Secret Shoppers and Moments of Truth Build Customer Loyalty
Secret Shoppers and Moments of Truth Build Customer Loyalty
I was reminded of this customer service assessment strategy when talking with a local business owner, Jacki Kennedy. She is the co-owner of Riley Real Estate and an entrepreneur with Identity Theft Awareness Group in Northwest IN. Having a 100% referral base real estate business and understanding the importance of professionalism, she knows first hand the importance of delivering authentic moments of truth and how these moments extend outside of the firm’s physical environment.
Jacki was speaking at a local chamber monthly luncheon about changes in privacy laws that are affecting all businesses including health care. A local manager for a well known health care practice challenged the facts within the presentation. Before Jacki could respond to one question, the manager asked another.
Now others present observed the unprofessional behavior of this manager. Some came up to Jacki after the presentation and apologized for the rude treatment she had experienced. Later that day, at another after hours business networking event, several other people expressed their strong feelings about this manager’s poor behavior.
The reason I bring this up is that many times businesses fail to secretly shop their employees outside of their establishment. They are so busy worrying about what is going on inside of their business, as they should, they forget to think about what is going outside. How are their employees’ behaving when it is on the company’s time and dime?
Word of mouth usually travels slow, but negative word of mouth travels at warp speed. This is why it is so important not to have dissatisfied customers or even centers of influence. For they will tell 8-9 times as many people compared to unhappy customers. No business can afford this type of negative advertising.
Of course, you cannot follow your employees home. However, if your employees are engaged on your time and dime, then you can and should make the necessary inquiries to see how their behaviors are perceived.
Take Action Customer Loyalty Coaching Tip: Your internal customers create those moments of truth. Understand how your external customers and centers of influence view your business through their interactions with your employees. For as the business owner or executive, your responsibility does not end at the door if you truly want to build customer loyalty through those magical moments of truth.
Secret Shoppers and Moments of Truth Build Customer Loyalty - To learn more about this author, visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
Remember the Beatles song, "Do Wanna Know A Secret?” Many businesses engaged in a practice called Secret Shopper. These establishments from retail to not for profit hire people to secretly shop their organizations. The purpose of this action is to learn the level of customer service being experienced by their clients or what Jon Carlzon, former president of Scandinavian Airlines Systems, defines as moments of truth. These moments can be almost anything and are tied to a customer’s perception of value. “Moments of truth” are invariably woven into the buyer’s decision making process.
I was reminded of this customer service assessment strategy when talking with a local business owner, Jacki Kennedy. She is the co-owner of Riley Real Estate and an entrepreneur with Identity Theft Awareness Group in Northwest IN. Having a 100% referral base real estate business and understanding the importance of professionalism, she knows first hand the importance of delivering authentic moments of truth and how these moments extend outside of the firm’s physical environment.
Jacki was speaking at a local chamber monthly luncheon about changes in privacy laws that are affecting all businesses including health care. A local manager for a well known health care practice challenged the facts within the presentation. Before Jacki could respond to one question, the manager asked another.
Now others present observed the unprofessional behavior of this manager. Some came up to Jacki after the presentation and apologized for the rude treatment she had experienced. Later that day, at another after hours business networking event, several other people expressed their strong feelings about this manager’s poor behavior.
The reason I bring this up is that many times businesses fail to secretly shop their employees outside of their establishment. They are so busy worrying about what is going on inside of their business, as they should, they forget to think about what is going outside. How are their employees’ behaving when it is on the company’s time and dime?
Word of mouth usually travels slow, but negative word of mouth travels at warp speed. This is why it is so important not to have dissatisfied customers or even centers of influence. For they will tell 8-9 times as many people compared to unhappy customers. No business can afford this type of negative advertising.
Of course, you cannot follow your employees home. However, if your employees are engaged on your time and dime, then you can and should make the necessary inquiries to see how their behaviors are perceived.
Take Action Customer Loyalty Coaching Tip: Your internal customers create those moments of truth. Understand how your external customers and centers of influence view your business through their interactions with your employees. For as the business owner or executive, your responsibility does not end at the door if you truly want to build customer loyalty through those magical moments of truth.
Secret Shoppers and Moments of Truth Build Customer Loyalty - To learn more about this author, visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 | |
 |
No article feedback found. |
| |
Leave Your Feedback |
 | |
| |||
|
I've created this section on my site to share some of the incredible tools that I've used to build my business. I hope you too can benefit from them and look forward to hearing your feedback on the reviews! - Visit Evan Carmichael's Website |
|||
Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
|||
David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
|||
Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
|||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. | |||
 | |
|  |
Subscribe to Leanne's articles
 | |
|
|  |
 | |
|
| |
 | ||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
|
| ||
 |
| Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details. |
|
|
 |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
|
|
 |
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"
Click Here To Learn More |
|
|
|
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
|
 |
 Make It Happen Take the Lead Reference Check Form Managing Generations Essence of Leaders |
|
 | ||
 |
Choose A PR Topic
Press Release Builder | |
 |
Top 50 Business Plans
Top Business Plan Blogs | |
| ||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
|
|
|
| ||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||