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Among numerous many ways of checking upon the value being delivered to your customers, mystery shopping is the most sought evaluation check. Customer’s point of contact makes it plausible for each interaction to be either a successful new customer on board or loss of prospective one. For each interaction to be productive and customers get all the value intended for them, mystery shopping in disguise is the best assessment. 

Why Banks do Mystery shopping:

Over the years, Ace Research has been in close liaison with banks to carry out researches to meet their requirements. Banks have strict compliances not to meet the interests of shareholders but the prime stakeholders i.e. government in terms of compatibility with the general rule of business. State regulatory authorities in recent times have adopted a stern policy to protect the right of customers and also to promote fair and transparent practices in the industry.  Mystery shopping in the banking industry assesses the customer’s interaction with a bank; it rates the satisfaction of customers visit and highlights areas that can potentially discourage them from keeping a sustainable relationship with the bank.  

At the center of the customer experience is the bank-customer interface. The customer side of this interface can be measured with a variety of research tools, including: surveys, social media monitoring, and customer comment tools. The bank side of the bank-customer interface is best measured by mystery shopping. Bank mystery shopping focus on the employee/ behavioral side of the bank-customer interface, measuring employee behaviors, and, if well designed, determines the importance of each employee behavior in terms of driving the customer experience objectives of the bank.

How is it performed?

The foundation of a best-in-class bank mystery shopping program is observations of behaviors – behaviors which are objective, observable and empirical. Best-in-class programs focus on observing specific sales and service behaviors expected from customer-facing staff to both measure and motivate these behaviors.

While empirical observations of objective behaviors are the foundation of best-in-class bank mystery shopping, observations of these behaviors are only an important first step. Customer experience managers need to prioritize the importance of these behaviors in terms of their ability help the bank achieve its customer experience objectives, otherwise there is no way of knowing if these behaviors are aligned with broader bank goals. This provides a means of prioritizing investments in motivating these behaviors, and gives clear direction as to their relative importance.

Another call to action element is subjective comments. These comments are designed to capture unaided top-of-mind explanations from the shopper regarding why they felt the way they did about the experience. This is captured with an open-ended question. Beyond a simple narrative of the experience, these questions are designed to capture raw unstructured data from the shopper about why they felt the way they did about the experience.

Essentials of Bank Mystery shopping:

• The role of the branch has been evolving for decades. We believe the branch is currently still the cornerstone of establishing the customer relationship. Mystery shopping branch assessment is an excellent tool to measure and motivate the sales and service behaviors you expect.
• Unlike call monitoring, mystery shopping of contact centers gives managers a unique opportunity to evaluate the customer experience using predetermined scenarios.
• Competitive mystery shopping can achieve two results. First, benchmark sales and service behaviors relative to the competition. Second, identify best practices in terms of driving purchase intent or loyalty.
• Internal bank mystery shopping evaluates service provided within the organization. These assessments identify bottlenecks within the internal service delivery.
• LifeCycle assessment looks at the customer experience in a more holistic way. In this, shoppers open an account; conduct a number of different transactions and inquiries over an extended period of time.
• Online webpage gives clients insight into navigation, ease of use, and the overall online experience.
• Like online shops, mystery shopping of mobile channels evaluates navigation, ease of use, and the overall mobile experience.

Benefits of Banks Mystery Shopping:

Measurement & Motivation

Beyond simply measuring sales and customer service behaviors, bank mystery shopping provides an additional benefit for financial institutions – motivation. Just the act of measuring compliance to behavioral expectations increases the frequency of expected behaviors.

Best-in-class bank mystery shopping measures and motivates the behaviors which matter most. Those which drive the bank’s overall customer experience objectives, aligning behaviors to the overall customer experience objectives.

Are you conducting market research? Qualitative research is an important first step in the market research process. Ace Research has explored that Qualitative research is important for gaining a broad understanding of the underlying reasons and motivations behind consumer decisions.

What is Qualitative Market Research?

Qualitative market research is any research conducted using observation or unstructured questioning.

While quantitative research answers the what, where, when and who of decision making, qualitative research also answers the why and how.

Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research

The goal of qualitative research is to gain insights into the deeper motives behind consumer purchases.

