Customer advocacy is crucial for the success of any business, but it is even more critical for the luxury sector where consumers expect exceptional services. Therefore, luxury buyers are becoming more demanding and multinational brands are increasingly concerned that their products may lose their appeal faced with competition from emerging niche brands. To meet these needs, Focus Marketing is specializing in the Mystery Shopping of luxury goods / services.
The question to answer is: how can luxury brands protect and improve their reputation in the age of connection where every unpleasant experience is transmitted on a global scale?
Companies are not always able to deal with this problem, often neglecting important aspects that reduce the reputation of the brand and, frequently, the management of a brand’s reputation starts from the top with a good strategy and ends with employees of an unsuitable level. put it into practice. That’s why this process is often difficult to implement, building a culture of responsibility requires active participation, time and consistency. To do this, many luxury brands use Mystery Shopping.
The Mystery Shopping Providers Association (MSPA) estimates that “approximately 50,000 mystery shopping experiences are implemented every month in the UK”. On the other hand, The Guardian believes that in order to counter the success of e-commerce, physical stores will need to improve their overall services. As a result, the demand for mysterious buyers will grow. Retailers are becoming increasingly aware that buyers who are ready to set foot in a physical store want a service and experience that they cannot get online and retailers want to be sure that their staff remains consistent in the performance of the service. , exceeding customer expectations.
Why should luxury brands use mysterious buyers?
- Data-driven decision making
As McKinsey said, “on average, a luxury shopper is influenced by nine points of contact with the brand before buying.” McKinsey includes among these points the role played by the point of sale and word of mouth. As consumers become more demanding, luxury retailers must perform each of these touch points perfectly. Of course, the data collected during the mysterious shopping experiences support the strategies in place, ensuring that the brand meets customer expectations. In addition, brands are led to discover their greatest strengths and common mistakes.
- Analysis of the audience
Mystery shoppers follow a predetermined scenario based on real life experiences. Therefore, management can see how real buyers would interact with the company’s products and understand the flaws and strengths of the products. This is why Focus Marketing maintains a particular attention to the demographic profiling of shoppers, through interaction with them, brands get a better understanding of the target audience.
- Training solutions
Through qualitative marketing research, luxury stores and brands can obtain detailed information on the performance of their employees. Based on these relationships, companies can move forward and create training tools that further motivate and engage employees.
Finally, mystery shopping provides data-driven actions. Hospitality technology emphasizes that “the personalization of products and services has become an abused expression when it comes to customer experience in our digital age”. In fact, marketing experts stress the need for personalization and individualization of the shopping experience, but too often they don’t know how to customize the product. Making estimates based on purchase history is not always a winning reasoning. In reality, nothing comes closer to the consumer reality than the feedback offered directly by the consumer can.
