Case Study

Car Retail

Motto: „A customer is the most important person in any business. A customer is not dependent upon us. We are dependent upon him.”

The recession has an influence on the behaviour of customers. They deliberate more carefully where and how to spend their money. They get more sensitive about deficiencies, errors in service, even if not consciously. Re-acquisition of an alienated customer is the most expensive form of customer acquisition.

Our Client conceived that the narrowing of possibilities in the car market makes every customer-contact even more valuable than before. Many customers either procrastinate their purchase or buy a car of a lower category than originally intended. Under these circumstances it would be irresponsible to risk commerce by not treating customers the way they should be.

This was the understanding of our Client when in 2008 it decided to commission Phantom Shopping with the set-up and coordination of its Mystery Shopping program.

What the management of the company had to decide is the following: „Is Mystery Shopping worth it for me or for my company?”

Yes, if the Mystery Shopping Provider

• Conducts the surveys by high and trustworthy standard,
• selects, prepares and controls its Mystery Shoppers with great care;
• does not want to cut budget on quality control.
• Has a wide enough and expanding database to meet even special demands.
• Has varied experience and knows its profession inside-out.
• Is familiar with the latest trends, results and achievements of its trade, and more than this:
• is in the frontline of innovation.
• Creates sophisticated, yet easily understandable and manageable output, which
• can spare time to make important decisions.
• Regards as the most important thing that the Client really would gain profit due to Mystery Shopping, and can provide efficient help for this.

The results have validated the cooperation.

The first survey, directed at finding problem areas, uncovered several major differences between the expectations of our Client and the performance of salesmen working on ”the field”. The most underdeveloped areas were needs assessment and follow-up.

Surveying the needs of the customer requires great effort, concentration, initiative, well-directed questions. If the above mentioned factors are not present, the value of the offer is risked, as it is less likely to meet the – declared or undeclared – needs of the client.

Therefore improvement of surveying the needs became a pivotal point in the Mystery Shopping Program. The chart below shows that after the low result of the first months this area shows dynamic development.

The last part of the deal is the follow-up, when by contacting the client the salesman motivates him/her towards a positive decision. Previously, the sales persons did not take this part of the selling cycle serious enough. Results show that the expectations were not unreachable: 4 out of every 5 salesman consistently perform above 80% in the related criteria.

Under the present economic circumstances the short-term goal is neutralising the effect of recession and the narrowing of the market.
The long term goal is to gain competitive edge over competitors. This is served by the enhancement of the level of customer service and by a Mystery Shopping Program started earlier and carried out more efficiently than the competitors.

< Back to Case Studies