plans). The tasks were planned so that after receiving the results, there would be time for real changes before the next Mystery Shopper measurement.

At this stage of the project, effective communication of results is crucial. Regional rankings based on customer service quality proved effective. Healthy competition 💪 and a fight for better positions have kicked in.

Stage 3. Corrective actions (action plans). Consistency wins.
After obtaining the mystery shopper measurement result, each store received a list action plans – tasks to be performed. These tasks were closely correlated with the achieved result. If a local branch wasn't performing well enough in a specific area, such as presenting the offer to the customer, the action plans included tasks to be performed that pertained to the proper presentation of the product. This allowed for optimization of work time and focus on the priority issues at a given time. We managed to achieve a situation in which all branches periodically completed their assigned tasks. Of course, this was a process that took several months. However, we didn't give up and didn't apply any leniency.because it's the holiday season', 'because there are too few employees' etc. because cyclicality is key here. It is worth adding here that sports consistency won. Those facilities that performed 100% corrective actions (action plans) achieved faster and larger increases in 📈 mystery shopper results.

Stage 4. Good results.
This step is the culmination of the previous steps, which were well planned and executed. After less than 4 months, the customer service quality results (Mystery Shopper) increased significantly. The growth level achieved reached as much as 8-9 percentage points. This is a very significant increase for a network of several hundred locations. Anyone who has worked in this area and improved such results knows that it's not easy, and such growth is the perfect moment to open the champagne and celebrate.

Key business areas have improved, including:
✅ needs analysis,
✅ cross-sell for additional products,
✅ finalization of the sale.

Thanks to this, we were able to achieve our goals and improve our sales results. We wish this to everyone, especially our clients!