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Baja Fresh® Ensures Quality and Service with Mystery Shopping
Baja Fresh® Ensures Quality and Service with Mystery Shopping from Service Intelligence™
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Baja Fresh Mexican Grill has partnered with Service Intelligence, a leading North American provider of mystery shopping, customer surveys, and compliance evaluations, to gauge customer perceptions and expectations. Shoppers pose as ordinary customers but are actually assessing and evaluating their experiences looking for a host of data points, which all get reported back to the organization. Service Intelligence shoppers began conducting shops in May of this year. Both “Dine-in” and “Phone Ahead/Take-out” shops are being conducted at all Baja Fresh restaurant locations in 27 states.
Baja Fresh chose to utilize mystery shopping to obtain insight on those critical frontline employee/customer interactions as well as satisfaction with restaurant and food quality. The franchise wants to further ensure that product quality and customer service are consistent with every customer at every location across the country.
Steve Reynolds, Vice President of Sales for Service Intelligence, states, “Baja Fresh is a rapidly growing chain that places high importance on consistency and brand representation. They appreciate that customer perception is a key driver of success and have initiated a customer experience evaluation program to enhance an already stellar record. Service Intelligence is excited to be working with Baja Fresh, and we look forward to helping them identify possible areas for improvement.”
Through the program, Service Intelligence collects, aggregates, analyzes, and disseminates data specific to consumer experiences. With this data, Service Intelligence is able to cultivate the connection between consumer intelligence and business strengths or opportunities, ultimately translating such into tangible operational recommendations.
“Hiring Service Intelligence as our mystery shopping partner demonstrates our ongoing commitment to delivering the highest possible level of customer satisfaction,” said James Walker, President of Baja Fresh. “Service Intelligence assists us in assuring that each and every customer receives the very best food quality and customer service and they are truly our partners in this ongoing process.”
Paul Hector, Vice President of Business Solutions for Service Intelligence, adds, “By consistently gauging measureable variables, we can gather valuable data, which allows us to spot trends in both highs and lows. Our objective is to deliver recommendations to our clients that will improve their operations and positively impact top-line and bottom-line revenues.” Hector continues, “Baja Fresh has had tremendous success to date, and they have called on Service Intelligence to continue this momentum. Every consumer-centric industry wants to know what their customers are thinking and what will encourage them to return and repurchase. Service Intelligence helps clients draw the blueprint.”
About Baja Fresh
Founded in 1990 and headquartered in Thousand Oaks, Calif., Baja Fresh operates or franchises 291 restaurants nationwide, all featuring its fresh Mexican-inspired food, made to order and served in a hurry.
Baja Fresh was named as the Platinum award-winning Mexican Chain in America by Restaurants & Institutions Consumer’s Choice in Chains study in July 2007.
Learn more about Baja Fresh at www.bajafresh.com.
Baja Fresh® Ensures Quality and Service with Mystery Shopping from Service Intelligence™
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Consumers vs. automated customer service
www.Measuredup.com to make companies pay attention to you.
 clipped from www.newsday.com
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Consumers vs automated customer service
Consumers vs. automated customer service
Norma Freedman received notification in May that a movie from the Columbia House mail-order DVD company would be sent, but she didn't receive the usual code used to cancel the order. So she did what many people would do: She called the company.
And, like many consumers calling a customer-service number, she reached an automated service that couldn't resolve her problem and wouldn't provide a agent.
That inability to reach a live representative is one of the top complaints of consumers calling customer-service centers, according to experts and surveys of the customer-service industry.
And the problem is becoming increasingly common as companies try to divert callers to their Web sites or provide more services via voice-response systems to save money, experts said.
"Making it hard to talk to an agent really hurts companies in their satisfaction ratings," said Peter Leppik, co-founder and chief executive of Vocal Laboratories, a Minneapolis company that surveys people after customers place a service call. "But the reason why they do it is that talking to an agent is expensive and using automation is cheap."
While touch-tone services, which prompt customers to press a button on a phone, can provide only a limited menu of services, companies are increasingly adding voice-response systems, which allow callers to respond verbally.
A recent study by Forrester Research, a market research company in Cambridge, Mass., found that 28 percent of companies have voice-response systems or are rolling them out, and 22 percent are evaluating such systems.
But customer-service calls to cellular phone companies handled by a computerized automated phone system receive significantly lower ratings than those handled by a live representative, according to a recent survey by J.D. Power and Associates, a Westlake Village, Calif., company that conducts market research and measures customer satisfaction.
Experts said good automated systems that have simple menus and allow customers to reach an agent receive good ratings from customers. But many systems have complicated menus, use industry jargon and require customers to enter information multiple times, only to repeat the information if they do reach a live agent, Leppik said.
So while voice-response systems can handle a large variety of queries, such as a change-of-address request, companies should still allow callers to reach a human, said Jonathan Brookner, director of certification programs for J.D. Power.
"It can be a devil or an angel, depending on how it's used," he said, adding that companies shouldn't let customers "get trapped in a voice-response system that they can't get out of."
In June, Columbia House, part of Direct Group North America based in Manhattan, changed its policy, allowing those with an account number to reach a live representative, spokeswoman Paula Batson said.
"Columbia House is always seeking ways to improve communication with our customers," she said.
Freedman, who said Columbia House resolved the problems with her DVD order, said she is pleased she'll be able to speak to an agent in future calls.
St. Albans resident Elizabeth Gittens, 43, said automated services work fine for simple requests, such as checking a bank account balance. But after a truck recently knocked down telephone lines in front of her home, she said, Verizon's automated system for phone repair didn't provide assistance.
