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Challenges Faced by Banks in Conducting Mystery Shopping in Pakistan

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.

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Role of Qualitative Research Techniques in Market Research

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.

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Challenges Faced in Conducting Educational Sector Research in Pakistan

  • 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.

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How to Be a Good Mystery Shopper?

Mystery shoppers are required to read all of the instructions they are given at the beginning of their assignments. They are also asked to review the form they will be completing so they know exactly what they should be looking and listening for as they conduct their shops. Being prepared is a critical component for being successful in this business. We find that our best shoppers always take the time to complete this step. We then ask the shoppers to fill out their evaluation forms which are usually found online with most mystery shopping companies, paying close attention to due dates. From time to time, secret shopping companies may need to ask the shopper additional questions about their experiences so we ask that the mystery shopper make themselves available to provide this information should it be necessary.

Primary Requirement (Anonymity)

A good mystery shopper is always anonymous. A shopper should be able to visit the same location more than once without being detected by the staff. Unless specifically asked to by the client, a shopper should never announce him/herself as a mystery shopper when on a shopping engagement; however, there are other ways a shopper can compromise his/her identity during a shop.

In order to maintain anonymity during a shop assignment:

  • Make an effort to appear like any other shopper in the store.
  • Do not take any of the paperwork associated with the shop onto the premises.
  • Do not take notes while you may be in sight of employees.
  • If you need to take notes to help you remember details, go to a place where you will be out of sight, such as the restroom or your car.
  • Do not ask employees questions that a typical shopper would not ask.
  • Do not stare at nametags.

Occasionally, clients report that a shopper was identified by store personnel. In such cases, the client does not allow the shopper to shop there again and the client might not accept a report for that engagement. If a report is not accepted, the client will not pay the shopper for the shop.

What kind of person would make a good secret shopper?

Market Viewpoint rates someone as a good shopper who has the following qualities:

  • Honesty and Integrity
  • Observational skills
  • Writing skills
  • Listening skills
  • Follow-up skills

We also seek out those who are deadline oriented, take the time to read through all of their instructions, can work independently, accept responsibility, and use common sense.

Mystery shopping is serious business. It is work that has responsibilities like any other work situation but it can be very rewarding experiences for someone who enjoys working in a flexible, challenging, and unique environment. The reports that mystery shoppers produce are used to coach and counsel employees for poor behavior or reward employees for top performance. The reports submitted by our shoppers can have an impact on the profitability of a company or on someone’s career and it is for those reasons that we ask shoppers to take this process very seriously. In the end, the work they submit will make a difference. Ace Research has experienced in numerous projects related to mystery shopping, that how certain misconceptions and unethical practices affect the quality of reports as well as the credibility of a mystery shopper.

Unethical practices can cost you a job

  • Unethical practices are always traced back as there are several tiers of the Quality check. So, assuming to remain in disguise for long is mere a wrong judgment and misconception.
  • Quality of reports is assessed on every level i.e. form reporting to the verification of receipts and authentication of data.
  • Results, if found ambiguous, are scrutinized thoroughly and if any malpractice or unethical action observed the shoppers are made aware immediately and if required necessary action is being taken often leading to disqualification and halting reimbursement of assignment dues.
  • CCTV footages and onsite authentication of visits are acquired if unethical practices observed.
  • Shopper rotations are frequently done to reduce reporting biases and unwanted practices during site visits.
  • Shoppers seeking loopholes might get away in the short term but in the long term due to strict course of quality assurance, their activities get apparent.
  • If found in breach of any legal and ethical requirement, shoppers are warned strictly and in case found guilty they will lose the job.

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Project Proposal Writing “Tips and Techniques”

Writing a proposal can be a bit intimidating. You’re putting yourself out there, pitting yourself against competitors, trying to demonstrate your value, and attempting to strike a good balance with the price you set.

Your proposal represents you, your team, and your capabilities. It’s the first impression you make on a client, so it’s crucial to get it right. A proposal is about more than just describing your value. It requires doing adequate research, knowing your scope, setting a good tone, and including all the elements that are necessary to win over a client and their trust. This guide shows you how to create a proposal.

What Is a Project Proposal?

A business project proposal is a document that contains all of the important information about a business, in order to persuade other businesses or investors to buy the product or service or invest in the product or service.

A proposal could be solicited or unsolicited. It usually has a similar structure, regardless of the circumstances.

Some businesses find it complicated to create compelling business proposals, but once you get the hang of it, it’s quite easy to create them.

Prepare Your Proposal

DO YOUR RESEARCH

Before you start writing your proposal, it’s crucial that you spend some time learning about the project. Your impulse may be to start right away, and you don’t want to wait too long. But make sure you have a good handle on things.

