Why is Mystery Shopping feedback so valuable for franchise businesses?
The franchise model presents particular reasons why feedback obtained through Mystery Shopping (along with direct customer feedback) can be especially valuable.
Franchise agreements typically outline the operational requirements placed on individual franchisee businesses to ensure they achieve success and also uphold brand standards.
However, the franchise owner has the ultimate responsibility for the success of their own business. Often, they will tend to have relatively more at stake.
Often, from the franchisee’s perspective, although they have agreed to follow a plan, they have taken significant risks, and they value some degree of autonomy and the idea that they are working for themselves.
The franchisor has a vested interest in the success of each individual franchise, but an even greater interest in the success of the brand and of the operation overall.
It makes perfect sense that the franchisor (or head office) will tend to be more interested in the franchise adhering to the franchise agreement and Standard Operating Procedures. And it makes sense that franchisees might sometimes not view all SOPs as equally important. But those SOPs will often be vitally important to the franchisor.
Knowledge is power
Franchised businesses will always have limited resources available for the monitoring and direct support of individual franchisee operations. They can’t be there all the time – and that’s not the idea.
And so, there will tend to be questions around what happens when franchised businesses are not being checked, audited or supported.
Are franchisees and their teams always giving 100%?
Are they always adhering to relevant processes?
Are customers always receiving the very best service?
This is where Mystery Shopping can be so valuable. It allows detailed information (and evidence) to be gathered on how real customers are being treated, the service they are receiving, whether agreed systems and procedures are being followed, and whether brand standards are being met.
Why Customerwise?
For Mystery Shopping to fully deliver these crucial points, things must be “done right”.
Mystery Shopping interactions need to be on-brief, realistic, and believable. Believability includes continuity and consistency in the case of multi-stage and multi-channel enquiries.
With Customerwise, you’re in safe hands.
We provide a full range of mystery shopping services (covering all and any enquiry channels), providing fully tailored solutions for franchised businesses among many others, including automotive brands and dealership groups, retailers, insurance companies, hospitality businesses, financial institutions and many others.
We assess the legal, regulatory, and contractual compliance of third parties (franchisees, brokers, sales agents, appointed representatives) on behalf of clients across those industries and others.
We deliver the highest-quality Mystery Shopping services, featuring unique elements that add real value for our clients.
(In addition, we’re unique in being able to help clients access the incredible power of in-moment feedback – see below)
Our clients love our attentive service and the quality of delivery.
Why?
- Interactions that are both realistic and “on-brief”, from skilled Mystery Shoppers who are directly coached by us.
- We utilise our own unique technology, techniques, and additional steps to ensure our shoppers remain anonymous (even through multi-stage enquiry processes).
- Bespoke reporting: We tailor individual report templates and comprehensive reporting dashboards to ensure clients can access the high-impact information they need as conveniently as possible.
- We’re flexible, responsive and proactive. We’re easy and rewarding to work with.
Don’t take our word for it! Get in touch and we’ll connect you with some of our clients.
Your priorities are our priorities.
Everything that we do is focused on delivering what is most important for clients:
- High-quality, realistic interactions from well-briefed and highly skilled mystery shoppers. This is essential for achieving reliable feedback.
- Accurate and actionable reporting output tailored to client requirements.
We use the class-leading SASSIE online reporting platform to deliver feedback to clients. SASSIE provides huge flexibility in terms of reporting (including tailored dashboards for different stakeholders, etc.).
The Highest Quality Mystery Shopping Services – and much more
If you are considering implementing a Mystery Shopping programme to help you monitor and improve standards and results across a franchise network, there is another reason you should definitely contact us – something that makes us unique:
It’s the other services we add to and combine with Mystery Shopping.
One great example is our flexible solutions for in-moment feedback from real customers.
Options do include the familiar eye-catching physical feedback terminals, but that’s not all.
Increasingly, posters and signs prompt customers to provide feedback using their smartphones.
The perfect addition to Mystery Shopping for franchised businesses.
In-moment feedback provides real customer feedback, minute by minute, and hour by hour.
It provides robust high-level data (including time-based patterns and trends) and helps you identify where (and at what times) franchisee operations need to be focused on more closely. Mystery Shopping can be more finely targeted and used to reveal the crucial details needed to inform an effecfive plan of action.
When these two components are used together, along with surveys (which we can also manage as part of our suite of services) and other elements, they can form a bespoke Combined Customer Feedback Solution that’s uniquely powerful in helping franchised businesses reach ever-higher standards.
At Customerwise, we have a range of tools at our disposal, and our solutions are always tailored to meet our customers’ requirements.
To discuss your requirements and learn about our powerful tools for helping your franchise network maintain the highest possible standards, get in touch with us here at Customerwise today.