Auditing Customer Experience Quality

Auditing is an activity that tries to measure performance by analysing it and comparing the audit results against pre-defined benchmarks. It is an independent review and examination of activities in order to test the adequacy and effectiveness of procedures, to ensure compliance with the established policy and operational procedures, and to recommend any necessary changes. A professional audit report enables the management of a company to draw tactical conclusions about business process improvement.

A mystery shopping audit usually focuses on:

• measuring customer service, product knowledge and sales effectiveness of customer contact employees
• measuring customer service, product knowledge and sales effectiveness of providing performance indications so that the company can compare its results with competitors
• measuring customer service, product knowledge and sales effectiveness of tracking performance over time and providing specific training and marketing recommendations
• measuring customer service, product knowledge and sales effectiveness of evaluating the effectiveness of ongoing training and incentive programs
• measuring customer service, product knowledge and sales effectiveness of identifying areas which require improvement
• measuring customer service, product knowledge and sales effectiveness of providing incentives for immediate improvement in performance levels
• measuring customer service, product knowledge and sales effectiveness of recognising the employees who exhibit superior customer service and sales skills

Everything starts with the unknown customer

The client of Nimax

Nimax is not a product-based seller of mystery shopping. Nimax determines the specific needs of the client and builds a research-tool and related metrics to respond to these needs. To increase our industry knowledge we work with a sector-oriented approach: we do not try to prospect with the mystery shopping product, we try to identify the needs of an industry sector. Currently we serve the sector of interim offices, banking and insurance companies, fast-food chains, cars dealerships, franchise networks, call centres, air-passenger traffic and leisure industry, hotels and restaurants, and other customer-oriented businesses.

The customer of Nimax’s clients

He or she is the most valuable asset of our and our client’s business! We must have a clear and full understanding – for our client as well as for us – of the characteristics of this customer . When we know who he/she is and why he/she is a customer, we can take his/her role and become the unknown customer of our client … We can only serve our clients in the best way when we know what their customers need and expect. We help our clients with defining this. This is an absolute condition to deliver customer experience quality.

Customer focus

One of the key elements of auditing customer experience quality is understanding the local (national) culture. Even in this multicultural society, only locals can completely understand the local culture. Therefore Nimax only wants to work with local people and local companies. After all, our customers expect us to understand the local needs. Europe is a complex mosaic of cultures, languages, habits, needs and desires. The “European Customer” therefore does not exist. European customer service strategy needs to be locally adapted to serve the local demands of local customers. Nimax can only be successful if we fully acknowledge the local identities and therefore the importance of local partners in the European network: if an English company likes to expand to France, it really needs to understand the French customer. If the company wants to identify a French customer service level, it needs to do this the ‘French way’…

In today’s competitive environment it has become increasingly more important for companies to have a customer focus. Customer experience elements such as responsiveness, accuracy of information provided and friendliness determine whether a customer comes back or recommends a company to his/her friends and colleagues. Serving customers consistently well is an unrelenting challenge. The perception of the expected services against the actual service provided is key.

Some interesting facts and figures:

• Each year, millions are spent on advertising to attract new customers. Yet it costs six times more to gain a new customer than it does to keep an existing one.
• On average, one dissatisfied customer will tell twelve others, who on average will tell five others.
• 91% of all customers who complain, will not be repeat buyers.
• 96% of customers don’t complain when they have a problem. They just do not come back.
• Half of the customers who tell companies they are ‘fairly satisfied’ will not do business again with the company in question.
• 68% of customers who stop purchasing from a particular company do this because of company indifference.
• Companies who deliver quality service charge up to 9% more for their products or services.
• Organisations that deliver quality service grow twice as fast and pick up market share three times quicker than their competitors.
• Increases of just a few percentage points in customer retention have resulted in significant increases in profits.

The experience that a customer has while making use of a product or service is the most important lead for him to decide to re-purchase the product or service. His experience is the most important marketing tool to create loyalty to the company. A good manager makes sure that the quality level of his/her product or service is at least at the level that the customer expects. Do you know what your customers really want?

By auditing the customer’s experience in a company, Nimax identifies areas that need improvement. The result is a consistent quality of service throughout the organisation which will increase customer retention and maximise revenues.