Hi there,
I've been commissioned to write an article entitled 'How to beat Mystery Shopper'. The idea is to give readers great customer service tips so that if they are ever Mystery Shopped they are well prepared!
Have you been Mystery Shopped and won? If so, what was it about your agency that you think stood out?
Thanks! Emily
Hi Emily,
In the last 5 weeks Thomson have won the Travel Weekly mystery shopper 4 times, and since January the average score for Thomson has been 91%.
We put this fantastic performance down to a strong focus on customer service in TUI. Each month we mystery shop our full retail estate on four key elements - how welcoming they are, how well they listen to the customers' requirements and respond directly to these and finally how well they create urgency to close the sale.
This is not dissimilar from the Travel Weekly mystery shopping and I am sure has had a direct impact on the results we are seeing.
Service is what will make us stand out from the crowd!
Doug @ Thomson/ First Choice
Thanks Doug. So it seems your staff must be constantly kept on their toes knowing they could be Mystery Shopped any minute! Yes, the criteria by which they are judged is fairly similar. Mystery Shopper always gives marks for the consultant trying to close the sale. Is the criteria the backbone of your customer service training?
Definitely our mystery shopping is an important part of the service culture we are embedding, however we try to take a broader view of customer service including looking at customer letters (complaints and praise), customer retention and other forms of customer feedback/ research. We are also looking at the link between sales and service and recognising this within our incentives scheme.
Hi We would just like to add some feedback regarding how our branch achieved a fantastic score of 98% during our last Travel Weekly Msystery shopper.
My Branch, The Co-operative Travel in Darlington Bondgate (County Durham) won the Mystery shopper back in January. Like most other high street travel operations, our business operates its own mystery shopper initiative, which means we are regularly put through our paces, but there are no real secrets. Excellent customer service added to product and destination knowledge are the cornerstones of success. We always try and close the sales, not forgeting to agree a follow up call with the customer within 72 hours of leaving the shop (usually the next day) and giving the clients our contact details.
Hope this helps
Many Thanks
Rachael
Assistant Manager Darlington Bondgate
Hi
In response to Rachel, i totally agree with her comments. We are independant agency so we don't have reguarly mystery shoppers but we pride our selves on giving our customers 100% service and we try and make good use of the computers showing hotel reports & general info etc. We always greet our customers as soon as they enter the shop and always follow up our enquiries with a call. At the end of the day if you always treat each client as the mystery shopper and give them 100% of your time and effort and try your best to fulfil their needs you will hopefully alwyas come off as a winner.
Many thanks
Tania Bosworth
Supervisor
Hi Emily
We are an independent Travel Agency with branches throughout East Anglia and as a company we do have regular Customer Service and Quality of Service training. We were mystery shopped in February of this year and received a 97% mark, which were very pleased with.
All customers are approached on arrival into our branch, and helped at the brochure racks firstly. I think it is important to establish clearly what the customer is looking for before any research is started, listen properly to their requirements and ask the right questions which will then enable you to come back with suitable holiday suggestions.
Once options have been given, ask whether they have insurance, discuss it as part of the conversation along with questions like "how are you getting to the airport?" what shouldn't happen is that they are bombarded with one question after the other, make your questioning part of the conversation so they don't feel like you are selling them extras, make them feel like you are just helping them sort out the bits of their trip they might not have yet thought about.
If they aren't booking something that day, make sure you tell them that you will check with them in a couple of days to see if they have thought any more about it, and do do this!...this shows interest in their enquiry.
Hope this helps.
Emma
Thanks for all your comments!
What do you all think about the little extras? Mystery Shopper seems to like it when she is offered a cup of tea, for example? Is this going a bit over the top, or is it part of good customer service?
Also, Mystery Shopper seems quite particular about how information should be presented to her. For example, She likes headed note paper and her own brochure and seems less keen on photo copies or prices written on the brochure page or comp slips. But with the drive for agencies to be more eco-friendly and cut down on brochure wastage, is this reasonable?
It is interesting that all the responses you are getting are from companies who invest in mystery shopping/ service training! One of the key issues that we are addressing in Thomson/ First Choice is making sure the service we offer is consistent irrespective of which shop you go into. This is obviously more difficult with a national retail estate, but is something we are committed to improving.
