Second To None

Gauging organizational alignment from missing data

Second To None works with a national entertainment retailer (market cap $4B) that operates more than 3,000 locations and is well-known for its strong brand equity; customers are generally very satisfied with the overall experience and financial performance correlates on the whole. Managers at this company understand how fickle customer behavior can be, so they continue to monitor the experience across several touch points.

The retailer contacted Second To None several years ago for assistance measuring the comprehensive experience. Insight gathered from customer satisfaction surveys and mystery shop evaluations details satisfaction against purchase behavior, employee product knowledge, and store compliance with brand standards.

Managers have used the information to modify return and trade-in policies by market, resulting in higher customer retention and customer satisfaction rates—currently at 98%. These improvements increased “first choice” responses by 3%.

Following the launch of an in-store marketing campaign targeting the company’s most loyal customers, Second To None conducted an evaluation of customer satisfaction and mystery shopping data to help the marketing team better target its campaign in relationship to the entire customer experience.

The following data were collected:

Employees were discussing the marketing campaign about half the time, while four- of-five customers thought the campaign was discussed. Highlighting this discrepancy for field managers was invaluable. The clear disconnect between customer perception (79%) and what’s actually occurring at the point-of-sale (49%) is indicative of strong brands, but is not sustainable.

Armed with this information, marketers called on human resources to provide field employee training appropriate to the campaign. This simple change resulted in a $350,000 sales gain associated with the marketing campaign.

This retailer committed to creating a superior customer experience by measuring and monitoring how it changes when new initiatives begin. By using a multi-faceted measurement program, managers at this retailer mitigate the risk of missing data. In so doing, they uncovered a key performance challenge that would have resulted in a large number of lost sale opportunities (of net 30%) if performance remained constant.

  Customer Experience