A Year Later

It’s hard to believe a year has passed since the President declared COVID–19 a National Emergency. Almost none of us back then had any guess as to the kind of year we were in store for, as we all faced lockdowns, shutdowns, shelter-in-place orders, social distancing mandates, reduced occupancy edicts,…
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Our Shared Passion

Last week, we covered how important it is to ask yourself why you’re in the business that you are, even beyond the goal of attaining financial security and providing for a family. We discussed how you’re able to derive a whole separate level of fulfillment and pride by believing in…
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Have You Ever Stopped to Ask Yourself Why?

Let’s think about a product that has existed for a long, long time: the unassuming yet mighty pen. According to Wikipeida, the earliest pen was probably invented by the Ancient Egyptians over 5,000 years ago, and it has seen a lot of changes in the millennia since. What was once…
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Why Do Customers Choose Your Business?

Unless your company happens to operate in a complete monopoly, it has competitors. Perhaps even an industry full of them, especially given how small the world has become through the power of the Internet, and not just the other guys down the street or across town. Given the number of…
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Which Industries Benefit Most from Mystery Shopping?

You might think this question is purely rhetorical, as there’s an argument to be made that all industries can benefit from mystery shopping. Given that The Brandt Group specializes in mystery shopping, you might also think that we would agree with the sentiment—and you’d be right, of course. But there…
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Overcoming Stage Fright

For those who’ve never mystery shopped, whether in-person or over-the-phone, you might feel apprehension before showtime. You might worry that you’ll miss an important detail, get tongue-tied when speaking with an employee, or even get found-out for being a shopper. These concerns are natural: most of us don’t have eidetic…
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Caveat Emptor – Let the Buyer Beware

As the proverb instructs us, buyers should always be vigilant when making purchases, even going so far as to say that it’s a buyer’s responsibility to evaluate a product before agreeing to part with his money. You’d be right to think this principle is a bit unfair; after all, sellers…
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Role-Play as a Training Tool

It’s no secret that most of us learn best by doing as opposed to merely watching, which is why so many trainers recommend using role-play to teach customer-service and sales techniques. As an article at Ready Training Online explains, “Think back to how you learned to drive a car and…
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Customer Service Never Goes Out of Style

The nature of time is that there aren’t many things that last. Trends come and go. New technologies replace old ones. Companies rise and fall. And whole industries sometimes transform into new ones altogether. If there is but one constant thread throughout all of this change and upheaval, however, is…
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