october 2015 st helier mystery shopping report · oct 2015 st helier mystery shopping report 2 | p...

October 2015

St Helier

Mystery Shopping

Report

Oct 2015 St Helier Mystery Shopping Report 2 | P a g e

Oct 2015 St Helier Mystery Shopping Report

Key Findings

The average Customer Service score for the stores audited was 78%. This is marginally up on the

score of 77% when compared with the sample in May 2015, 73% in October 2014, and 68% in

October 2013. This score still falls a little short of the 80% target, set following the 2013 audit; but

continues to be above the UK average of 77%.

For the first time no stores were placed in the lowest ‘Poor’ performing category and we continue to

see an increase in the number of stores placed in the top ‘outstanding’ category; up from 9% in 2013,

13% in 2014, 16% in May to 21% in October 2015. In May 2015 three stores scored 100% for the

first time. It is pleasing to see two different stores score top marks this time.

Apart from Shop First Impressions all of the other Sections measured involve interaction with staff.

This emphasises just how important retail staff are in the delivery of the overall customer service

experience.

‘Product Knowledge’ and the ‘Member of Staff’ section scores were outstanding; scoring above the

90% benchmark. The poorest performing area continues to fall within Selling Skills and in particular

‘Additional Products’ where the opportunity to ‘up-sell’ is being missed; this time the score dropping

to below 20%.

The average scores for cafés has fallen back to Oct 2013 levels of 75% brought down a little by staff

missing opportunities to offer ‘Additional Food Purchases’. The average Café score is generally in

line with the overall Town Centre experience.

The results suggest that customer service is improving and having a positive effect on the experience

shoppers are receiving. This reflects well on the efforts stores are making to improve including

investment in the Retail Ambassador programme which commenced in 2014.


Introduction

In October 2013 the Economic Development Department commissioned a local mystery shopping

firm to undertake an audit of fifty five Town Centre stores to measure the Customer Service

experience.

Additional audits were undertaken in October 2014, May 2015 and October 2015. The results allow

the retail sector to:

1. Measure the Town Centre ‘customer experience’

2. Monitor changes in performance over time

3. Identify areas of excellence

4. Identify areas requiring improvement

Reference to the ‘period’ in this report refers to the time from the first audit in October 2013 to the

current one in October 2015.

Methodology

This audit was commissioned by Jersey Business and carried out over the last two weeks in

October 2015.

A sample of sixty two Town Centre stores were audited in Oct 2015: 54 retailers and 8 cafes.

With the exception of two stores the sample included the same stores as the 2013 and 2014

audits. In May 2015 a further 7 stores were included and they were also included in the Oct

2015 sample.

The sample was selected to ensure a good geographical spread across the Town Centre

and broken down into groups:

Small store (1-5 staff) - 35

Medium store (5-10 staff) - 22

Large store (>10 staff) - 5

8 of the sample were UK stores or franchises and 54 were local businesses.

Half of the audit was carried out on a Saturday and the rest spread evenly from Monday to

Friday.

The audit was undertaken by 13 professional assessors using the same marking and appraisal

system as for the previous audits.


Service Areas Reviewed

The audit reviewed three specific Areas; each split into Sections as shown below.

1. General Approach

o First impressions

o Acknowledgement

2. Service

o Café (for selected)

o The Member of Staff

o The Check Out Process

3. Sales Opportunity

o Establishing Needs

o Product Knowledge

o Customer Ordering

o Selling Skills

Within each Section specific Topics were tested and these are show in the graphs displayed on the

following pages.

Understanding the Scores

The audits are scored out of 100%. 100% would indicate outstanding customer service with all the

areas covered successfully. 0% would indicate failure on every point measured.

Score Performance

0 – 40% Poor

41 – 60% Fair

61 – 80% Adequate

81- 90% Good

>90% Outstanding

A target of above 80% was suggested as the benchmark for Jersey retailing following the 2013 audit.


