A lot of energy in mystery shopping is spent on assessing sales delivery, but for potential customers only.
Often, only very basic questions are asked…“Did the rep probe your needs?” or “Did they ask for your business?” or “Did they ask to follow up?” Big mistake!!
TIP – If you are going to mystery shop front line staff sales delivery, assess their efforts to up-sell and cross-sell your current customers as well.
After 30 years of doing mystery shops, I can say with 100% certainty that companies are not spending enough time assessing how well their sales and contact centre staff encourage current customers to increase monthly spending.
Take banking…Mortgage specialists are keen to promote mortgage insurance protection to first time home buyers. But, after they sign up a new customer, most will leave it at that, versus encouraging the customer to sign up for other products that the bank offers.
So here’s the deal…The next time you engage in bench-marking your front line staff sales effort against your competitors, have 2 groups of shoppers – potential customers and actual customers.
A Good Scenario for Actual Customers is to complain about a recent monthly bill (e.g., higher than expected or charged for services they did not sign up for.)
Ideally your sales and contact centre reps, after resolving the customer’s complaint, would leverage this good will into an opportunity to cross sell or up sell. They’ve now obtained the customer’s trust. What could be better?
Imagine how much additional revenue would be generated if every one of your front line staff did this. I am sure hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars would be added to your bottom line!!