Monthly Archives: December 2011

UK leads the world for internet shopping

More consumers are using the internet for online shopping in the UK than any other major country, with nine out of ten people saying they used the internet for purchases and services in 2011. The UK has been described as “a nation of online shoppers” with a rising number of consumers using various forms of technology to shop online, reveals a report by Regulator Ofcom. Smartphones are being used increasingly to make purchases with 46 per cent of users buying via their phones in October alone.

 

As more consumers are using their electronic devices to purchase goods it is vital that retailers respond by improving and maintaining their online services. Keith Brown, Managing Director of mobile phone payment solutions firm Paythru, says that many retailers don’t have sites that are adaptable for mobile phones and that 40 per cent of people leave mobile sites due to problems with completing their purchases.

 

“Unlike e-commerce, the real opportunity with m-commerce comes from increasing customer value and loyalty by understanding their unique purchasing behaviour from practically anywhere: in the food aisle, at the dinner table, standing in a queue or walking down the street,” said Mr Brown.

 

Performance improvement and mystery shopping expert Douglas Stafford can develop an electronic mystery shopping programme tailored for your business to monitor company websites and to see how well your team responds to online queries. “Minimising customer input online is key to attracting business, whether it is from past, present or new customers,” says Rohan Tailor, Douglas Stafford’s Electronic and Audio Production Manager.

 

“Making your business easy to work with is absolutely vital. Companies invest thousands of pounds in their online presence but they often fail to test websites and responses from their customers’ points of view. Email enquiries should be dealt with effectively and promptly and if this doesn’t happen then customers will go elsewhere.”

 

For more details go to www.douglasstafford.com or call Kathleen Field on 02392 830011 or email: Kathleen Field

Customer loyalty is vital to retain business

As we head into 2012, with the current economic climate the way it is, it’s a vital time to reconnect with your past and present customers. Caring about customer needs and recognising their buying patterns will enable you to retain customer loyalty and increase sales. By monitoring when, how and what your individual customers’ trends are you will be able to make them feel special and design products and services specifically to meet their requirements.

 

Customer loyalty is a hugely valuable asset to a company and in the long run it is more cost effective to work on keeping the customers you already have than trying to attract new ones. Leading performance improvement and mystery shopping company Douglas Stafford have a team of experts to help you keep in contact with your past and present customers and track their trends.

 

Madelaine Cook, Douglas Stafford’s Contact Centre Operations Manager said: “Businesses need to ensure that they are communicating effectively with their existing and past customers because customer retention is absolutely essential to business success. “Keeping in touch with your customers and getting them back to buy again is vital. Companies spend a lot of money on marketing for new business and sometimes they don’t focus enough on communicating with existing, past and lapsed customers.”

 

Douglas Stafford’s customer contact centre operates a range of schemes to help its clients connect and reconnect with past and present customers. Its team of experts can communicate with your customers on your behalf, maximising sales potential and building customer loyalty.

 

For more information about Douglas Stafford’s Customer Contact Centre and how it can help your business please call Madelaine Cook on 02392 830011 or email: [email protected]

Shoppers are cutting back on electronics and jewellery

Shoppers are cutting back on spending on computers, mobile phones, watches and jewellery according to new figures from the Office of National Statistics. Retail sales dropped in November by 0.4% and sales were down 1.6% compared to last year, demonstrating that people have been particularly careful in the lead up to Christmas.

 

Retail stores need to keep these statistics in mind and work extra hard to take every opportunity to make sales. Leading mystery shopping and performance improvement expert Douglas Stafford provides businesses with ways to measure and improve their customer service.

 

“Consumers are cutting back on luxury products due to the current economic climate so businesses need to focus on their customers more than ever,” says Nigel Cook, Douglas Stafford Chief Executive. “It is vital that shops make the very most out of every sales opportunity they get and having the highest possible standard of customer service can make all the difference between achieving a sale and not.”

 

Douglas Stafford’s video mystery shopping is a great way for businesses to see how their staff are performing and where improvements need to be made in order to increase sales. This type of mystery shopping provides evidence-based analysis identifying any areas of concern that a company may have. “Video mystery shopping, which we are the market leaders in, is a vital tool to see how your business operates from the customer’s point of view,” added Nigel.

 

Talk to Douglas Stafford and see how we can help your business improve its customer experience and increase its sales. Call Kathleen Field today on 02392 830011 or email Kathleen Field For further details go to: www.douglasstafford.com

Charity benefits from staff fundraising efforts

Douglas Stafford has presented local charity Smile4Wessex with a cheque for £1,250 which staff raised over the past year. The money was raised from sponsorship and donations for taking part in a dragon boat race, contributions for dress down days and Christmas party raffle ticket sales.

 

“We are delighted to have raised this money for Smile4Wessex which is a very worthwhile charity and helps a really important centre,” says Ben Sargeant, Douglas Stafford Operations Director (pictured above with Smile4Wessex’s Neil Westbrook). Smile4Wessex supports the work of the Wessex Neurological Centre in Southampton which provides a dedicated, integrated 24 hour acute neurosurgical and neurological assessment, investigation and treatment service.

