Project Profiles
A Canadian cosmetic retailer
A retailer in the cosmetic industry has been using CRG Mystery Shopping since 1999 for their performance measurements and to put them in the lead with their staff in performance management. Because the findings of the mystery shopping program are used in management's scorecard on KPI measurements and in staff bonus calculations, the importance of reliability and accuracy of the results is paramount. CRG Mystery Shopping stresses quality deliverables when it comes to the mystery shop reports. We invest in the shopper training, testing and each report is reviewed before the client has access to it in the web-based reporting system.
Call Centre Awards Program
The Canadian Call Centre Management Association (CAM-X) uses mystery shopping to monitor the call performance of over 320 call centres annually for an Awards Program across North America. The average results of calls regularly made to each call centre for six months promotes top performers to the "best in class" list. An award dinner announcing the top performers and recognition plaques offered, as well as the achievement being added to the company's branding and marketing efforts makes the program motivational and popular.
Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC)
FCAC is a regulatory agency that was created to protect and educate consumers of financial services. The organization provides consumer information and oversees financial institutions to ensure that they comply with federal consumer protection measures.
The ultimate goal of FCAC in having mystery visits performed, is to see first-hand whether federally regulated financial institutions are complying with consumer law. CRG's shoppers observed and recorded whether or not information was available, including collecting the required pamphlets, observing the content of signage and observing how the employee responds to inquiries.
A total of 1,700 banks were randomly selected from a database of financial institutions and their branch locations. The sample was designed to ensure equal chances of representation across the nation from the universe of branches, by financial institution, province, urban and rural locations.
The data collected and analyzed was provided in a document to the Project Authority in Ottawa.
VIA Rail, Benchmarking and Best Practices Study
In 2005, CRG completed a Benchmarking and Best Practices study for VIA Rail's Call Centre. The objective was to improve the sales component of each call by learning how other businesses treat similar issues related to up-selling and cross-selling and changing from a service environment to a sales environment.
Hundreds of calls were placed to similar businesses; businesses that gave information about travel arrangements, took reservations, took credit card information, forwarded tickets and/or promoted loyalty card registration. We targeted our research to hotels, car rental agencies, cruise lines, air lines, and others.
Best practices were identified and compiled in a final report which gave VIA Rail some insight into the steps necessary to re-develop their call centre staff training materials.
A continuous call monitoring program has been set up to track progress on customer care and sales techniques. In 2007, scores related to sales aspects have increased over 25% from the initial baseline study.
Health Canada, Evaluation of Retailers Behaviour Towards Certain Youth Access-to-Tobacco Restrictions
Each year Health Canada and CRG conduct a study titled Evaluation of Retailers Behaviour Towards Certain Youth Access-to-Tobacco Restrictions. The laws regulating tobacco sales in Canada are embodied in the federal government's Tobacco Act and in corresponding provincial legislation. CRG conducts an independent measurement of over 5,550 retailers in Canada with respect to compliance with the sales-to-minors provisions of the laws. This project is conducted for research purposes only and not for enforcement.
Research teams consisting of one young Canadian (15, 16 or 17 years old) and one adult (over 19 years old) are sent into tobacco-selling establishments across 30 cities in each of 10 provinces. Minors attempt to buy a pack of cigarettes but refused the transaction if retailers appeared willing to sell. Adult observers were responsible for the supervision of minors as well as for the collection of data relating to the posting of signs consistent with tobacco advertising at point of sale. Team members operated independently of one another.
The data is analyzed and an English and French version of the report is delivered to the Director of the Tobacco Control Branch.