With the help of the Mystery Shopper research, we have compared the level of customer service in 2018 and 2019, created a forecast model of sales growth by the quality of service in stores, and measured objective and subjective indicators.
Karcher — a German company, the world’s largest manufacturer of cleaning equipment. The company was founded in 1935 in Germany (Stuttgart) as a family business.
CLIENT: Karcher
FOUNDED: 1935
SPHERE: CLEANING EQUIPMENT PRODUCTION
EMPLOYEES: 11,000
REGION: CENTRAL, WESTERN AND EASTERN EUROPE
COOPERATION SINCE: 2018
What were our research objectives?
We’ve been working with Karcher for 1.5 years already. Our company performs Mystery Shopping research for this cleaning equipment manufacturer across Europe (Germany, Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic) throughout the whole chain.
The main objectives of the Mystery Shopper new wave research were:
- Compare customer service level in 2018 and 2019;
- Measure objective and subjective indicators in the context of separate areas and throughout the European region;
- Create a predictive model of sales growth according to the quality of service in the stores.
Additional project objectives were also:
- Assess customer expectations.
- Identify key factors affecting consumer behavior.
Define the main driving forces influencing NPS and subjective indices.
Objective index
A trend when the subjective index is higher than objective one is present in all markets. This means that despite the fact that employees do not fulfill all standards, customers like the service. We can explain this fact with the following indicators:
Standards completion
According to the analysis, all employees of the production network identify customer needs. However, we have found a sales gap, which does not comply with all standards in development areas.
Correlation analysis shows the main factors affecting NPS and subjective indices. As we see, the main standards are test drive and providing positive examples of a device, such as personal use, customer reviews.
Customer loyalty
Customers were willing to recommend the store due to the service and high-quality products, but they would be disappointed if they could not test a device.
Buyers want to experience personalized service, responsive employees and good presentation to have a desire to come back again. At the same time, it seems that the store environment is not so important. Most Promoters were delighted and in a good mood after visiting the store, while Detractors experienced disappointment and discontent after the visit. They considered the employees were boring, sad, and indifferent, while the most Promoters believe that the staff was confident, energetic, calm, sincere and cheerful.
See the following graph to predict how these NPS estimates may affect the future shopping at Karcher:
As a result, we reached the following conclusions:
Brand reputation and customer expectations strongly influence the subjective perception of the quality of service.
The most considerable demand for the quality of service in the Karcher stores was the indifference of the staff in addition to their passivity in intentions to help. 94% of respondents associate the Karcher store with the highest level of service. These expectations affect particular customer experience. It creates a positive impression which doesn’t correlate with the objective index.