 

Receiving the cheque on behalf of the charity, Appeals Co-ordinator Neil Westbrook commented: “We’re hugely grateful for the generous support of staff and management at Douglas Stafford. This is a significant donation that will help us to continue our mission to fund equipment and facilities that further enhance the quality and range of care provided at the Wessex Neurological Centre.” The work of the centre has a special resonance for Douglas Stafford team member Ben White. He says: “In 2010 a good friend of mine suffered a massive head trauma in a cycling accident.

 

“He was taken to the Wessex Neurological Centre where he underwent life-saving surgery. It was very touch and go but with the help of the incredible team there he survived and was able to be moved to a different ward after just three weeks. “He then spent six months in a rehabilitation ward. His survival is incredible and if it wasn’t for the staff and facilities at Wessex Neurological Centre, the chance of him surviving would have been very slim.”

 

For more details go to: www.smile4wessex.org

Revealed: What shoppers hate about Christmas – long queues and Cliff Richard’s Mistletoe and Wine

Cliff Richard’s 1988 hit Mistletoe and Wine is the Christmas song nearly half of shoppers (46.7%) would like to never hear again, according to a new survey by Douglas Stafford. Wizzard’s 1974 hit I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day is the second most unpopular song (16.7%) followed by Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? (11.7%), Wham’s Last Christmas (8.3%), Slade’s Merry Christmas Everyone (8.3%) and Brenda Lee’s Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree (8.3%).

 

More than six out of ten (62.9%) of shoppers find long queues the most annoying part of Christmas shopping and 12.9% of respondents say they are most annoyed by stores putting Christmas displays up too early and 11.3% of people hate not being able to find advertised products.

 

2011 is set to be a cut price Christmas for many shoppers with nearly half (48.6%) of people saying they’ve cut down on what they spend on relatives this Christmas – and nearly one in five (18.9%) say they don’t plan to splash out as much as usual on their partner. Children will fare better, with just 13.5% of parents saying they’ve cut back spending on their kids and 18.9% of people say they plan to cut back on what they spend on Christmas dinner and drinks.

 

The survey also revealed that 63.9% of shoppers are annoyed by hearing Christmas music playing in stores too early with more than nine out of ten people (93.6%) saying shops shouldn’t put festive songs on until December. More than one in three shoppers (35.5%) say that hearing Christmas songs in shops makes them feel happy and more likely to continue shopping but 16.1% say they find the music irritating and are likely to be put off. 48.4% say they don’t mind the music or don’t notice it.

 

“The results of this survey make it very clear that high street retailers need to do everything they can to attract and keep customers – and that includes concentrating on keeping queues to a minimum,” says Nigel Cook, Douglas Stafford Chief Executive. “We know that people are likely to be spending less this year so it is vital that high street retailers do everything they can to make the customer experience better and if they don’t then more people will go elsewhere, including online, to buy. And it seems that improving customer experience might even extend to banning Mistletoe and Wine from stores.”


Full service history can add £1,500 to the resale value of your car

Drivers who service their cars regularly can increase the resale value of their used vehicle by 26% – up to £1,500 – suggests research carried out by Kwik Fit. The company found also that 34% of buyers would not purchase a used vehicle unless it had a full service history, with the over 65s being more insistent on a fully serviced car than those under 45.

 

The report says that a fully stamped service book could be worth up to £1,500 and in the present economic climate drivers need to service their cars regularly to make selling a used vehicle easier. “It’s accepted that a fully stamped service book will increase the re-sale value of a car, but this research has been able to put a figure on it,” said David White, Kwik Fit’s Customer Service Director. “£1,500 is a significant number and makes a big difference to the value of a car when an owner comes to sell. It’s not just about the end value though. Motorists who get their car serviced according to the manufacturer’s recommendations will be rewarded with greater efficiency, better performance and lower on-going running costs.”

 

Performance improvement and mystery shopping expert Douglas Stafford can help dealerships keep in contact with their past and present customers to remind them when their service is due. “This research shows just how important regular servicing is to the resale value of a used car,” says Douglas Stafford’s Contact Centre Operations Manager Madelaine Cook. “And it serves as a very useful reminder to customers – who might be thinking of deferring servicing to save money in the short term – of the financial benefit of getting their car serviced regularly in the long term. If you don’t have the resources and time to keep in contact and remind customers when their service is due, then the Douglas Stafford Customer Contact Centre team can help.

 

“By contacting past and present customers and booking service appointments on behalf of our clients we can help them to maintain and increase business, while reminding their customers why regularly servicing is cost effective in the long run.” For more information on how Douglas Stafford can help you contact your past and present service customers go to www.douglasstafford.com or call Madelaine Cook on  02392 830011 or email: [email protected]

Diesel and alternatively fuelled cars take record market shares

Latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders show that new car registrations fell 4.2 per cent in the last month. 134,027 cars were registered in November but that was 5,000 units above forecast and the market looks set to better the full year forecast of 1.923 million units, although dealers are still wary of 2012.