The goal of quantitative research, on the other hand, is to quantify and generalize the results so that the marketer can come to a final conclusion about the best course of action.

Why use qualitative research as opposed to quantitative research?

Well, first of all, qualitative research should not be used instead of quantitative research. The two are complementary to each other.

• Qualitative research in and of itself is not conclusive. However, it is used to explain quantitative research results.
• Conduct market research when more structured research is not possible

Qualitative research is a good first step to take when conducting your market research. Let’s explore how it is done.

• In-depth Interviews

An individual interview can be conducted over the phone, Skype, or in person. The idea is to ask your ideal user (or an existing customer) a series of questions and follow ups to learn what motivates them to buy a product like yours.

You should go in to the interview with some questions prepared ahead of time, but don’t feel like you need to stick to a script. If they say something interesting, ask follow up questions that dig deeper. Really try to put yourself in their shoes, and try to figure out what makes them tick.

• Focus Groups

Focus groups are generally conducted in-person. These groups are meant to provide a safe and comfortable environment for your users to talk about their thoughts and feelings surrounding your product.

The advantage to using in-person focus groups is that you get to see the consumer’s verbal and non-verbal reaction to your product or advertising. The other advantage is that the different members of the group can bounce off each other’s thoughts and ideas, which mean you’ll get even greater insights.

You can use focus groups to:

• Test product usage or tasting
• Explore the general concept for your product
• Evaluate your advertising copy and imagery
• Explore new packaging ideas

• Observations or “Shop-Along”

An in-person observation of shopping behavior (or a “shop-along”) allows you to actually watch the consumer react to your product in-store. This way, you get to see their actual shopping behavior, as opposed to just what they would claim on a written survey.

One way that this is useful is by highlighting challenges that arise from shelf display issues, clutter, or out of stock issues. You may also interact with consumers to get deeper insights during the shopping process, to get feedback on a package design, for example.

• Lifestyle Immersion and Real World Dialogue

Lifestyle immersion is when you attend an event, such as a party or a family gathering. This allows you to get an uninterrupted view into your user’s attitudes and behaviors. This is another great way to get candid insight in a comfortable, familiar setting.

During these activities, observe your users having a dialogue with their friends. Listening in to real world conversations is a really powerful way to get a deeper understanding of their desires, frustrations and motivations.

• Journal or Diary

Have your user (or potential user) keep a journal or a diary to document their experience with your topic or your product.

This can be handwritten or digital. Either way, it will allow you to capture your user’s actual voice, which is extremely valuable for marketing copy.

• Online Focus Groups

Online focus groups are similar to in-person focus groups, except that they are more cost efficient and allow you to reach more people.

Use social media to your advantage by creating communities of people who are interested in your topic, and fostering a conversation. Then, simply observe the dialogue. You’ll gain a lot of interesting insights!

How to Analyze Qualitative Data

At this point you may be wondering, how do you actually analyze qualitative data after you’ve gathered it?

Since qualitative data is unstructured, it can be tricky to draw conclusions from it, let alone present your findings. While it is not meant to be conclusive in and of itself, here are a few tips for analyzing qualitative research data…

• Summarize the Key Points

For interviews and focus groups, have the moderator write up some key points that they heard. For example: “Common concerns among participants in regard to our pizza were cheese overuse, greasiness, and bland sauce.”

• Code Responses

“Code” the unstructured data into something that can be summarized with tables or charts. For example, some coded responses to the question “When do you wear a watch?” might be 1 – never, 2 – once in a while, 3 – everyday, etc.

• Challenges in Pakistan

In Pakistan a developing country by narrative, all the private and public sector organizations are struggling with a handful of resource deficiencies. Unskilled labor, illiteracy, health issues and financial instability to name few are some of the root causes for emerging challenges.

Analysts and economists after thorough analysis of economic paradigm consider a lack of proper infrastructure to deliver quality education as the primary factor to cater the issues faced by all sectors in the country. Now the next challenge is to access the level of education system prevailing in the country and to provide sufficient support and facilitation to make a sustainable uplift in educational sector. To make this happen, basic drill is to carry out a large scale research encompassing all educational institutes of the country.

