At Oracle, we’re always looking for new ways to expand our expertise to clients. Last year, we successfully trialled a new service: mystery shopping.
The Aim
For the trial of our new service we worked with Elivia Homes, one of our housebuilder clients based in Kent and East Sussex. The sales and marketing team were keen to investigate the ways they could improve their in-person customer experience at two Sussex developments: Rectory Meadows in Plumpton Green, and The Brambles in Crowborough.
We were tasked with assessing the quality of customer service provided at each development and identifying areas for improvement in the customer journey.
The Process
To ensure our research and recommendations were as precise as possible, three stages were undertaken in this process:
- Desktop research prior to a site visit
- A visit to each development
- Follow up calls with sales advisors after the visit
Beginning the process, we conducted thorough desktop research into how both developments were presented on the Elivia Homes website, Google, social media and property portals. Here, we reviewed a number of key marketing elements:
- How accessible the webpages were
- How online adverts were presented by the agents
- How high the developments ranked on Google
- Ensuring all key information on Google was correct, including addresses and opening times
- Key messages on the agent websites, and whether they worked in favour or against Elivia Homes developments
- Anonymously calling the estate agents to see if they offered up an Elivia Homes development
The next stage was to conduct a site visit to each development. A member of the Oracle team visited each development in turn, acting as someone that was looking for a new home.
The purpose of each site visit was to review the customer journey at Rectory Meadows and The Brambles, and offer ways to improve this, which would in turn help to increase footfall. At each site, we reviewed how easily accessible they were, including if they were well signposted in the local area. We then spoke to the sales teams and assessed how supportive they were in trying to help us find a new home.
The final stage was to check if the sales teams followed us up with a phone call or email after our visit.
The Results
The outcome of our mystery shopping was very positive for Elivia Homes; both sites performed well during our desktop research and when we visited, with both sales teams following us up with calls after our visit.
To convey all of our research to Elivia Homes in an easily digestible manner, we pulled together a detailed report with both positive feedback and suggested improvements.
The client was impressed with our new service, and offered the following feedback:
Phil Brown, Sales & Marketing Director of Elivia Homes Eastern said: “First impressions upon arriving at a development and feedback from interactions with sales teams are valuable for understanding customer perceptions. Oracle’s feedback is clear, actionable, and highlights both strengths and areas for improvement effectively.
“Using this feedback, we can adjust our approach to customer experience by focusing on providing more positive reinforcement, which can boost team morale and performance.
“It’s very useful for the Selling Agents to be contacted. With so many vendors and developers to keep happy, these can often be a concern and many developers worry about being forgotten.”
If you would like to explore mystery shopping for your business, get in touch with us at hello@oraclepr.co.uk.