So what kind of info will you be looking for?

Ask your client about their past experiences. Try and find out what their pain points have been, so you can address them in your proposal.

Demonstrate how you’ll improve on their previous experiences.

The next thing to consider is the project’s budget. Some projects may not have a budget yet, so be sure to ask. You’ll also want to do some calculations, and determine what you’ll be likely to spend as you work on the project. The client will appreciate having this information ahead of time.

DETERMINING YOUR SCOPE

Figure out the scope of your project, and keep it nearby as a reference tool when you write your proposal.

  • Who will be doing the work, and who will be managing it?
  • What is your goal, and what resources will you need to complete it?
  • Where will you be doing the work, and who will receive the finished product?

Come up with a timeline that includes your start time, your interim goals, and your deadline. Decide how you’ll deal with important tasks, such as quality control and customer service. Perhaps most importantly, explain the whys. Why have you chosen your methods and goals? And why should the client choose you?

Project Proposal Outline

COVER LETTER

The next thing you should include is a cover letter, which is great for introducing yourself before you jump into project details. Provide the client with a brief background of your company.

Give a short, friendly summary of everything that makes your company a great fit for the project. Don’t forget to encourage questions, and end by thanking them for their consideration.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

  • Focus on describing the benefits you can bring to the project, not on the features.
  • Identify the problems they’re having, and propose your company as the solution. People make decisions based on how you make them feel, not on the raw data you present them with.
  • When you’re writing, keep your tone and target in mind. You wouldn’t write the same way for a young start-up team as you would for a more mature, established client, would you?

MAIN BODY

Now it’s time to get into specifics. You need to explain your prices, logistics, and timeframes.

One good way to begin is with a grid that itemizes the services and costs involved in the project. These grids are great for explaining your basics in ways that are easy to understand and inspire confidence.

Talk about what your approach to solving their problem will be, and be as specific as possible. Make sure the client knows you have a plan that’s specific to their needs, and you’re not just sending out the same boilerplate proposal to everyone.

Your plan should feel customized, detailed, and geared towards their needs and concerns. Remember that you should have a description for each item you promise to deliver.

Be clear, and don’t assume your client knows the scope of services you’re outlining. If you proceed as if they don’t know anything about your plan, you’ll avoid unfortunate misunderstandings later in the process.

Simplify the process by breaking it down into stages. How long will it take for each milestone to be reached, and who is responsible for making each one happen?

Technical Elements to be covered in the proposal

1. Regarding the understanding of the requirements and objectives and discussion of problem areas

  • Understanding of the objectives (what is the product/methodology to be developed, to which maturity level should it be developed and tested, what are the final deliverables etc.)
  • The current state of the art (what is the technical context, what are the existing solutions that could be used as a starting point, are there any similar developments/products in other fields, etc.)
  • Discussion of possible concepts and trade-off (what could be the possible solutions  – at least 2 to 3 – that could be elaborated during the activity on the basis of the Company/Consortium experience and the technical state of the art, what are the criteria that can be used to compare these solutions and how do they actually compare when performing a first trade-off)
  • A critical assessment of requirements and possible limitations with corresponding justifications (analyzing each requirement and confirming compliance, proposing limitations and even new requirements whenever appropriate, justifying in detail all non-compliances or partial noncompliances)
  • Discussion of problem areas (what are the technical challenges that  are expected to be addressed during the development and what are the mitigation approaches established to address them)

2. Regarding the quality and suitability of the proposed program of work and adequacy of an engineering approach

  • Identification of the selected baseline (what is the “best” proposed solution from the ones explored)
  • A detailed description of the selected baseline (what are in the detail the specification, work logic, work breakdown structure and work packages to develop this baseline)
  • Compliance matrix with comments (what is for each requirement the declared status of compliance to be able to judge in a synthetic way how the proposed baseline address each of the SOW requirements)
  • Elements to allow the assessment of the credibility of the proposed program of work (is there for instance a back-up plan proposed in case the selected baseline is not retained during the activity, are risks and problem areas well tackled, are all constraints built-in in the overall program of work e.g. a constraint for availability of a specific facility)

BUDGET

Often, the most difficult part of a proposal is budgeting.

It isn’t easy to simultaneously build trust with your client and keep everything efficient and profitable. Resist the temptation to win the client over by offering a low budget. For one thing, you don’t want to become known as the cheap alternative, and you’ll be less likely to gain any long-term clients with repeat business.

Instead, you’ll attract clients who tend to hop from low bid to low bid and show no loyalty.

BIOS

Remember that people make decisions based on the way you make them feel, so you want to make them feel comfortable with your team.

