Communication Channels and the Customer Experience

A business’s ability to communicate with its customers is critical for its long-term survival. Sales, services, and support all rely on communication, otherwise we might as well all shop from mail-order catalogs. For decades, the two primary channels for doing so were either in-person or were over-the-phone. But since the…
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Exceeding Expectations

Let’s dive back into Shep Hyken’s 2020 special report, continuing where we left off from last week. The next topic concerns consumer expectations, which Hyken measured by asking respondents “to rank industries based on what level of customer service they expect to receive”—not their actual experiences, just what they anticipated.…
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The Power of Convenience on the Customer Experience

Returning to Shep Hyken’s 2020 special report that we discussed a couple weeks back, let’s turn our attention to the price are willing to pay for their customer experience. We can surmise that some people are indeed willing to pay more for higher quality, naturally. Otherwise, luxury brands wouldn’t exist,…
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The Mystery Shopping Report Card

The Brandt Group offers a variety of detailed reporting options for our clients to review and interpret the mystery shopping data we collect. The reports empower them to identify big-picture trends or focus in on the tiniest of details. And they’re all scalable, offering a view of the entire company,…
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Empower Employees to Feel Safe

We’ve long stressed the importance of empowering employees to be the best representatives of your company as possible. Historically, this has meant allowing them to make decisions on the frontline for the sake of efficiency and timeliness—huge boons for your customer experience, as well as your employees’ own job satisfaction.…
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Pivoting to Take-Out and Delivery

Some states are reopening, others are reclosing, and still others are stuck someplace in between. Restauranteurs have it especially tough during this global pandemic because their businesses need volume in order to make up for already thin margins. Most restaurant managers even have a magic number of tables in their…
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Leveraging Online Reviews

Everything has been moving towards the web for many years now, displacing everything from business directories, like the Yellow Pages, to actual in-person commerce. Included in that shuffle is how word-of-mouth—one of the most critical ways your business’s reputation is measured—is spread. While chat around the office cooler or in…
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Adapting Your Business for Zero Contact

Whether ordered by state or local governments, or out of an abundance of caution, many businesses have closed their doors during the coronavirus pandemic. Many of those businesses want to stay open, of course, if only to bring some income in during this time so that their employees are not…
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Mystery Shopping for Compliance

Many industries are closely regulated, and so it’s very important for employees to follow the rules and avoid any legal violations. For example, retail stores that sell tobacco or alcohol are not permitted to sell those items to anyone under the age of 21, and doing so can result in…
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