Douglas Stafford is one of the leading performance specialists in the UK, providing mystery shopping and other performance related initiatives to many national and international organisations including Audi UK, Vodafone, Persimmon Homes and Kwik Fit to name just a few.

Field Operations is a crucial part of Douglas Stafford’s activities. This is where the many ongoing mystery shopping programmes, all individually tailored for each client, are planned and matched with Douglas Stafford’s large network of highly trained mystery shoppers.

For more information on how Douglas Stafford can help you, through market research, mystery shopping or via our customer contact centre, please go to www.douglasstafford.com or contact us on 0800 7831913.

Performance improvement through on-site mystery shopping will provide your management team with the tools to develop, train and re-train their teams to improve customer service and sales performance. By using this method of evaluation, you will enable management and training teams to highlight good and bad practices and use the footage as evidence based training. The purpose of this type of mystery shopping is to provide information to your management team upon which business decisions can be taken.

With the right tools, there is no reason why any business cannot grow and look to a successful future, even in these difficult economic conditions. Most people will know that what their business achieves in 2012 will be entirely up to them – not the Euro Zone, government growth or interest rates. They will succeed because they know that success doesn’t come to those who wait – we need to go looking for it.

For more information on how Douglas Stafford can help develop your sales teams, call us on 0800 783 1913. Are you hiding under the duvet?

Car Dealer Magazine has compared car sales figures and reported “that with the market in 2011 down by 4.4 per cent against an already low 2010 figure, manufacturers are keen to make a strong start to the New Year and reverse the decline.”

As the March plate change rapidly approaches, automotive manufacturers such as Vauxhall, Fiat, Honda, Toyota and Chrysler are a few of many franchises looking to increase car sales this year and improve on last year’s figures, before the arrival of the new plates.

Douglas Stafford has been making a name for itself in the motoring industry for more than 21 years, helping dealerships reach untapped potential and increase car sales.
The company works with 47 per cent of the UK’s automotive manufacturers along with many dealers and dealer groups.

Douglas Stafford can help with showroom sales events and new product launches, with customer service advisors on hand to help increase showroom traffic during an event and help to create appointments, which will give sales teams more opportunities to sell cars.
Douglas Stafford can also rate your overall customer satisfaction levels and provide information for real change.

By making full use of this valuable resource and talking to past customers on a regular basis, additional sales can be generated and levels of customer satisfaction can be significantly improved.

For more information on Douglas Stafford, please go to www.douglasstafford.com or contact us on 0800 7831913.

The success of Christmas sales at John Lewis, Waitrose and Sainsbury’s, and at the opposite the flop of Tesco’s Big Price Drop, shows that offering value, rather than discounting, will be retailers’ saviour in 2012.

“The recent years have seen a polarising in consumer habits. On the one hand consumers are attracted by the practical side and attractive price of online shopping, conveniently delivered to their door. But when they do go out shopping, they expect a pleasant experience as opposed to a purely pragmatic one. Going shopping is now a behaviour which is not only driven by price,” comments Douglas Stafford’s Client Relationship Manager Jason Jeggo.

“To succeed, retailers must differentiate themselves by providing something online retail cannot offer: real customer service, a friendly contact, some expert advice. All this represents additional value which will make consumers come back and create loyalty. Delighting customers…. that should be a priority for retailers in 2012.

“Retailers will need to continue investing in developing customer insight, despite a tight control on budgets. Customer Satisfaction Index surveys and Mystery Shopping are two important tools that will allow them to clarify what their specific target audience want and what it gets from them; it will help them understand the relationship their customers have with them and how to make this relationship better.”

To discuss how Douglas Stafford can help retailers differentiate in 2012, give Jason a call on 02392 830 011 or contact him at jasonjeggo@douglasstafford.com .

Comparing car sales figures from November 2011 with November 2010, the FLA indicated that consumer demand for dealer finance led to a rise of 6% in the number of new cars bought and 4% in used cars.

“This shows how important motor finance is for the success of a dealership,” comments Nigel Cook, Douglas Stafford’s Chief Executive. “And it is not always easy, as it relies on building confidence between the customer and the sales executive. The sales executive has to introduce the range of financial products on offer, explain their benefits, understand the customer’s requirements and budget constraints; he or she needs to provide a comprehensive finance presentation which must remain customer friendly. There is an increased need to focus on quality of service and process.