October 2015 Performance

The average score was 78%; up 1% from May 2015, and up from 73% in 2014, and from 68% in

2013. This is a positive trend demonstrating improved levels of overall customer service

performance.

68

73

7778

2013 2014 2015 May 2015 Oct

% S

core

Average Store Performance

11%

5% 6%0%

22%

25%

6%

13%

33%

20%

37%

34%

25%

36%34%

32%

9%

13%

16%

21%

2013 2014 2015 MAY 2015 OCT

2013 - 2015 Store Performance

Poor Fair Adequate Good Outstanding


The results show that the range of scores from the poorest to the best performing stores is narrowing.

It is especially encouraging that for the first time no stores were placed in the lowest ‘poor’ performing

category. Particularly notable Oct 2015 results:

47% of stores were classified as ‘fair’ or ‘adequate’.

53% of stores were classified as ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’.

The number of ‘outstanding’ performing stores continues to grow from 9% of the sample in

2013 to 21% of the sample in Oct 2015.

The number of ‘poor’ performing stores has fallen from 11% of the sample in 2013 to 0% in

Oct 2015.

Performance by Area

Of the three Areas measured, Sales Opportunity at 69% continues to underperform

General Approach at 83% and Service at 82%. This is still an area of weakness but a 9%

improvement since 2013 suggests stores are continuing to improve with regard to the

selling process.

40

45

50

55

60

65

70

75

80

85

90

95

Oct-13 Oct 14 May 15 Oct-15

% S

core

2013-2015 Service Area Performance

General Approach Sales opportunity Service


Performance by Section

General Approach Performance

General Approach covers Shop First Impressions and Acknowledgement. It is encouraging to

see that this remains a strong part of the St Helier shopping experience with the average score

maintained at 83%.

53%

62%

74%

75%

79%

79%

89%

91%

91%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Selling Skills

Customer Ordering

Acknowledgement

Cafe

Establishing Needs

Check out

Shop First impressions

Product Knowledge

The Member of Staff

Oct 2015 - Performance by Section

40

45

50

55

60

65

70

75

80

85

90

95

Nov 13 Oct 14 May 15 Oct-15

% S

core

2013-2015 General Approach Performance

Shop First impressions Acknowledgement


Floor & Fixtures and Merchandised Fixtures showed improvement on May 2015 results

Overall Shop First Impressions continues to perform strongly with an average score of 89%.

All of the Topics with First Impressions are rated as ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’

The acknowledgment shoppers receive is an important factor in delivering excellent

customer service and can be a key differentiator for ‘bricks & mortar’ stores.

Acknowledgement scores an ‘Adequate’ 74% but is affected by the continued poor

performance of Welcome on Entrance with a score of only 45%.

70

75

80

85

90

95

100

Oct 13 Oct 14 May 15 Oct-15

% S

core

2013-2015 General Approach: Shop First Impressions

Floor & Fixtures Entrance & Windows Merchandised Fixtures

Department Layout Clear Pricing

3035404550556065707580859095

100


% S

core

2013-2015 General Approach: Acknowledgement

Assistant Approachability Welcome & Interest Welcome on Entrance


Service Performance

This Area covers the Member of Staff, Café scores, and the Check Out process.

Average scores for cafés has fallen back to Oct 2013 levels of 75% brought down by staff

missing possible Additional Food Purchases.

The average Café score is in line with the overall Town Centre experience.

40

45

50

55

60

65

70

75

80

85

90

95


% S

core

2013-2015 Service Performance

Cafe Check out The Member of Staff

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

110


% S

core

2013-2015 Service: Cafe

Table Pick Up & Go

Menus Food Hygiene

Presentation Attention

Additional Food Purchases Description & Recommedations


Continued improvement over the period for the Member of Staff scores, now at 91%, is

extremely encouraging demonstrating very high levels of staff attitude and helpfulness.

