Background
A woman’s apparel retailer was committed to the ideal that their associates should demonstrate an insatiable drive for anticipating and fulfilling customers’ desires. To implement this philosophy, the company wished to measure existing customer service, and the immediate impact that training has on associates’ behavior. As a sub- measurement, the company also wanted to evaluate whether implemented training held up over time.
The Question
Can one-time training be effective enough to bring about desired change, or must training be ongoing to support changes over time across stores and/or brands?
The Strategy
After evaluating company objectives, ICC/Decision Services developed the pilot survey. Since the objective was to capture existing associate behavior, the recommendation was that stores not be told of the mystery shopping. This would allow the company to develop a clear “baseline” picture of what was occurring in the stores. A survey which focused largely on attentive customer service and suggestive selling behavior was fielded to a group of 31 stores across several districts. Immediately after the initial results were in, the company launched an intensive training program focusing on areas needing improvement. Several days after training was completed, another wave of shops was fielded. In order to ensure test controls, associates were not told of the mystery shop. Two weeks after training, a third wave of shops was fielded to measure the training effectiveness over time.
The Result
Immediately after the training period, the second wave of shops showed impressive results:
Overall scores increased from 56.5 to 65.6, +9.1 points vs. pre-training.
Associate behavior in identifying shopper needs increased from 58.1 to 87.5 + 29.4 points.
Suggestive selling behavior increased by over 10 points.
…So did the training work?
The mystery shop was able to show the immediate impact that effective training can have on an associate team. The third wave of shops, designed to evaluate the impact of training over time was also telling. Two weeks post training, scores dropped significantly across the board. Most scores had dropped to pre-training levels.
By not advising the store level that the mystery shopping was taking place, the retailer was able to identify the importance of training re-inforcement to maintain best practices amongst associates. It also enabled the company to have a clear baseline picture of current service behaviors. Once further testing has completed, they will inform stores of the mystery shopping program. By bringing the stores on board after initial testing has occurred, the company will be able to ensure service levels are maintained and improved continuously.
