Audit activities

It is imperative for a company to see itself through the eyes of the customer in order to ensure that each and every customer receives the quality of service demanded and promised.

Unknown customers visit the establishment at un-announced moments. Guided by a detailed questionnaire, they observe the quality of the products and services offered. Does every customer receive exactly the same standard of service, regardless of any external influences? What is the level of interpersonal skills of individual staff members? Are employees able to demonstrate a thorough knowledge of products and services offered? Is there a readiness to introduce the customer to other products and services? Are customers receiving the information they request? Is everything accessible well presented and clean? Are staff members well presented, polite and professional? Are employees following the company’s policies and procedures?

If there is any area of poor quality, it will be identified in order to make improvements. An overall increase in sales, customer satisfaction and employee performance will result.

Internet auditing is interesting for companies that are advertising a product or service on the Internet. Leads generated from this website must be forwarded to a contact call center or another business development organisation.

Unknown customers will act as though they are interested in the service or product and report if their inquiry was responded to, how they were treated, and various information about the Internet experience and the conversion to a customer relationship. Do customers find the website informing? Do customers find the website easy to use? Are customers contacted with respect to their inquiry? What was the quality of the contact?

Internet auditing results in suggestions for making the website more user friendly, an evaluation of ease of use, an evaluation of follow-up efforts and suggestions for general enhancement.

Only one out of two companies responds to e-mails received from customers.

When responding to e-mails of customers or potential customers, a company should pay attention to speed and quality. How long do customers have to wait for an answer? Is the answer pertinent? What is the quality of the response with respect to tone, signature and personalization of the message? What is the response rate for each type of e-mail e.g. complaints, requests for information, suggestions, job applications, etc.? What is the quality of the commercial follow-up by e-mail? Nimax will answer all these questions by means of e-mail auditing.

Unknown customers will contact the company by e-mail and report if their inquiry was responded to and if yes, with which speed and quality.

Customers and potential customers can telephone the company itself or sometimes also a call center operating for the company. On average, customers who contact call centers are 32 to 45% more likely to make a purchase than those who do not.

Assessing the customer experience at the point of telephone contact is thus critical. Telephone auditing examines the quality and speed with which incoming calls are handled in a company. How many times does the phone ring before it is answered? How many calls are lost? Is the greeting conform to company standards? Does the person who answers the phone have a pleasant and cheerful voice? Does the person who answers the phone listen to what the caller has to say? Is the person who answers the phone polite? Are questions answered clearly? Are callers invited to visit the company?

Unknown customers will contact the company or call center by telephone and report if their call was responded to and if yes, with which speed and quality.

Many companies recognise the value of internet marketing. They try to manage leads generated through the internet by operating a call center which distributes the leads to the appropriate sales person. The call center is also responsible for contacting the leads and qualifying them. The effectiveness of the call center has thus a major impact on revenue.

With call center auditing, Nimax evaluates the quality and effectiveness of the call center. Did the call center actually contact the lead generated through the Internet? Did the call center ask the lead the predetermined questions in order to qualify the lead? Did the call center inform the lead well, e.g. on behalf of which company he/she was contacted or on possible next steps? Was the caller polite? Did the caller have a pleasant and cheerful voice? Did the caller close the call in a friendly way?

With call center auditing Nimax evaluates specific call center skills against standards and best practices.

Customers judge a product/service offering relative to offerings of key competitors. If performance is improving, but competitors are improving faster, the relative experienced quality would actually decline. Every good marketer knows he must benchmark in order to really get an accurate indication if skills and services are standing out.

Competition auditing provides an unbiased tool from which to measure how a company compares in the current market place. Unknown customers will contact the competition and report on their experience. Are competitors taking new initiatives which attract customers? Are there areas where competitors are lacking? What is the price level of the competition? What is the quality of company and employee performance of the major competitors?

The results of competition auditing enable a company to put results into perspective and clarify which levels a company must achieve in order to outperform the competition.

For some European clients Nimax assesses the competition on a monthly basis.

When a company is planning a take over or an acquisition, it is usually aware of the yearly figures of the company to be taken over. The quality of the operational management however is not always known.

With M&A (merger & acquisition) auditing, unknown customers may visit a potential take-over candidate several times. After this they can provide an objective view of the operational management. Besides reporting and observing the quality of products and services, they will also report on the occupancy (rate), the type of customer, the condition of the present hardware, the amount of active employees, and the location itself.

M&A auditing provides a company with sufficient information on a M&A candidate in order to come to a conscious decision.