Heather Wilner, a spokeswoman for Verizon, said the automated system had recorded a repair request when Gittens initially called. Gittens said she wasn't aware that the system actually processed her request. And after she reached a representative three days following the incident, Verizon fixed the service within two hours.
Michael Skudin, 63, a handyman in Levittown, said some companies make it especially difficult for customers to cancel a service via their automated service.
When he called to cancel Sprint Nextel cellular service within the 30-day cancellation period, he said, the automated service disconnected his call. Incredulous, Skudin tried twice more -- and said he was disconnected both times.
"They have wonderful ways of not letting you get through to cancel their service," Skudin said. "They're very quick to say, 'We'll give you a contract and you have 30 days to change your mind,' but they make it so aggravating \[to cancel\], some of these people will just say, 'I'll keep it. It's not worth the effort.'"
Sprint spokesman Richard Pesce said, "We are continually working to improve customer service, so that we can quickly and effectively answer their questions, resolve issues and increase the value customers receive."
Some Web sites have come to the rescue of frustrated consumers. One new service is 321calllog.com, which records conversations with customer-service representatives.
Carol Kelty, 56, an administrative assistant at Chimes Real Estate in Flushing, said she'd appreciate such a service. After she canceled DirecTV within the 30-day cancellation period, the company said she hadn't done so, she said.
But Kelty had saved a copy of her e-mail request. When she faxed a printout of it, the company agreed to refund about $100 in fees, she said.
"I think it would probably be very useful for people who are in a jam," she said of 321calllog.com. "If you don't have proof that you canceled it or tried to cancel it, it's your word against theirs."
Another site, gethuman.com, indicates how callers can reach live representatives: by listing the digits to enter on a touch-tone phone, or the phrases the customer can say.
Some companies don't make it easy. To reach a live representative at Humana's pharmacy, gethuman.com instructs callers to provide an identification number that turns out to be invalid.
To get an agent at Northwest Airlines WorldPerks, callers must say "WorldPerks," "agent," "yes," "agent" and another "yes," according to gethuman.com. Some voice-response systems might not grant a request for an "operator" because the computer expects the caller to say "agent," but customers might not know that's the word they must use, said Elizabeth Herrell, an analyst at Forrester Research.
"I know one tricky company that, in order to get to an operator, you have to know to say 'representative' three times in a row," she said. "Companies want to force you to use the automated service, but if the automated service cannot accommodate your specific needs, you should get an avenue out of there."
Ask an Expert: Word travels fast, so handle complaints quickly
Ask an Expert: Word travels fast, so handle complaints quickly
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By Steve Strauss, Special for USA TODAY
Q: Normally I take customer complaints in stride, but I recently received a complaint that I thought was fairly ridiculous and basically told the customer so. Boy is this a different era! Instead of telling one or two people that he thought I was a jerk, he posted it online and now people are blogging negatively about me and my business. How can I avoid this in the future without always rolling over? — Steve
A: You make a really good point, and I feel your pain, brother! The fact is, for all of us, in this era of increased transparency and viral networking, the stakes have been raised.
Today, between personal websites, the so-called blogosphere, chat boards, instant polls, insta-feedback, and so on, ideas travel seemingly at the speed of light. This is especially true when it comes to problems with, and complaints about, your business. Acting like an analogue player in this digital world is a mistake that can kill your business.
It is indeed true that in the PI era (pre-Internet), reputations and brands were created far more slowly, and unless yours was a national business or product that got national coverage, it was far more difficult to change people's impressions of you one way or the other (tainted Tylenol for example). Today if you blow it, it's not a handful of people who will hear about it, but one or two hundred, or thousand, or. .. .
Yep, the stakes have been raised.
But the reason to handle customer complaints well goes far beyond being slammed in someone's blog. Consider just the financial impact of a single complaint.
I have heard many times that for every one complaint about your business, there are six other customers who are equally unhappy, but who did not complain. So that is seven unhappy people in total. And, according to a study by Technical Assistance Research Programs (TARP), customers with negative experiences of your business likely tell twice as many people than those with positive experiences.
It is estimated that the average disappointed customer tells 9 or 10 people about their bad experience (Note: This represents actual, real-world "gossiping", not online postings). Seven unhappy campers times 9 told friend equals 63 people who will have a negative impression of your business.
How many of those 63 will not patronize your business? A conservative estimate is at least 25%, but probably much more. If your product costs, say, $100, then that single complaint equals at least $1,500 in lost revenue. What does that number equal if the complaint is spread online? Your guess is as good as mine, but it isn't pretty.
The good news here is that plenty can be done to fend-off the real and virtual geometric unhappiness:
•Deal with it. It is also said that of those who do lodge a complaint, fully 70% will do business with you again if you resolve the complaint satisfactorily, and that number jumps to 95% if the happy resolution is prompt.
•Make the customer happy. No, I am not a believer in "the customer is always right" school, because they are not. However, when it comes to complaints, I'm all about extreme customer service. To the extent you can, resolve the matter in the way the customer wants. Not only is this often the right thing to do (after all, people do not normally complain without reason), but it will also prevent the viral negative chain reaction from igniting.
•Have a "no tolerance" policy. Employees who give poor customer service should be gone, period.
•Make sure it is not systemic. The same complaint again and again is a warning sign that you have something amiss.
Finally, one way to avoid complaints altogether is to get customer feedback as often as possible. Honest critiques from people who like your business are invaluable.
Today's tip: Someone once told me that the best piece of business advice he ever received was, "ask them what they want, then give them what they want." In this time when virtual complaints have such potential power, that may be the best policy of them all.
Remember: 95% of unhappy customers will do business with you again if their problems are solved quickly and satisfactorily. The best way to do that is ask them what they want, and then give them what they want.
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