At 91%, Member of Staff score, has continued to improve of the period and is the joint equal

highest of all the Sections measured. This is testament to the continued investment in

people by the retail sector.

70

75

80

85

90

95

100


% S

core

2013-2015 Service: Members of Staff

Attire Friendliness & Helpfulness Confident & Enthusiastic Attitude of Staff

15

25

35

45

55

65

75

85

95

105


% S

core

2013-2015 Service: Check-Out

Pay by card option Thank you & Goodbye Packaging

Quueing Process Overall Experience Would you recommend

Postive Comments Refund availability Anything else you need?


Staff are still not offering further help by asking ‘Is there anything else you need?’ which,

although more common than in 2013, still scores very poorly.

Overall experience of the check-out process has increased by 11% over the period

reflecting improvements in all aspect of the process.

Sales Opportunity Performance

The Sales Opportunity covers Establishing Needs, Product Knowledge, Selling Skills, and Customer

Ordering.

At an average score of 69% the Sales Opportunity is the weakest performing Service Area

reviewed but an improvement of 9% over the period is encouraging.

40

45

50

55

60

65

70

75

80

85

90

95


% S

core

2013-2015 Sales Opportunity Performance

Establishing Needs Product Knowledge Selling Skills Customer Ordering

40

45

50

55

60

65

70

75

80

85

90

95

Oct 13 Oct 14 May 15 Oct 15

% S

core

2013-2015 Sales: Establishing Needs

Contact Interest Assistance


The Product Knowledge score of 91% demonstrates an ‘outstanding’ result and is the equal

top score (along with Member of Staff) in all of the Sections measured.

70

75

80

85

90

95

100

105


% S

core

2013-2015 Sales: Product Knowledge

Questions asked Product Assistance Product Knowledge

15

25

35

45

55

65

75

85

95


% S

core

2013-2015 Sales: Customer Ordering

Contact Product Availiability Brochure Available

Option to Order Delivery


Selling Skills at 53% is an area that continues to perform at the lowest level.

The Additional Products Suggest score of 19% is ‘poor’ and has declined by 11% over the

period and shows that opportunities to up-sell and cross sell are being missed.

Targeted Performance Results

Saturday v Weekday

The closeness of the scores over the period, currently a 6% difference, demonstrates that the

customer service experience on Saturday is generally similar to a week day.

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

55

60

65

70

75

80

85


% S

core

2013-2015 Sales: Selling Skills

Encouragement Features & Benefits

Price Matching Additional Products Suggested

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

2013 2014 May-15 Oct-15

% S

core

2013-2015 Day of Survey Performance

Saturday Mon-Friday


UK v Local

Scores for Local stores continues to outperform UK Chain stores, currently by 8%, even though

UK stores have increased their performance by 3% over the period of the audits.

Size of Business

It is interesting to note the 81% Customer Service score for Small stores, improving 13% over the

period. The results suggest that Small stores are working hardest to engage with shoppers.

60

62

64

66

68

70

72

74

76

78

80

2013 2014 May-15 Oct-15

% S

core

2013-2015 Type of Business Performance

Local UK Chain

40

45

50

55

60

65

70

75

80

85

2013 2014 May-15 Oct-15

% S

core

2013-2015 Size of Business Performance

Large Medium Small


Summary

Although the overall October 2015 results show a 1% increase on May 2015, the improvement in

the top and bottom scores demonstrates a major improvement of the poorest performing stores

and also of those preforming at the highest level.

Most notably the average score of 78% shows a 10% increase on the first survey in 2013; which

indicates a significant improvement in Customer Service performance over this period.

The results of the audit will be used to assist key stakeholders, such as the Retail Development

Group, to encourage continued Customer Service improvements in the retail sector. The results will

help to focus efforts on areas that are required to improve the overall customer service experience.

Jersey Business will continue to work with individual retailers to implement improvements in their

performance and productivity.

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