Over the years, we have developed great capabilities in measuring the pulse of your company, its stakeholders and your brands. We know that getting the right data starts with asking the right questions … and using the right tools to obtain and release this insight. Our experienced managers are highly skilled at assessing where your business currently is at, helping you build stronger relationships with your key stakeholders, and working with you to take your business further.
Some of our core research activities include:
It is the practice of using trained shoppers to anonymously evaluate customer service, operations, employee integrity, merchandising and product quality over the phone, web or commonly on site. We assess the agreed interaction between our mystery shoppers and the frontline teams via preset scenarios and questionnaires.
Our Mystery Shopping programs focus mainly on improvement points within an organisation. AQ will point out the differences between desirable KPIs and the actual delivery of the product or service. Throughout the entire process, our carefully selected and trained mystery shoppers deliver objective and actionable insight which are also checked by our in-house teams before being released online to you. In fact, if required we can guarantee accuracy and ensure that findings are delivered to you as quickly as within 48 hours.
Individual reports include analysis, focus points, training tips and dashboards making it easy for onsite managers to analyse the report and to take action. And this insight can be presented to you, your managers and front line both online and offline.
We can do this anywhere in the world. Our extensive and expanding global network of mystery shoppers numbers 1,000,000 to date – with complete coverage in Asia and Europe, and globally through our IMSA alliance partners.
But don’t just take our word for it – call us and we’ll show you the AQ mystery shopping experience … and let you experience the difference.
Selection of Mystery Shoppers
We take great care in selecting and screening our shoppers to ensure that they match your actual customer profile. AQ keeps track records of all our mystery shoppers and we have them sign a confidentiality-, quality- and safety agreement for every job, every time. While in some cases you may not have very specific criteria and simply require an experienced shopper who can report objectively what was observed while maintaining the scenario, other times you may need a shopper with relevant skills, assets or experience that’s related to your business or industry.
We send frequent travellers to assess service on flights or duty free stores, businessman to assess hotels or private banking branches, high end consumers to assess luxury brands or automotive branches, or families to assess entertainment parks, retail and restaurants. It is due to the diversity of clients we work for that we maintain and manage a very large pool of dedicated people so that we can blend in and make an accurate assessment.
Training of Mystery Shoppers
Each client and program is different. And therefore so is our shopper training. Yet, as a minimum, all our mystery shoppers must do the following:
• Study a detailed briefing manual that has been developed specifically for the client’s program.
• Pass an online ‘comprehension’ test, which is tailored to the program.
• Attend a face-to-face training at one of our offices or attend a one-on-one phone and web briefing.
We make sure our shoppers know you well before they start working with you. Not only must they be familiar with just the survey and the scenario, but also your company and the objectives of the program.
We invite our clients to attend these sessions to experience the training and to meet some of the shoppers.
Consider the fact that our trained specialist have assessed your retail performance and have provided you with constructive and actionable feedback through their mystery reports. They are neutral yet have consciously and critically observed your front line and have extensive consumer experience in your industry, and other industries. Would you not appreciate a focussed session with a selected few of these specialists so that you have face to face time to ask them more in-depth questions about your brand, the retail performance or possibly new plans you may have?
A debriefing session, guided by our focus group leaders or senior business managers, provides you profound insights from a group of professional consumers and observers.
Are your SKUs well placed and priced properly? Are your marketing materials visible and up to date? Are your outlets following your guidelines? Is data delivered timely, to the right people and in a way that it can drive change?
These are some of the questions and issues that we tackle in our comprehensive audits. Our trained auditors, armed with tablet PC`s or Ipads, visit your outlets and check all your hardware – from whether promotional materials are up to how your merchandise is presented and labelled. We then provide a report to you online within 48 hours, making the information fresh and at its most potent.
Depending on the impact that we hope to achieve, our shoppers can reveal themselves for direct feedback or to hand over a reward on the spot.
Our employee satisfaction surveys measure much more than just their satisfaction levels. We find out about their attitudes and opinions, and what truly motivates them. We also study how they fit together as a group and what can be done to create a stronger team that will add real value to your company.
It’s important to know what your customers really think about your brand, your people and your offerings. And not once a year; we need frequent insight so that we can act promptly. It’s also crucial to know what they think about a specific outlet and their experiences there. Our customer satisfaction programs get right down to the store level so you can find out if your customers are delighted – or not – with each outlet, and you can make action plans at store level to ensure improvements are made.
