Industry News
Grass Roots European customer service study compares showrooms with fast food, financial services and mobile phone outlets
23rd June 2006
A new report from the research company Grass Roots on service standards in four retail sectors in six European countries indicates that frontline staff are often not meeting their customers’ needs. Covering France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Spain and UK, with a total of 2,180 mystery shopper visits across the fast food, financial services, mobile phones and car dealer showroom sectors, the report reveals that:
- One customer in four was unwilling to repeat or recommend a visit to the outlet based on the service they received
- Waiting and ‘Meeting Needs’ were the two lowest points in the sequence of events
- By sector, the customer experience in fast food was generally poorest
- By country, the customer experience in France was generally poorest.
Overall, Germany provides the best and most consistent standards of service. Spain and France are both consistently ‘off the pace’, and the UK, Ireland and Netherlands are a patchy mixture of highs and lows. (Car showrooms in the UK were not included in the survey.)
David Evans, chairman of Grass Roots, suggests that a quarter of retailers’ marketing spend may be wasted: “Advertising and promotional budgets create brand expectations and store traffic, at which point the responsibility for satisfying the customer passes to the individual. If one in four customers has been attracted to an experience they do not wish to repeat, the money that persuaded them to come there was not well spent.”
The Grass Roots report is based on reports from 2,180 mystery shoppers, selected from the Grass Roots panel of over 100,000 to represent the customers in each sector with full geographical coverage in each country. Outlets were chosen to represent the major national and international brands in the countries covered.
For more information contact Nick Wake at Grass Roots, 01442 829351 or email nick.wake@grg.com.
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