“Video mystery shopping is a powerful tool for manufacturers and dealer groups to benchmark the ability of their sales force in creating a rapport with customers, understanding their objectives and providing the most appropriate finance solutions to close the deal. The videos provide hard evidence which can be used to highlight any best practices, which can then be used to identify improvement opportunities. This is the first step before creating a coaching programme tailored to the need of the organisation,” adds Nigel.

Douglas Stafford is the leader in providing video mystery shopping and performance coaching to the automotive industry. The company works with 47% of the UK’s automotive manufacturers and many dealers and dealer groups.

For more information on how Douglas Stafford can help develop your sales teams, call us on 0800 7831913 or go to www.douglasstafford.com.

The service provided by HIOWAA became operational on 1 July 2007, which means that the charity will celebrate its 5th birthday this year. In this period, it has already performed more than 3400 missions!

The Charity has two permanent pilots, ten paramedics and currently eight volunteer doctors who make up the crews and leases a EuroCopter EC135. It provides a vital service, flying seven days a week out of its base at Thruxton, near Andover. Yet, it receives no government funding and relies upon the generosity of the people and companies of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight to keep the Air Ambulance flying.

The helicopter and its 3-person crew can travel at an average speed of 140 mph. From receiving a call, the helicopter can be airborne within four minutes.  It can reach anywhere in Hampshire within 15 minutes, and the Isle of Wight within 20. Once the patient is on board they can be transferred to the most appropriate hospital within 10 minutes, falling well within the Golden Hour which is so crucial for emergency treatments.

“We are very happy to support Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance,” says Douglas Stafford’s CEO Nigel Cook, “a very worthwhile charity which provides an efficient and prompt response to road traffic collisions, sporting accidents and many other incidents for people in Hampshire and on the island.

“Our team raises money throughout the year thanks to sponsorship and participation to team events such as the annual dragon boat race here at Lakeside, or by organising raffles. We also have monthly ‘dress down’ days, when everyone wishing to leave their business attire behind for the day will contribute.

“Everyone at Douglas Stafford wishes to help HIOWAA make this anniversary year a great fundraising success,” concludes Nigel.

“I am looking forward to working with Douglas Stafford during this exciting year for our charity,” says Sherie Williams Ellen, HIOWAA Charity Manager.

For more information on Douglas Stafford, one of the leading performance specialists in the UK, call us on 0800 7831913 or go to www.douglasstafford.com.

For more information and to support Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance, go to www.hiow-airambulance.org.uk.

“Douglas Stafford had an excellent 2011, with the dedication and hard-work of our team,” says Nigel Cook. “We continue to build on over twenty years of success in Mystery Shopping. Our business grows in strength by maintaining our long standing client base, including Volkswagen, Audi, Ford and Renault plus many more, many who have worked with us for nearly ten years, and by signing new contracts with other automotive clients including Toyota, Skoda and Kia Motors.  We are now working with over 47% of the UK’s Automotive Manufacturers, plus a large number of dealer groups and individual dealerships. This places Douglas Stafford as the UK’s number one provider”.

During 2011 Douglas Stafford was awarded a Special Achievement award from an industry leading automotive publication ’Car Dealer Magazine’, which highlighted the best motor trade suppliers to do business with as voted by the industry.

“The non-automotive division has also had excellent client retention with great success at winning new contracts during 2011,” adds Ben Sargeant, Douglas Stafford’s Operations Director. “We are very proud to have won a contract  with Vodafone covering their retail network along with GymBox, a unique fitness and entertainment group. We also recently signed a national contract with Persimmon Homes, and with a number of other projects in the pipeline, we are looking at a good 2012”, states Ben Sargeant.

“Another achievement for 2011, and one we are very proud of, is our ISO 9001 certification,” comments Douglas Stafford’s Commercial Director John Fieldhouse. “This confirmed the quality of our management system and our processes. The ISO 9001 certification is all about continuous improvement and our team will keep on making our operations better and more efficient for our customers, this year and the years after that”.

