Case Study: A National Drugstore Chain

The client wanted to close any gaps between its brand promise and customer experience.

Situation

True to its original mandate, the Client was committed to providing the best drug store service in America. Its challenge was to find a way to see itself through its customers’ eyes … to know what happens at the point of customer interaction.

By identifying gaps between service delivery and the Company’s expectations on a localized basis, the Client hoped to target areas that needed improvement, and develop training and incentive strategies to address them. The company turned to Maritz Research for help in understanding the reality of its customer experience.

Solution

All existing information about customers was reviewed, but Maritz knew that a deeper understanding of employee performance is a critical step in any location-level improvement effort. Maritz designed an objective, actionable plan using Mystery Shoppers to deliver customer insights. Shops were rotated across day parts and different areas of the store.

To optimize the value of the Mystery Shopping insights, Maritz worked with the Client to align the measurement effort with the Company’s training and incentive program. Results were reported to each store within 3 days of the shop giving store managers timely access to the information. The shops were frequent enough to maintain employee interest, but far enough apart to allow time for improvements. To round out the picture of its customer experience the Client added a customer satisfaction program which invited customers to complete a questionnaire about their recent experience at the store.

The Results

According to the Client Sponsor; “Mystery Shopping gives our frontline employees feedback on how well they are delivering what our customers demand. It also allows us to measure the delivery of service compared to our expectations.”

• The Client used the actionable intelligence provided from the Mystery Shopping insights and customer satisfaction program to refine its employee training and incentive programs.
• Shop scores have shown continuous improvement over the five years the program has been in place.