What does Five Guys and STELLAService have in common?

When you’re hungry, I mean really hungry, there is no better fix than a juicy cheeseburger.  And when it comes to a juicy cheeseburger (in a fast and casual setting), Five Guys Burgers and Fries is hard to beat (In-N-Out fans, let the debate begin). Five Guys was recently named one of America’s hottest brands of 2009, serving mammoth burgers, delicious fries, and – while you wait – all you can eat peanuts. In 2008, the company grew sales by 58% and added 118 stores. This year, they’ve opened another 140 stores, totaling 500 across the east coast and into the mid west. The most nontraditional thing about their rise has been their marketing strategy or lack thereof.  Instead of advertising, they have focused on an “intense secret shopping program” and it has worked like a charm.

As you may know, STELLAService helps online businesses measure, benchmark and improve their service performance.  We are able to do this by employing some secret shopping tactics and we think it’s great for both businesses and consumers.  We’re glad to see Five Guys is in our camp!

So what makes secret shopping so powerful? Well, it aligns the interests of management, employees, and customers – the “trifecta”.   Let’s tackle these one at a time:

1. Management understands that providing a consistent high level of customer service will increase the likelihood of a customer returning (that and a good product, but let’s keep the product constant for the moment).  Also, this increases the likelihood of me saying “Hey Jordy, you know that Five Guys has a mean burger and plus their service is second to none.  You should check it out!”  A returning customer who speaks highly of your business to friends?  Consider it a win.  Since management cannot be everywhere at once, the secret shopping analysis allows the powers-at-be to keep an eye on what’s happening on the ground level and make appropriate improvements.
2. Employees are responsible for serving the needs of customers to the best of their ability.  In this case, Five Guys actually gives out cash bonuses to its employees who receive high marks on their secret shopping evaluations.  This motivates employees to provide consistent high-quality service as they never know when it could mean cash in their pocket.
3. Customers pay for goods and services.  But they also pay for the experiences that come along with purchasing those goods and services.  Since the secret shopping evaluations motivate employees to give top-quality service, the customer is consequently the recipient of this service.

So there you have it.  The secret shopping approach is extremely beneficial for both businesses and consumers.  Businesses benefit from monitoring and improving their practices.  Employees benefit by getting recognition in cash or other forms.  Customers benefit by receiving consistent top-quality service.

Burger anyone?

3 reasons why customer service suffers

Jay Goltz is a small business owner in Chicago who recently gave us his take on why customer service is slacking these days in his NY Times piece Why Customer Service Is So Bad.   He is convinced that consumers are receiving the short end of the stick because of three reasons:

1. High health insurance costs have forced business owners to hire more part-time employees, which consequently makes it harder to train and retain staff
2. Manic pricing (up one week, down the next) affects staffing logistics, which creates tension among employees who experience a volatile flow of customers
3. Over-education has created a group of business-elite who don’t understand common customer service issues anymore and think they can cut costs in areas where they shouldn’t

What Jay inherently points out is that the customer service engine is dynamic.    Much like a basketball coach substituting players in and out of the game to find the right group of players to win on that particular night, or an e-commerce team trying to optimize their website in order to increase conversions, customer service has many different drivers – all of which can be tinkered with to improve (or not improve) the model.  At the end of the day, however, Jay points out that the goal is clear: take good care of your customers so they’ll return to you and refer you to a friend.  Above all else, what customers appreciate the most is when they know that a company is passionate about them and their business, and is forever committed to serving them.