Web Mystery Shoppers

"The report was money well spent, and the price was very fair considering the level of detail. We were looking to determine the usability of our web site form the consumer's point of view. Also to determine if there were any undiscovered errors from our testing. It did that. [It is] a very good way to get an unbiased opinion of your website that identifies the problems. The fact it identified errors and consumer concerns voiced by people not involved in its development proved to be invaluable."

Doug Munro
CEO
Grower Direct Fresh Cut Flowers Inc.

The web is not used in isolation. About half of online shoppers end up going to a store to buy the products they researched online. Often they call in for extra information. So your call centre and store or branch staff must know what’s on your website and act accordingly.

Yet customer service testing, if done at all, is rarely linked specifically to the experiences of people who call from the web site. And far too often it is tied to metrics that are not relevant to consumers. You may consider a hold time of two minutes acceptable, but do your prospects?

Web Mystery Shoppers® can test all your customer service options, from a web visitor's point of view. Toll-free numbers, e-mail, live chat, VOIP - whatever you offer, we’ll test. We’ll even send our mystery shoppers into your physical locations, if you’d like, so you can get consistent testing done in every channel.

Typical Problems

E-mail unanswered: Large companies are getting better about answering e-mail queries, but a surprising number of them still don’t answer messages in a timely way, or at all.
Too little, too late: Even when they do get answered, our research has found that the answer is often insufficient or too late, so the customer still leaves unsatisfied.
Call centers in the dark: Call center staff are often unaware of website contents and offers, or simply not trained well enough to handle web-based calls.
Store staff unaware: Customers shouldn’t have to bring in a computer print-out to prove to your store staff that you really did make a particular offer on your website!
Live chat deadly slow: Real-time chat, while it holds promise, often involves long delays that the customer is not expecting, with the result that many leave the site thinking the chat session has "frozen". (Can 'Live Help' Help You?)

Testing web-related customer service is crucial to ensuring that your web investment is not wasted. See also In-Depth Usability Testing, Quick Tests and Competitor Research.

Call toll-free at 1-866-211-7027 or send us an e-mail to discuss whether an assessment of your company's web-related customer service would make sense.

Download a free sample an Online Customer Service report.