Photo/Filming/Radio opportunity: Mystery shop a Father Christmas with a trained mystery shopper, discover what can make or break a festive business.
As retailers across the country gear up for the busiest time of the year, one UK company is also experiencing an unusual boom in business with a festive twist.
Mystery shopping and customer service experts Shopper Anonymous (http://www.shopperanonymous.co.uk) have seen a huge jump in demand from shops and tourist attractions to have their Father Christmas, grotto and festive offering mystery shopped. Whole families are going ?under cover? to report on their experience, with their feedback used by retailers to ensure their Father Christmas delivers good customer service as well as much-wanted presents.
Shopper Anonymous have been asked to mystery shop every aspect of visiting Father Christmas in his grotto, from price and queuing time to the friendliness of the elves, the ?Ho Ho Ho? of Father Christmas, the quality of the presents and the magical qualities of the whole experience.
Shopper Anonymous Managing Director and customer service expert Jonathan Winchester is particularly well versed in what makes the perfect visit to Santa Claus having played Father Christmas himself on several occasions. Winchester says the visit isn?t just judged on whether a child is captivated or bursts into tears on Santa?s knee:
?Visiting Father Christmas in his grotto is a major part of the build-up to Christmas for many families and like any other purchase they expect value for money. Some retailers and attractions really set out to make the whole visit magical, from actors in character entertaining children in the queue and creating an entire Christmas walk-through wonderland to good quality gifts and even photos taken with the man with the big white beard.
?At its worst, however, visiting Father Christmas can feel like a rip-off, with hour-long queues followed by an untrained man dressed as Santa getting grumpy with frightened children then palming them off with some cheap tat but still charging top dollar.
?We train families to be mystery shoppers, to give honest and constructive feedback that retailers can use to improve services. Feedback from children and parents is equally important for understanding the customer journey.
?Customers should be for life, not just for Christmas, so any retailer worth their salt will want visitors leaving feeling like they?ve had value for money, not wondering where the Christmas spirit has gone. By mystery shopping their festive offerings, we can tell them what they?re doing well and what they need to do to bring Santa up to scratch.?
Winchester has come up with guidelines for anyone operating a Santa?s grotto to make sure it?s a magical experience for all concerned:
????If your grotto is a success, you?re going to get queues. Make those queues part of the experience with entertainment and activities to keep children engaged.
????Get your Father Christmas trained and if necessary get in an actor ? don?t rely on a member of staff. Give them sufficient breaks and have two people rotating if necessary. It?s hard work Ho-Ho-Ho-ing all day.
????Don?t leave your elves or other helpers in the same place all day but rotate them round from ticket sales to present giving and other jobs, keeping them interested and more likely to be happy and friendly towards customers. Bored elves are never festive.
????Your Father Christmas needs to understand children and know instinctively what to do if they cry, freeze etc. He needs some disaster recovery skills.
????Get your grotto mystery shopped by trained shoppers early in the season so you can correct any problems and make sure you?re giving the best possible customer experience. Don?t rely on staff or friends to do it, as they won?t give you honest or constructive feedback.
Case study: Tulley?s Farm, Turners Hill, West Sussex.
Stuart Beare, Managing Director of Tulley?s Farm, a popular tourist attraction in West Sussex (http://www.tulleysfarm.com) asked Shopper Anonymous to mystery shop their Father Christmas attraction, ?Santa?s Sleigh Ride? last Christmas and will be doing so again this year:
?Having our Father Christmas attraction mystery shopped was an incredibly useful exercise as it gave us a snapshot of what customers actually thought. People?s expectations of a magical Christmas experience are very high and if you get even one element wrong, it can backfire very easily. We wanted to make sure we were meeting and exceeding those expectations.
?Feedback from the mystery shoppers was predominantly positive, and we?d asked for them to look at everything from queuing and wait times to the way staff interacted with them. Visiting Father Christmas is about the whole experience from start to finish, not just your time with the man in red, although we have now started using trained actors to play the role, not just anyone who was available!
?Also, when staff know they?re going to get mystery shopped they really up their game and have increased awareness of the need for quality and service. The mystery shoppers told us that we?d got it about right.?
For all media enquiries, including the opportunity to mystery shop Father Christmas and interviews with retail expert Jonathan Winchester, please contact Steve Bustin 07803 729208 or media(at)shopperanonymous(dot)co(dot)uk
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