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Why Comments Matter in Mystery Shopping

The bulk of mystery-shop surveys are Yes/No questions, sometimes sprinkled with a couple opinion scales (rate the customer service 1 to 5, for example). These allow you to capture the raw data, to quantify an experience so you can score it. You can ask whether an employee introduced him or…
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Surviving in the World of Big Chains and Online Warehouses

The Verge posted a fascinating article describing so-called Amazon Nomads, independent merchants who scour out-of-the-way stores (often failing chains in small towns) for products on clearance to snap up and sell using Amazon’s storefront. But with all of the prognostications about the death of brick-and-mortar, one can’t help but think…
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The High Cost of Saving a Buck

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to save a buck. That’s why so many of us choose to shop at big-box stores that deal in such a high volume they can afford to sell their products closer to cost. Those narrower profit margins still translate to larger profits overall due to…
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Managing Your Productivity: Striving for Zero

We’ve spent the last couple of weeks delving into how to improve your productivity with the processing and organizing workflow described in David Allen’s Getting Things Done book on the subject. One of the concepts we covered was the notion of an inbox, at which time we described this as…
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Managing Your Productivity: When to Say Yes

As we established last week, your time is a limited resource, so you have to wisely invest it into the tasks that matter the most. Returning to David Allen’s Getting Things Done workflow, let’s take a look at the “Is it actionable?” step to see what we should do when…
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Managing Your Productivity: When to Say No

Your time is a limited resource and you have to decide what you’ll spend that currency on. There aren’t enough hours in the day for you to do everything, and to be completely fair, when you split your attention among multiple tasks, none of them are going to be done…
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The Thermal Comfort Zone

In our third and final blogpost covering ambiance, let’s discuss how customers feel when they enter a business—specifically, what the temperature is like. How does a chilly room versus a warm room impact a customer’s experience? When it comes to the thermostat, can we really set-it-and-forget-it? Heating and cooling can…
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A Feast for the Eyes

In last week’s blog, we covered how background music influences the overall vibe of your business. As we said then, ambiance covers multiple sensory perceptions, including examples of how a restaurant’s freshly baked goods invite diners in, or even how merchandising can lure customers to visit. The concept of using…
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Setting the Mood with Background Music

Ambiance comprises multiple sensory perceptions: a retail store’s merchandising would appeal to the eyes; a restaurant’s freshly baked goods hearken to the nose; and the cool air on a hot summer’s day brings respite to the skin. But what about the ears? What are some ways we can make sure…
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