Mystery Shopping

Service Design | Customer Satisfaction Analysis

USERS DECIDE ON THE SUCCESS OF YOUR PRODUCT OR SERVICE

Service Design is crucial to the success of a business. Omnichannel integration represents a way to optimize service design in e-commerce. Based on the example of Karstadt, the current customer satisfaction and quality of service have been analyzed by the use of the Mystery Shopping method. The insights of market research, benchmark analysis and customer satisfaction inquiry derived several opportunities. The digital sales consultant represents one possible concept. It is a platform-independent application as personalized source of inspiration and independent sales advice embedded in a social community.

satisfaction means to satisfy not to exceed all expectations

Customer satisfaction is the result of a comparison between the expected and the perception of the actual performance. Customers value satisfactory service with consistent quality. While warehouses experienced a revolution when they emerged, they did not adapt to the changing shopping behaviour and requirements of the population in comparison to other types of business. The following aspects are key for successful service design.

STATE-OF-THE-ART TECHNOLOGY

In addition to the integration of omnichannel services, retail services can be offered. Technological progress and increased use of the mobile internet have created new technological services for customers in and around retail-like location-based services, instore-navigation, targeting, digital touchpoints, augmented reality, mobile payment, etc.

ENTERTAINMENT & EXPERIENCE

Omnichannel integration also changes the role of retail. It no longer serves exclusively for selling products but functions more and more as part of the entertainment industry – a meeting point with an experience factor. Therefore, retailers need to harmonize customer data, processes and infrastructure to facilitate flexibility, experience and comfort.

EVERYTHING, EVERYWHERE

For customers, it becomes irrelevant where they purchase products. They no longer just buy online or offline. With mobile devices, they bring the internet into the shop. For this reason, omnichannel retailing is becoming increasingly important. Sales channels merge into touchpoints that surround the customer everywhere at all times.

MYSTERY SHOPPING PROCESS

Analysis, Conception, Execution and Report

OBJECTIVE & SUBJECTIVE ASSESSMENT

There are several methods to measure the quality of service and customer satisfaction in an objective manner like CSAT, NPS, CES, TGW or Social Media Listening. Mystery Shopping is an established method in the field of market research that combines the objective and subjective assessment.

CURRENT STATE

Satisfaction is difficult to rate. It is based on feelings and mood. Rating scales needs to be adapted in international studies since it varies based on culture. The benefit of mystery shopping is the mapping of objective and current state while traditional customer satisfaction surveys provide information about expectations and their fulfillment in the past.

respective customer situations

In Mystery Shopping, trained observers appear as normal customers and perceive real customer situations. The respective customer situations are evaluated according to a previously defined list of criteria. The method follows the process of analysis, conception, execution and report.

01

Analysis

The first step is the analysis of the initial situation and the derivation of goals. Accenture and eWeb have researched omnichannel services for which customers in Germany would be willing to pay a surcharge. The ten best services from the customer's point of view were used as basis for the survey. In order to analyse the initial situation, it was verified through desk research that Karstadt offers four of those ten services. A customer survey in front of Karstadt with random customers (n = 17) indicated how important the services are for them.

02

Conception

Based on the results of the analysis phase, the evaluation sheet for online and offline touchpoints was developed. In the course of the operationalisation, the factors were determined at the beginning, taking into account the potential, process and result dimensions. In order to maintain the objectivity of the procedure when assigning the indicators, dichotomous scales (yes/no) and measurable criteria were used. These were then converted into scales.

03

Execution

The data acquisition took place over several days for online and offline touchpoints. During the entire procedure, all processes were documented via the evaluation sheet with additional remarks, screenshots and photos. Because of the availability, the quality of the following three services have been tested based on four different products: Online availability check of the current stock instore, assemble goods online and pick them up later at a collection point (Click & Collect) and return instore after online or offline purchase.

04

Report

The data analysis was carried out on the basis of the completed evaluation form. Following the procedure, recommendations for action are derived from the evaluation, which serve to achieve the previously defined goal.

Digital Sales Consultant

curated shopping and social shopping community

CREATIVITY AND INDIVIDUALISM

The digital sales consultant is a platform-independent application as personalized source of inspiration and independent sales advice embedded in a social community. It combines the advantages of the shopping concepts of curated shopping with a social shopping community. It collects customer data and learns from the behaviour of the user in order to constantly improve personalisation. Besides of the insights of Mystery Shopping, the Limbic® Map, Limbic® Type, Benchmark Analysis and Personas set the basis for concept development.

EXEMPLARY USERS ANCHOR THEMSELVES IN THE DESIGNERS HEADS

Based on Benchmark Analysis, Limbic® Map and Limbic® Type, Personas have been developed. The exemplary users received different characteristis to give them personalities that suit the brand and target group. It helps to keep the important aspects of the target group in mind when developing concepts and designs.

Paper Prototype

Clickdummy

Visual Design

YEAR 2013

CATEGORIES Concept Development, Customer Satisfaction, Descriptive Research, E-Commerce, Market Research, Mystery Shopping, Omnichannel, Prototyping, Quality of Service, Service Design, Visual Design

CHALLENGE Optimize customer satisfaction and quality of service through omnichannel integration.

SOLUTION Mystery shopping assessment as basis for concept development.

METHODS Mystery Shopping, Benchmark Analysis, Target Group (Limbic® Map, Limbic® Type), Personas, Brainstorming, Sketching, Concept Development, Wireframing (incl. functional specifications), Clickdummy, UI Design

TOOLS Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Indigo Studio, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel

ABSTRACT Service Design is crucial to the success of a business. Omnichannel integration represents a way to optimize service design in e-commerce. Based on the example of Karstadt, the current customer satisfaction and quality of service have been analyzed by the use of the Mystery Shopping method. The insights of market research, benchmark and target group derived several opportunities. The digital sales consultant represents one possible concept. It is and platform-independent application as personalized source of inspiration and independent sales advice embedded in a social community.