A more Robust kind of Mystery Shop Program helps TravelCenters of AmericaEnsures it doesn’t “break a deal” with customers.

Convenience Store Decisions

In the last two years, TravelCenters of America (Westlake, OH) has received more than 50,000 mystery shopper reports. But these mystery shops aren’t quite so mysterious. Why? Because these reports come from real TravelCenters of America (TA) customers. Instead of using a traditional mystery shopping vendor that sends in a hired shopper armed with a checklist of things to look at during a visit, TA partnered with Tell Us About Us (www.tellusaboutus.com) to create a different kind of mystery shopping program.

In this program, in-store promotional pieces like tabletop cards, POS materials and posters encourage customers to either call an 800 number or visit a Web site and give feedback about their visit.

“Mystery shopping in general has upped its game,” says Tom Liutkus, director of advertising and public relations for TA. “At the time we started looking at this service, our vendor wasn’t providing IVR (interactive voice response) or Webaccess reporting. These features have been a huge improvement.”

Traditionally, convenience retailers have hired mystery shopper service providers who supply general feedback based on the specific shopping experiences of a handful of “professional” shoppers.

“[The Tell Us About Us] method gives clients feedback from real customers about their real concerns,” says Scott Griffith, vice president of business development for Tell Us About Us. “We believe [this approach] is better than getting feedback from a company pretending to be customers.”

And the feedback is more varied. In a traditional mystery shopper program, the retailer defines what aspects of the customer’s experience are measured. Maybe it’s cleanliness, lighting or staff friendliness. Operators often select about 10 items to measure. But convenience retailers now require morespecific information about the business rather than just finding out if stores are clean, products are in-stock and whether or not the person behind the counter said hello and thanked them for his or her purchase. The method TA uses allows customers to dictate the measured criteria because shoppers aren’t following a set structure. In such an open format, the customer designs the program. Often, customers care about totally different things than what the retailer thinks they care about.

The cost of the program is much less than a traditional program when considering the amount of feedback convenience store operators receive from real customers. TA has been able to secure more customer feedback now for the same cost as it had with a previous shopping program. And some of the programs offered by vendors like Tell Us About Us include live phone operators who speak to customers personally.

“We’re very pleased with the cost of the program from the standpoint of efficiency,” Liutkus says.

And since the program is Web-based, it provides information immediately. When a customer calls into the phone system or logs onto the Web site, he or she provides comments about a specific store. Shortly afterward, store managers will receive an e-mail documenting the feedback.

“Retailers can act immediately to help resolve issues at store level after they hear about it,” says Griffith. “There are advantages to having real-time information and being able to act more quickly. And equally important, retailers have the ability to catalog all customer comments and look for trends that require attention.”

TA continues to modify and expand the scope of this program.

“We’ll continue to review our results and look at what is most important to customers,” Liutkus says. “If those factors really make a difference, it behooves us to shift our focus and deliver on their expectations.”

– Dave Scopinich, Contributing Editor