• Need for Research

Ace Research has recently concluded that to bring advancement in the educational sector and to promote new ways of learning and teaching, research is to be undertaken but it’s never been an easy task and has its own pain that needs to be endured. In Pakistan, the education sector has yet to witness any revolutionary change which is inevitable if structural changes are made bottom to top.

• Challenges Faced in Data Collection from Schools/Colleges

• Private school Associations

If you are planning for any survey you better be aware that most of the schools in Pakistan are part of any association. Associations help schools in a variety of ways in the community in which they operate. But owing to lack of proper record and coordination by respective associations, the data is not either accessible or kept confidential.

• Government Institutes

The dilemma of organized data entails government institutions as well. Except for one region or two the data is not being maintained by any institution. Fresh census is yet to be run and data which is available is often not shared.

• Outdated Data

Data acquired from sources such as government, private school associations and online sources are most of the times outdated and irrelevant.  Upon approaching by means of strong referrals the data shared by competing authorities turn out to be outdated or the concerned person is not located. This implies the database is not kept updated for reasons unknown.

• Challenges Faced in Approaching Schools/Colleges

• Ghost Schools

It is a very ill phenomenon that due to no proper checks or routine scrutiny the loopholes in system are identified and exploited. In the rural part of the country, schools are enlisted on the government records but on ground, there is no existence same goes for teachers/staff as well.

• Management’s Non – Cooperation

Either approached on Telephone or in person the school owners, management and staffs are unwilling to cooperate unless requested and followed up several times about the scope of work and critical need of their valuable input. And there is no guarantee that Information provided by them is accurate or reliable regarding learning patterns, educational products, and services used to enhance the productivity of the educational sector.

• Locating the Schools

It is one of the most exhausting tasks that require a lot of resources to approach the schools scattered across nooks and crooks of the country. Addresses most of the times are not accurate or schools have shifted but the update has not been maintained.

• Brief Stat of Education Sector in Pakistan

A recent survey of private schools across Pakistan has observed that approx. 26% of the schools are located in the Urban region and 39 percent in Rural regions, while the remaining schools are located in Peri-urban areas.  Out of these schools around 30% have dedicated internet connection and the remaining don’t have internet access whereas, only 20% have computers for the use of students.

• Incomplete information Sharing

The gap is realized at the point when survey questions are not answered by schools and information is no shared. They are unwilling to cooperate and it can be due to the lack of research awareness across masses and its necessity for developing customized and updated educational services.

• Fear of data being shared with competing authorities/government organization like FBR

Schools have certain reservation regarding data sharing, due to recent development when Chief Justice of Pakistan had called for a crackdown against schools charging higher fees. This has made schools suspicious about the research drill. They fear the data provided might be shared with competing authorities thus leading to scrutiny of schools on different forums.

• Lack of IT infrastructure for centralized management

Schools lack IT infrastructure to keep the idea of decentralization at bay. Online website, social media presence except for a few prominent chains was not found for any of the private schools across Pakistan.

• Conclusion and Recommendations:

For the survey to be effective as a whole, there are numerous potholes that need to be addressed. Simultaneously, there is on the part of schools that few necessary changes are immediately sought to streamline the process of standardizing the education process and service providers. IT infrastructure should be developed and a centralized database should be maintained provincially to keep all the record for public access. This will allow catering of complaints related to ghost schools and staff and also educational curriculum followed by each school will be on record to streamline the standards of educational institutes. Centralized management should also create a geo-tagging to help in ascertaining the location of schools for accessibility.

 Policies aimed at schools should be clearly communicated to all authorities and uniformly implemented to minimize the fear among masses regarding possible action of competing authorities in case of default.

Surveys and researches should be promoted by the private and public sector alike as it creates an atmosphere of awareness and helps in tapping possible and potential avenues for resource utilization.

The term “consumer” refers to an individual who buys goods and services for personal use. The consumer makes the decision on whether to purchase a product or not; thus the consumer is the target of marketing strategies. From an economic perspective, consumer needs control the demands for goods and services. These needs may include unique wants, wishes, and desires, as well as emotional attachments towards products and services. But there is a difference between want and need. Need is the necessity of a consumer whereas a want is the wish or aspiration of the consumer which he/she wants to achieve.

