A little while ago, I walked into 50 retail stores to assess if I would be acknowledged within one minute.

If you’re curious as to why I’d bother doing this and why acknowledging customers is important, head to our blog and check out our last few blog posts.

Now just like when we mystery shop our clients, I wanted to set the team members in these stores up for success by giving them every possible chance of acknowledging me so:

• Every store I walked into, I made myself visible. Where possible I walked within 10 feet (approx 3 metres) of a team member.
• I showed buying signals by interacting with the store’s products; I looked, touched and picked things up.
• I walked in carrying a bag from a retailer within the centre, to show I was in buying mode

Out of the 50 stores, I was acknowledged 32 times within 60 seconds. Which equates to 64%. These stores showed me with their words and actions that I was seen, and I was welcome. Big tick to these retail brands.

This means that 36% of stores did not acknowledge my presence at all within 60 seconds.

I walked in and put myself in a situation where I could be acknowledged every time. I did my best to give strong buying signals while carrying a bag from another retailer to show I was buying today and interacting with their products with interest.

In these instances, there were no signals given that I was seen and welcome. Remember that when a customer is not acknowledged it can lead to disengagement, via lower conversions, walk-outs and loss of brand loyalty.

While I conducted these mystery shops, I did gather some additional data.

If I was assessing best practice in terms of response times, I’d be looking to be acknowledged within 30 seconds.

I was acknowledged at 26 stores within 30 seconds, so 52% of stores.

This means 24 stores did not meet best practice response time standards, or 48%

Of the stores that did acknowledge me within 60 seconds, 10 stores acknowledged me with a warm simple greeting. They did not launch into the sales pitch immediately or ask me a question straight up.

If I take it one step further, if I was to focus on best practice industry standards;

8 stores acknowledged me with a simple greeting within 30 seconds.

This equates to 16% stores meeting best practice standards.  

This is a moment in time and is only a small data set BUT in our experience with our clients who mystery shop with us monthly, looking at the first 3 rounds of their mystery shopping results, this is a fair representation of what is happening in retail in Australia.

This tells me there is so much opportunity to better engage with customers! It tells me that there’s countless training and coaching opportunities to train and coach your staff in the importance of acknowledging customers, how to do it and when to do it.

You can check out and share our debrief video here

I wonder what’s happening in your business? . . .