Mystery Shopping for Speciality Retail
Boosting sales and improving service in custom framing shops.
Project Summary
A national custom framing provider experiencing quality control issues and customer dissatisfaction turned to ACPVIEW. Through mystery shopping, root causes were identified—revealing fulfillment breakdowns and training gaps—leading to operational improvements and enhanced customer service.
The Situation
Customer complaints about incorrect frame materials
Sales performance declining despite staff product knowledge
Confusion around where fulfillment errors originated
Plan of Action
- Conduct mystery shopping using real product scenarios (swatches, samples)
- Evaluate staff behavior and sales technique
- Trace errors to warehouse or in-store processes
Key Achievements
- Pinpointed fulfillment errors to warehouse, not in-store staff
- Identified lack of suggestive selling and service skills
- Reduced fulfillment errors and customer service wait times
What We Accomplished
- Performed in-store evaluations of staff assistance and product matching
- Found warehouse responsible for frequent material mismatches
- Advised improvements to the ordering system and warehouse checks
- Helped implement a new training program and update hiring criteria
