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See how mystery shopping can help you.

Three true stories of mystery shopping success.
Choose a case study to view:
Retail Specialty Shop
Government Agency
Transit Service

Mystery Shopping for Specialty Retail

Boosting sales and improving service in custom framing shops
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Project Summary

This custom framing provider has locations in major retailers across the country.

When they started to see signs that something wasn’t right in their stores they reached out to A Customer’s Point of View for help…

Key Achievements
  • Identified the source of repeated order fulfillment errors
  • Uncovered correctable sources of declining sales
  • Used data to reduce customer wait times and improve selling procedures

Do you know why your sales are suffering?

ACPVIEW’s service has been an integral part of our Associate Training Program as well as measuring our performance compared to that of other Concessionaires in the Airport

We have recommended their services to other Concessionaires within the Airport and without hesitation recommend them to any business looking to improve as well as monitor their current customer service standards.

The Situation

  • Managing multiple locations of any business is hard.
  • You train your people and you monitor them…but you can’t be there all the time.
  • This company operated the custom framing department for several major retailers. They were confident that their staff was excellent at framing, so they couldn’t understand why their sales were dropping.
  • About the same time, they started to get a wave of complaints about frames being delivered with the wrong materials. This led to some customers waiting up to another month to get their orders re-framed correctly.
  • They hired us to search out the root cause of these two major issues affecting their business.

The Plan of Action

  • The shoppers hit the ground running to find answers to two big questions:
  • Why were sales missing projections?
  • And why was the staff making so many costly ordering mistakes?
  • Our team showed up to stores with fabric samples and color swatches to ask for help customizing frames to match their homes.
  • They also had a list targeted questions to help them assess the staff:
    • Were they friendly and welcoming?
    • Were they helpful assisting you to find a frame that you liked?
    • Were they using suggestive selling to encourage multiple purchases or add-ons?
    • Was your picture frame finished correctly and on time?

What We Accomplished

  • Our shopping research showed a few things:
    • The staff lacked basic sales and customer service skills.
    • Suggestive selling was not happening at any level.
    • The “ordering errors” were actually fulfillment mistakes being made by the warehouse, rather than ordering errors by the sales staff.
  • As a direct result of our project, the retailer instituted a new ordering system to cut down on mistakes and increase customer satisfaction.
  • They rolled out a new training program focused on customer service, selling skills and decorating/design.
  • And they revised their HR policies to include sales and customer service competency as part of their hiring process.
Discover why your sales aren't meeting expectations.
Talk To Us About Mystery Shopping for Retail

Mystery Shopping for Government Agency

Increasing citizen satisfaction with regional government services

Project Summary

This regional government wanted to be sure their offices were providing the high level of service their citizens deserve.

So they contacted A Customer’s Point of View find out how they were doing…

Key Achievements
  • Increased Citizen Satisfaction scores
  • Used data to revamp training programs and procedures
  • Improved audit performance across all areas and offices
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The Situation

  • Managing a local or regional government is a monumental task…and a huge responsibility.
  • You need to keep track of countless departments, offices and agencies, many of which manage critical services that affect the quality of life of your citizens.
  • This regional government came to us with some specific concerns.
  • They wanted to make sure that their employees were properly educated on department processes and procedures.
  • And that they had enough general knowledge to answer citizens questions satisfactorily and in a timely manner.
  • The project covered a huge range of services, from animal shelters to public libraries, so this wasn’t an easy mystery shop. But we were up to the task.

The Plan of Action

  • The program was built around a combination of in-person mystery shops and mystery calls.
  • For each department, we developed custom questions to test their knowledge, such as:
    • Library: I am interested in learning French. What resources do you have to help me?
    • Parks Dept: I want to rent a pavilion for a birthday party. How do I do it?
    • Tax Office: How do I go about applying for Homestead Exemption?
    • Water Dept: I’m moving into the area next month. What do I need to do to get water service started at my new residence?

What We Accomplished

  • We created a custom ranking system to evaluate performance. During the first round of visits, the offices averaged an 84 on our scale.
  • After retraining and educational procedures were rolled out, the scores improved to 94, an increase of 12%.
  • More importantly, Citizen Satisfaction scores increased across the board in the year following our mystery shopping program!
  • This program– like all of our programs– was designed to meet our client’s specific needs.
  • But this type of audit could be helpful to any type of office or call center that prioritizes providing high-quality service to its visitors.
Serve your customers better. Let us show you how!
Talk to us for your government agency

Mystery Riding for Transit Companies

Improving ride quality, reliability and paratransit services
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Project Summary

This transit authority had a major wave of customer complaints but they couldn’t sort out which ones were real, systematic problems.

They needed to figure out the root cause of their biggest customer issues.

That’s where A Customer’s Point of View came into the picture…

Key Achievements
  • Fixed broken announcement systems within days
  • Identified and corrected problematic driver behaviors
  • Reduced ADA violations

Missed Stops & Problem Drivers

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“ACPVIEW’s expertise, responsiveness, and suggestions have made our program very effective and we are capturing the information that we needed. The quality of the evaluations and the reporting is excellent. We highly recommend using their services.”

Midwest Transit
Customer Service Manager

What They Wanted

  • People love to complain about their horrible transit experiences.
  • Sometimes it can be hard to tell if you’re dealing with a loud customer in an isolated incident or a system-wide issue that affects your whole organization.
  • This transit agency was struggling with exactly that uncertainty.
  • They had several different types of complaints, so they hired A Customer’s Point of View to help them sort out which issues were significantly impacting the customer experience.
  • What we found at first wasn’t encouraging…but the end results certainly were!

Our Action Plan

  • Our riders went out into the field to take bus and light rail trips, armed with a list of specific items complaints to look out for, like:
    • Bus drivers passing by riders without stopping
    • No announcements of current or upcoming stops
    • Rude or unhelpful operators
    • Inappropriate conversations by paratransit operators
    • Late time performance Drivers using cell phones/Bluetooth
  • They were also looking out for general issues that affected their commuting experience– positive or negative.

Good Stuff That Happened

  • Driver pass-bys were not an issue and almost all the operators ranked highly.
  • But a few operators few committed serious violations, like inappropriate conversations and/or using cellphones while driving.
  • Our detailed reports allowed them to be referred for disciplinary action.
  • On-board announcements were a big problem, due to both malfunctioning systems and inattentive drivers.
  • Our reports included the bus route and time, so the transit authority found the affected vehicles and made needed repairs and software updates quickly.
  • They solved their largest customer service issue within just days of receiving our reports…a huge success!
Increase ridership by improving your rider experience.
Talk To Us About Mystery Riding for Transit Companies