Why Is it important to study consumer behavior from the marketer’s viewpoint?

Importance of Consumer Behavior as follows:

• Production Policies
• Decision Regarding Channels of Distribution
• Exploiting Marketing Opportunities
• Consumers’ preferences are changing and becoming highly diversified.
• Price Policies
• Decision Regarding Sales Promotion
• Consumers do not always act or react predictably
• Rapid introduction of new products
• Implementing the marketing concept

The personality of the consumer represents the whole person. Individuals differ from each other on the basis of personality. Personality refers to the set of traits and behaviors that characterize an individual. According to Fred Luthans, “Personality will mean how people affect others and how they understand and view themselves, as well as their pattern of inner and outer measurable traits and the person-situation interaction.” Thus, personality refers to the sum total of the internal and external traits of an individual, which are relatively stable and which make the individual different from others.

Similarly, the consumer’s perception is understood as the act of seeing what is there to be seen. But what is seen is influenced by the individual, the object, and the situation. “The study of perception is concerned with identifying the processes through which we interpret and organize sensory information to produce our conscious experience of objects and object relationship.” Perception has implications in such areas as employee selection, training, performance evaluation, testing one’s loyalty to the organization, and in deciding on appropriate managerial practices based on Theory X and Theory Y assumptions (Mc Gregor’s theory of motivation). Perception Process- Perception process comprises five important stages; receiving, selecting, organizing, interpreting, and reacting to the stimuli.

What are the major factors, which shape the personality of a consumer?

Following are the major factors which shape the personality of an individual:

• Biological Factors
• Family and Group Factors
• Situational Factors
• Environmental Factors
• Psychological Factors
• Other Factors

Biological Factors

In a personality, biological characteristics contribute to a great extent to determine an individual’s personality. These factors mainly comprise of Heredity or Genetics, Brain, Physical Features, Physical Abilities, and Gender.

Family and Group Factors

 In shaping an individual’s personality family and Group factors also plays a vital role. These are the primary factors which shape the personality. There one could find great degree of attitude feelings values and emotions resemblance in people according to their family member and the group they consider closely and ideally. The sub-factors like; home environment, family members, family situation, social groups are major to play a role in shaping personality.

Environmental Factors

In an individual’s personality, Environmental factors contribute to a great extent. These factors comprise of Culture, subculture, life experiences one has collected. Every Culture has its own subcultures, each with its own views about such qualities as moral values and standards, cleanliness, style of dress, and definitions of success. The cultural sub-group exerts its influence on personality. All boys are expected to show certain personality traits (as compared with girls), but it is considered natural in any culture for boys and girls to have predictable differences in personality merely because they belong to or the other sex.

 Situational/ Contingency Factors

Above all the factors we discussed so far, it’s a situation which going to decide how, why and in what manner a person is going to behave or one’s personality could be. Therefore, it’s the contingency which plays a vital role in determining one’s behavior. Like; in a normal situation every individual behave or show similar personality For free study notes log on: www.gurukpo.com but if the situation is adverse individuals show different set of behaviors. And, in this, we can find some time the hidden personalities or split personalities also.

Psychological Factors

 As suggested and discussed by lots of theorists time to time psychological factors like superego, attitudes, ability to perform, self-esteem, locus of control plays a vital role. In shaping a personality, the psychology of an individual plays a very important role. Because considering all other factors it’s human psychology only which is going to perform, decides one’s behavior and accordingly shapes the personality.

Other Factors

 Apart from these major factors like; biological, family and group, environmental considerations, situation, etc. there are other factors which play a vital role in shaping personality. The hidden factors sometimes could be any determines the personality. The motives of a person also play vital role as a determinant of personality.

Market Research

Marketing research is the function that links the consumer, customer, and public to the marketer through information. Information used to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems; generate, refine and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and improve understanding of marketing as a process.

The marketing research specifies the information required to address these issues, designs the method for collecting information, manages and implements the data collection process, analyzes the results and communicates the findings and their implications. Thus Marketing research is the systematic and objective identification, collection, analysis, dissemination, and use of information for the purpose of improving decision making related to the identification and solution of problems and opportunities in marketing.