It is interesting that all the responses you are getting are from companies who invest in mystery shopping/ service training!
One of the key issues that we are addressing in Thomson/ First Choice is making sure the service we offer is consistent irrespective of which shop you go into. This is obviously more difficult with a national retail estate, but is something we are committed to improving.
Yes I totally agree with you I feel the little extras i.e being offered a cup of coffee/tea are very important we have a hot drinks machine and have found it most popular especially when customers are waiting, it just makes it more of an informal friendly environment.
Hi Marie, Rsm for Thomson / First Choice
You need to make your customer feel special, booking a holiday will probably be their biggest spend for the year so a cup of tea or juice might sound like a small extra, but its often the little things that make the difference.
Also, it sounds obvious but make sure you fully understand what the customer needs then you only need to give the relevant brochure, the problem we have in travel is we end up giving customers too many brochures most of which they don't need.
I agree the little extras are important but sometimes just something little like remembering a customer name makes them feel really important. I also think it is very important to listen to the customer and i agree only give them the brochure they really need.
Tania
Hello
Independent agents are very quick to judge First Choice/Thomsons selling skills etc, however when I worked for TUI we were given fantastic Training on skills of how to make a client feel welcome, excitement around the booking etc, given now I work for a fantastic Independent Agent where I have gained so much knowledge through my fellow colleagues & I have more chances to attend FAM trips, combined I feel I have an all round take on how to sell a holiday (hopefully to a mystery shopper)
Experience & knowledge come vastly, and this is where more larger companies struggle, from the breakdowns of scoring. It's always worth trying to enter yourself for as many fam trips & taking courses on Travel Weekly/TTG and various tour operators website.
Granted sometimes, we do miss out on little extras but we offer these services when the clients comes in for tickets etc, maybe this is something we could work on though!
Rebecca
We were mystery shopped by another Travel publication way back in November 1996, not long after opening. The Enquiry a trip to Disneyland Paris by Car or Eurostar using the Tunnel. This was in the days of the tunnels infancy. In the article we came last and were slated for advising of frequent delays, and a likelihood that winter services would not be operated. At the same time as the article went to print, the tunnel was then closed completely due to a severe fire.
We Were totally 100% correct in our advice and not only delays but no service at all. We Did Write to the Travel Publication, but we never received a reply or an apology!
I can't comment on the other publication and your experience, but you do raise some really interesting points generally about Mystery Shopper. First of all how much emphasis should MS put on closing the sale? If the advice is at the expense of the sale, why should an agent be marked down for it? Also, it is one person's view of an experience and their view is subjective, even if they are professionally trained Mystery Shoppers.
If you ever get Mystery Shopped by Travel Weekly then you are welcome to respond either here or I do a blog post every week on Mystery Shopper and have had agents who have been Mystery Shopped respond on the blog.
I think that we should be much more open about MS and provide some sort of forum for agents who have been mystery shopped to have their say. That's what we're trying to do here - MS shouldn't be a one-way process where we publish and the agencies get no reply or we don't have an open debate when some people think MS has got it wrong.
Best, Emily
Emily, we do not get mystery shopped as an independent in a rural town.
However when I used to work in London I was mystery shopped on 3 occasions and each time won. Including the time I was completely lost and had to work it out as I went along. My key tips and what we try to do in our shop are.
Welcome quickly and then chat to the customer, no long silences. Sell extras by bring them into the conversation and noting them. Check customer history, regular customers like it when you ask about last there last holiday. (Of course it can cause moans but look positively at them, so if you get " well it was bit remote or I did not like the trips", then you can offer car hire).
Do not take to many details, we have gained 2 booking in last month due to Thomas Cook taking full names etc at first enquiry stage. (Customers felt that the company was building to much data on them). Stick to name and telephone number and if you can postcode, you can always ask for more but do not push.
Always try an upsell, I recently offered a customer who want a cheap break a seaview upgrade and then mentioned others upgrades and now they are looking at booking a suite a double the price of the orginal room.
Hi Nick,
Thanks very much for that, very interesting.
It has been really useful getting opinions from agents on this subject. The difficulty when writing this kind of article is getting the tone right - particularly when we have readers who have been in the industry from 3 days to 30 years - last thing I want to do is state the obvious and alienate readers, yet at the same time it has to cover all the bases!
Here is the finished article.
Best,
Emily