For more information on how Douglas Stafford can help improve your customers’ experience and your business bottom-line through mystery shopping, client research and staff training in 2012, call us on 0800 7831913 or go to www.douglasstafford.com.

In this tough economic period, there will be more focus than ever on customer retention rather than new customer acquisition. “It is a well accepted fact that it is cheaper for a brand to retain customers than to acquire new ones all the time,” explains Nigel Cook,  Douglas Stafford’s Chief Executive. “To retain your existing customers, you need to know if they are satisfied with your services, and see the whole buying experience through their eyes. Video mystery shopping is one of the best tools to achieve this.”

A recent poll by Loyalty 360 showed that 78% of consumers think that having a great customer experience makes them loyal. Brands need to recognise the need to deliver high quality customer service at every touch point, and not only at the point of sales. This means integrating phone contacts into the overall sales cycle. “Douglas Stafford can help you connect and reconnect with your past and existing customers, and talk to your prospects. Our customer contact centre is staffed by experienced professional customer service advisors who will work with you and contact your customers on your behalf to generate appointments or gather valuable information and feedback. Our advisors can become an extension of your sales team,” adds Nigel. “We can also run mystery shopping campaigns online or by calling your call centres to test your team’s ability to delight your customers during these interactions”.

In 2012, an important way to attract new customers will be to harness the power of recommendations and referrals. Successful brands will encourage user reviews, implement ‘refer-a-friend’ programmes, and develop other initiatives to encourage their satisfied customers to spread the word. “Again, our customer contact centre can help you by gauging how likely a customer is to recommend your services to friends and family. If done over a period of time, this methodology is an excellent way to measure your team’s progress in satisfying your customers”, comments Nigel.

“In 2012, customer satisfaction will be key to business success. Measuring, analysing and improving your customers’ experience at all stages of the buying process are the first steps on the journey towards deeper customer engagement. Customer experience management is a strategic priority, and should be funded and supported as such.”

“I would like to wish our clients a prosperous New Year. Every one at Douglas Stafford is looking forwards to help them develop customer loyalty in 2012,” concludes Nigel.

For more information on how Douglas Stafford can help you, through market research, mystery shopping or via our customer contact centre, please go to www.douglasstafford.com or contact us on 0800 7831913.

Having an insight into what your customers experience is invaluable in today’s current climate. Many articles are commenting on how consumers are more likely to purchase based on the level of  customer service that they receive rather than the price. Many consumers look for a good deal when purchasing but if they receive bad customer service this could put them off buying.

Video mystery shopping is an excellent tool for monitoring customer experience and gaining valuable insight into your business. It provides evidence based performance analysis that your management team will be able to use as a positive training tool on an on-going basis. During the past 20 years Douglas Stafford has developed a very robust method of performance evaluation through state of the art, full colour, digital HD quality video production. The evidence captured provides a clear understanding of what your customers experience.

For more information go to www.douglasstafford.com or call Kathleen Field on 02392 830011 or e-mail kathleenfield@douglasstafford.com

As more consumers are using their electronic devices to purchase goods it is vital that retailers respond by improving and maintaining their online services. Keith Brown, Managing Director of mobile phone payment solutions firm Paythru, says that many retailers don’t have sites that are adaptable for mobile phones and that 40 per cent of people leave mobile sites due to problems with completing their purchases.

“Unlike e-commerce, the real opportunity with m-commerce comes from increasing customer value and loyalty by understanding their unique purchasing behaviour from practically anywhere: in the food aisle, at the dinner table, standing in a queue or walking down the street,” said Mr Brown.

Performance improvement and mystery shopping expert Douglas Stafford can develop an electronic mystery shopping programme tailored for your business to monitor company websites and to see how well your team responds to online queries. “Minimising customer input online is key to attracting business, whether it is from past, present or new customers,” says Rohan Tailor, Douglas Stafford’s Electronic and Audio Production Manager.

“Making your business easy to work with is absolutely vital. Companies invest thousands of pounds in their online presence but they often fail to test websites and responses from their customers’ points of view. Email enquiries should be dealt with effectively and promptly and if this doesn’t happen then customers will go elsewhere.”

For more details go to www.douglasstafford.com or call Kathleen Field on 02392 830011 or email: Kathleen Field