WorkForce Performance
What Goes On When You’re Not at Work?
If you think you know what your employees are up to when you’re out of the office, remember that old adage, 'When the cat's away…' because while your 'mice' might not be playing, they might not be providing the type of customer service you'd like. MORE

The TODAY Show
Satisfaction Services spotlights poor customer service trend on Today Show
This morning, mystery shoppers from Satisfaction Services were featured on a Today Show segment about the decline of customer service. To investigate claims that service is at an all time low, the team had taken hidden cameras into leading retail establishments and later critiqued the film footage of both good and bad service for Today Show viewers. MORE

Florida Restaurant & Lodging
People dine where they feel good, and an effective quality and service evaluation program will ensure they feel good with you
Service with a Smile: The Key to Success
In a recent Zagat Survey, 72 percent of the respondent complaints were service-related. That is a staggering number, but not entirely surprising given the current state of customer service. MORE

Grocery Headquarters
FOOD FORUM
The bottom line on service
A well-run quality evaluation program can be a key reason your shoppers are happy with your stores and keep coming back.
Do you know how much your customers are worth? More importantly, do your checkers and front line employees know? If a family spends $100 per week and shops your chain for the next 20 years, it is worth $104,000 to your company. Losing just 10 of those customers can mean losing $1 million. MORE

PMQ Pizza Marketing Quarterly
Mystery Shoppers - Putting the carrot before the stick
With customers buried under Ipods and text messages, the human touch such as common courtesy and civility just ain’t hip anymore. When you’re giving pizzas away, two for five bucks, who has time to smile? Who needs to? Mike Albert, founder of Satisfaction Services, a leading service evaluator based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla, thinks the lost art of courtesy should be re-discovered. MORE 

Secret shopping puts customer service under microscope - Money Talks
Have you ever been in the grocery check-out bagging your own stuff while two or three store clerks stand not too far away talking loudly about taking their upcoming 10-minute break or when their shifts end for the day? MORE

QSR Quick Service Restaurant Success
QSR | Quality and Speed for Restaurant Success Sep 6, 2006
Using technology to improve mystery shopping.
When a restaurant operator wants to evaluate their operation, it would be nice to be able to read customers’ minds. Secret shoppers, who are clandestine agents sent to evaluate your business, can provide that insight. MORE

Small things can add up to a happy, loyal customer...or lost business - Canadian Retail Management
Do you know how much your customers are worth? More importantly, do your store employees and servicemen know? If a family uses your cleaning and maintenance services weekly and spends a $100 per month, they are worth $24,000 to your company over the next 20 years. Losing just 10 customers can mean losing almost a quarter of a million dollars. MORE

Marketing Power American Marketing
Internal evaluation programs aid campaigns
Why would a marketing publication, namely Marketing News, devote a special section entirely to customer satisfaction? A better question might be, why spend thousands or millions of dollars in creating a product or concept and then spend thousands or millions of dollars in advertising to drive people to the product or service, if you don’t know what you are doing to the customer when they finally do come into your business? MORE

Paint and Decorating Retailer
No one tops you when it comes to customer service, correct? Yours is the best in town. Or is it? Maybe you haven’t paid much attention to your customer service lately. Maybe you’ve hired an employee or two who could be doing better on the sales floor. Or, maybe you just assume a customer isn’t receiving great service at the big box store around the corner, so you’re sure she is coming to your store for the topnotch service. Plus, your contractor sales seem to be doing well—they may or may not be increasing but you think they’re about the same as the previous years. MORE

Defining difference
Learn how boutique owners are using customer service to distinguish themselves from the competition. 

As big-box retailers expand into every town across America with their low-low prices and comfortably predictable store environments, and a record number of etailers make shopping simple for consumers in even the most remote locales, independent children’s wear boutiques must find innovative ways to stand out. Rather than embrace BOGO blow-outs and marketing blitzes, savvy shop owners are simply focusing on old fashioned customer service. Establishing their businesses as not only places to make money, but as extensions of their own homes, they’ve discovered that no amount of free shipping can beat a sincere smile. MORE

FRANCHISE MAGAZINE
Avant Garde Opportunities
Satisfaction Services is a leading provider of quality and service evaluation programs, a mystery shopping concept. Mike Albert founded Satisfaction Services Inc. in 1989. With many years of experience in restaurant and service businesses, Albert had used mystery shopping services with varying levels of disappointment.  MORE