Extending excellence

As a manufacturer of top quality loudspeakers and other audio equipment, Bose Corporation has a reputation for excellence. Thanks to the firm’s strong belief in R&D, audiophiles and the general public alike know that the Bose name is synonymous with technological innovation and great sound.

To make sure employees extend the pursuit of excellence to the retail setting, Bose has been using mystery shopping since 1995 to monitor performance of salespeople at its factory stores - which sell new and factory renewed products - and at its Bose showcase stores - which sell new merchandise. Mystery shops are also conducted at department stores and electronics superstores where Bose products are sold.

"We started mystery shopping because we were rolling out a recognition program and we wanted a non-threatening way to find people who were excelling in the area of customer satisfaction, to locate the people who were the star performers, who were excelling at satisfying our customers, rather than having a district manager go in and do an evaluation," says Lisa Pazol, manager, customer experience, retail direct group, Bose Corp., Framingham, Mass.

The mystery shops are conducted by Customer Perspectives, a Hooksett, N.H., mystery shopping firm. Each Bose store is shopped twice a month. (One low score is dropped per store per quarter, Pazol says, acknowledging that "Everybody may have a bad day; the store may be extremely busy and the customer doesn’t get the attention that they deserve, for example.")

Judith Ann Hess, partner, Customer Perspectives, says that although most retail clients want to measure similar things in their mystery shopping programs, such as greeting skills, friendliness, product knowledge and sales skills, many also have individual issues to examine. "We therefore do a lot of custom designing for clients based on their specific standards and training programs. Our mystery shopping then helps them measure compliance with those standards and the effectiveness of their training efforts. It also allows them to reward exemplary employees by identifying those who meet or exceed their standards," Hess says.

For Bose, it’s important for employees to greet customers quickly. They should introduce themselves, or, if they’re busy with another customer, acknowledge their presence with a nod or other gesture. Once with the customer they must be friendly, helpful and demonstrate product knowledge.

"One of the key things our customers have told us that our salespeople can do to increase satisfaction is make them feel welcome. We do that in a number of different ways, including trying to acknowledge or greet them in 10 seconds. That’s one of our standards," Pazol says.

Starts with a phone call

The Bose store mystery shops are two-part. They begin with a phone call, in which the shopper calls to ask questions on specific products. Shoppers indicate if the employee performed tasks such as answering questions clearly. Employees are also rated on their friendliness, helpfulness, etc., using a excellent-satisfactory-unsatisfactory scale. Finally, shoppers have space to write about their interaction and support the ratings they gave the employee.

"We ask our shoppers specifically what we could have done to improve. We have a lot of yes/no questions so that it can be as objective as possible but we also want them to express in their own words how we did and what we could do to make them feel more welcome," Pazol says.

For the in-person visit, shoppers describe how/if they were greeted, their evaluation of the employee in charge of the theater presentation (Bose stores contain a theater for presenting a short audio-visual show which highlights Bose equipment), the employee’s selling and closing skills and exploration of customer needs (Did the employee use language which helped you picture having the product in your home?), product demonstration and knowledge (Did the employee describe and demonstrate the benefits?), and overall impressions (Did the Bose representative make you feel important, provide a comfortable environment?). At the factory stores, shoppers must note if the employee volunteered an explanation of factory-renewed products during their visit.

"Speakers have to be sold on the basis of customer needs so there has to be a lot of needs exploration," Hess says. "Does the salesperson explore needs and listen effectively to those needs? Do they mention the benefits in addition to the features?"

"We want the salesperson to develop a rapport with the customer," Pazol says, "and ask enough questions to make them feel that they are interested in their business without being too overbearing."

Customer Perspectives also sends shoppers to other retailers that sell Bose equipment. The shopper notes how long it took to be noticed by a salesperson, when/if the salesperson steered them toward Bose products, if a demonstration was conducted and if the Bose equipment was in good shape (no broken/missing parts) and positioned for optimal sound quality.

Improvement opportunities

Each store receives a quarterly summary showing the staff’s overall performance. "The district and store managers also get copies of the shops. The stores use the mystery shopping data as a tool to bring awareness of where they’re doing well and where there are opportunities to do better. They can use it as a basis for a staff meeting, to look at things they can do to improve," Pazol says.

Depending on each store’s overall performance, the employee team, including managers, are awarded a customer satisfaction bonus. Outstanding mystery shopping reports are often posted at the individual stores so employees can celebrate.

Individual employees are noted only for outstanding service (they’re not singled out if they perform poorly) and can win points in the Bose employee recognition program. "On the shopping form we ask if anybody in the store provided exemplary customer service. The shopper writes the person’s name and explains why the service was exemplary and that person gets a point for each reference," Pazol says.

Fresh in their mind

Shoppers are instructed to complete the forms immediately after the experience, while everything is still fresh in their mind, Hess says. "In addition to the objective measures, we ask shoppers to provide a lot of qualitative information so clients can see exactly what happened. For example, the shopper might hear two cashiers chatting together about something inappropriate. Or witness an employee talking on the phone instead of helping customers."

While some retail clients want to compare mystery shopping results on a branch-to-branch basis, Hess discourages them from doing so unless they have enough shops to obtain statistically significant data. "If they’re telling me they want to compare stores and they only have one shop in that store for the month, it’s not really valid information."

Raise the bar

Bose conducts an annual telephone survey to make sure that the service attributes it measures in the mystery shopping are still important to customers. "Prior to each fiscal year we reevaluate the behaviors we’re asking the staff to demonstrate and make sure that we’re raising the bar," Pazol says. "If we can identify the things that satisfy customers, and then determine the behaviors that contribute to them, we can measure those behaviors in the mystery shops and we can continue to try to exceed their expectations," Pazol says.