People want to know they’re dealing with a team they can trust and get along with. So provide them with your team’s photos and social media accounts, so the client can start putting faces with names and getting to know them.

It also really helps to add backstories to the faces of people who will be taking care of various aspects of the project. Since projects are about more than getting the work done, explain a bit about yourself and your background by providing this info:

  • Your motivation
  • Your mission
  • The reasons why you’re uniquely qualified to tackle their problem
  • Your unique selling points, abilities, and experience
  • The specific strengths of each team member can bring to the table
  • You want your clients to understand exactly who they’re dealing with.

CONCLUSION

When you’re concluding, don’t forget that all-important call to action (CTA). Encourage your client to contact you for further information.

The best CTA is one that prompts the reader to immediately do something, even if that action is as minor as checking out your website or contacting you for further information.

If you want to include the contract agreement in your proposal, it should go in this part of the proposal, so create spaces for both you and the client to sign and date it.

You should also include caveats, which are basically your terms and conditions. It’s not uncommon for a client to try to overextend your job description. Extra things may not seem like a big deal at the moment, but they can become major headaches and liabilities after you actually start working on them. Therefore, protect yourself with caveats that clearly articulate your responsibilities and prices.

Writing a Project Proposal can feel like a colossal undertaking, particularly if you don’t have much experience communicating with a client.  Before you can write a proper proposal, you need to put in the research, so remember that preparation is a key.

Proper writing skills are also very important. Your unique value won’t count for anything if you can’t effectively communicate with a client. Keep your proposal short and simple, trim away anything repetitive, and don’t be afraid to include an appendix.

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Consumer Behavior and Market Research

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.

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10 Benefits of Mystery Shopping

Mystery Shopping

Do you want to retain your customers or do you want to stay ahead of your competitors in terms of customer retention? Yes, you do, because customer retention is the key to business success. Mystery shopping is the required research tool that helps you in retaining your customers. By means of mystery shopping, you actually figure out and inspect the operations of your retail brand and determine whether it serves your expectations or not. As ultimately your expectation is to better serve your customers and develop a long-term relationship with them. There are numerous benefits of mystery shopping but we at Ace Research have summed up them to 10 core benefits. Let’s dig it out.

You can increase Efficiency

By measuring and monitoring the service performance you will distinguish whether standards are met or not. Mystery shopping will provide you the overall picture of the region, store and even individual employee. Thus, once you have all the reports, you can utilize them for increased efficiency.

You get the feedback from customer’s perspective

Areas such as experience, satisfaction, and brand perception can be assessed by mystery shopping. You get feedback from customer’s point of view that is reliable, specific and quality oriented.

You get feedback about staff performance

This tells you how your employees actually behave when the bosses are not around. Are they attentive to the needs of the customer?  How do they handle customer complaints? Do they act professional or do they possess product knowledge? Do they acknowledge the presence of the customer in store by smiling and greeting?

You can monitor facilities condition as perceived by the customer

The overall ambiance i.e. Is the facility clean and tidy? Are the layouts set up as instructed? Do they have promotional vouchers and brochures all the time? Mystery shopping will provide you all the answers sought against the needs and issues faced by the retail industry.

You are actually testing the functionality of internal procedures and SOPs

Often the business put in place the standard procedures to be followed from top to bottom. Again mystery shopping would run a test to determine the effectiveness of such operational procedure that either did they work in the interest of the business or not.

You can use it as a motivational tool for your employees

By rewarding and giving incentive to those who score well in customer relationship. This way you encourage customer care and satisfaction.

You can aware employees about what is important in serving customers

The mystery shopper who actually carries out the mystery shopping is trained to ask specific questions as well as identify the behavior, gesture and look for certain things like products and facility overall. Later in the post mystery shopping meetings, the areas can be highlighted to employees for improvement and they will be aware of the fact that how the customer wants to be served.

You can benchmark competitors

With the strong competition prevailing in the retail industry you should be aware of the fact that, what actual norm is prevailing in the market that promotes customer satisfaction. By knowing how your competitor performs or what is their attitude toward their customer and how their store and overall facility layout has been developed and designed to facilitate customers will help you improve your services as well.

You can identify the need for training

With mystery shopping, you actually develop the understanding of areas of improvement and ultimately the requirement as for how these areas can be developed to reap maximum benefit or improve efficiency. Staff training on the basis of your findings can be conducted for capacity building to improve long-term ties with customers.

You can improve customer retention

With the insight gained from mystery shopping, every improvement you make in your business will lead to better customer satisfaction and ultimately this will lead the customer to choose your company against the competition every time.

With the help of mystery shopping, you can devise your business’s next move forward.