 

Significantly, diesel and alternatively fuelled cars took record market shares in the November market – showing that consumers are willing to change to more fuel efficient vehicles to combat high petrol prices. “While the November new car market saw a 4.2 per cent dip, the fuel efficiency of new models broke all records with the average new car achieving 52.5mpg,” said Paul Everitt, SMMT Chief Executive. Sue Robinson, director of The Retail Motor Industry Federation, said: “While the economy remains fragile and the European debt crisis continues to affect stability, consumer confidence remains very low.”

 

Mystery shopping and performance improvement expert Douglas Stafford can help dealerships to improve their sales and keep in contact with past and existing customers. “In these tough market conditions it is obviously vital to make sure that every interaction with your customers counts,” says Douglas Stafford’s Customer Contact Centre Operations Manager Madelaine Cook.

 

“If you don’t have the resources or staff to talk to your existing or past customers on a regular basis then that’s something we can help with – our customer contact centre team are experts at communicating with customers on your behalf and will be happy to help.” For more details go to www.douglasstafford.com or Call Kathleen Field today on 02392 830011 or email [email protected]

Three-quarters of consumers think customer service is at an all-time low

Customer service standards are slipping significantly and more people are making complaints according to research by Henley Business School. The survey revealed that three-quarters of consumers thought customer service was at an all-time low and more than half of them had been driven to complain. The results also showed that two-thirds of customers believe retailers, leisure providers and service firms in the UK are “arrogant, make no effort to understand their customers and fail to supply against customer demand”.

 

The report authors believe the problem isn’t just the present economic climate and said: “people are simply demanding better quality.” The article on is4profit’s website reported that since more and more people are using social media, consumers are finding it easier to compare businesses and view complaints. Mystery shopping and performance improvement expert Douglas Stafford can help businesses to improve their customer service and stay ahead of their competitors.

 

“Customer experience always matters, but in the current economic climate, when there are fewer customers around and they are spending less, it matters more than ever,” says Nigel Cook, Douglas Stafford’s Chief Executive. “Video mystery shopping, which we are the market leaders in, is a vital tool to see how your business operates from the customer’s point of view.”

 

Talk to Douglas Stafford and see how we can help your business improve its customer experience – and its bottom line. Call Kathleen Field today on 02392 830011 or email [email protected]. For further details go to: www.douglasstafford.com

Douglas Stafford’s Dave and Ben perform at Christmas party

The Douglas Stafford team were entertained at their Christmas party last Friday by two of their colleagues. Dave Martin and Ben White have been in the band Switch Transmission together for two-and-a-half-years, but this was the first time they had performed in front of their workmates.

 

The four man group performed covers of songs by The Beatles, The Who, Kings of Leon, The Killers and others plus some of their own tracks. “It was a really good night because not many of the guys have seen us play before so they were really enthusiastic,” says Ben, the band’s bass player. “Everyone seemed to have a great time and we managed to get people up dancing which is always nice to see.”

 

Ben joined Switch Transmission after meeting Dave at Douglas Stafford. Ben is one of 30 video editors at the company and Dave is the ICMS Coordinator and has been in the band since he was at school. “I was a little bit nervous before Friday because of knowing everybody on a personal basis but it went down really well in the end. I think people were quite pleasantly surprised by our standard,” says Dave, Switch Transmission’s lead singer.

 

The band gets regular bookings for private events. “We seem to be getting more and more bookings for parties, private functions and weddings without actually advertising,” adds Ben. “It’s great because these bookings are all via word of mouth.”

 

If you would like to listen to some of Switch Transmission’s music go to www.myspace.com/switchtransmission For more information on Douglas Stafford, and our Mystery Shopping services, please visit www.douglasstafford.com

Customer service more important than price, says survey

Good customer service is the most influential factor when it comes to making purchasing decisions, according to a new survey and eight of ten shoppers think stores could do better at it.

 

Just 12% of customers said they had recently received good customer service in a shop, according to SAP and reported in The Marketer. Almost half of people surveyed said they would not return to a shop for at least six months after they received a bad experience.

 

Competitive pricing is no longer enough to entice customers to buy products, therefore knowing what type of experience customers receive from your company is invaluable to business success. Performance improvement experts Douglas Stafford offer video mystery shopping which provides evidence-based analysis identifying any areas of concern that your company may have.

 

During the past twenty years Douglas Stafford has developed a very robust method of performance evaluation through state of the art, full colour, digital HD quality video production. This provides an excellent platform to use for a variety of performance improvement initiatives and forms an excellent development platform for your teams to work with.

 

For more details go to www.douglasstafford.com or call Kathleen Field on 02392 830011 or email [email protected]