It can take years to develop a loyal customer and only seconds to lose one. So how do you keep your members returning time and time again, instead of just once a year to renew their membership?
Customer loyalty can be fickle, and one bad experience can change their entire perception of your venue. To make things worse, consistent bad experiences can wear down loyal members until they decide to try out your local competitors. Lo and behold they have now fallen into the annual visitor category.
Boards, managers and staff can be equally one-sided when it comes to viewing the venue they know and love from an objective stance. Why change the 15 minute wait queues in the bistro or the soggy chips when they have become a staple of your service? When you’re experiencing your own venue day in, day out, you might not be able to see what actually isn’t working. In this day and age of peer reviews and social media, word of mouth has become more important than ever. More often than not, it is these long held practices that have been in place for the past 10 years which are eating into your customer loyalty and reducing your share of the market.
The beauty of having an independent customer or secret shopper visit your venue to try out your range of services is that they are not predisposed to any of these views. They are able to communicate both hard messages and pleasant reminders giving you an indication of how accurate your judgement is. If you think it is time to start looking at a secret shopping program for your venue, we can develop a program that addresses your particular areas of concern, or a general shop can incorporate a broader scope of your venue.
The team at DWS can arrange anything from one visit to a number of different shoppers visiting your club over a few weeks, on specific days and at times as required. Another option is to encourage your staff and management to visit your local competitors and conduct a secret shop at those venues to get their objectivity flowing. This creates an awareness among your staff of the venues and services your customers are using when they are not at your venue.
If you would like to discuss our secret shopper services or other available forms of customer research including focus groups or customer surveys, call the team at DWS on 07 3878 9355 or email us at info@dws.net.au.
