If you’ve bought a suitcase in the last few years, there’s a good chance it was a JULY. You know the one — the colourful, design-led cases you see wheeling through every airport, Olympic athletes included.

I love working with a business that’s grown as fast as July has. They opened seven stores a year for three years straight across Australia. Incredible growth — but growth like that comes with a real cost: the closer you are to your customers on day one, the further away you can drift once you’re managing dozens of stores instead of two or three.

Here’s the part I love telling people: when I first reached out to Athan and James at July, mystery shopping wasn’t just off their radar — they were actively against it. James Donato, Head of Retail at July, thought it was an outdated way to assess retail, and he was worried it would turn July’s individual, boutique-style service into something cookie-cutter. Fair scepticism, honestly. A lot of business owners feel the same way before we start working together.

What changed his mind wasn’t a hard sell. It was reframing what mystery shopping is actually for — not catching a team out, but giving leadership the visibility they’d lost, and the data to target training with precision instead of guesswork.

It was agreed we’d proceed with a three-month trial. That was almost three years ago.

James put it best himself: mystery shopping has “elevated us beyond where we even thought we could be.”

I sat down with James recently to unpack exactly how that shift happened — the scepticism, the first shaky months of the team trusting the feedback, and what they do differently now. It’s a genuinely useful read if you’ve ever wondered whether mystery shopping could do for your business what it’s done for July’s.

Check out the JULY case study here

The businesses that get the best results aren’t the ones with the fewest problems — they’re the ones brave enough to look for them. That’s exactly what James and the team at July have done.

Thank you James and Athan, and everyone at July, for trusting us and allowing us to support your success.

If you’re ready to see what’s really happening in your customer experience, book a free 30-minute consult with me here.

You know where I am 😃