Operational Insights

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valuating your business through Mystery Shopping is one of the most valuable information management tools available. Corporate Research International continues to be a leader in this industry with its completely automated, Web-based service.

Corporate Research International maintains a key advantage over our competition in that our shopper database is proprietary and has been built exclusively by us. Because we recruit our own shoppers, we can specifically train and test them based on the specific needs of each client program. Other companies, who may rely heavily on outside “shopper associations” for their shoppers, are unable to match our training standards.

Our shoppers are tracked and rated internally to ensure that high-quality data is being reported back to you, and our automated processes allow you to receive this data within hours of the mystery shop visit.

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valuating your operations can be done through more than just on-site mystery shopping. Corporate Research International can utilize our shoppers or our in-house call center agents to evaluate your business through Phone Audits.

Each month, your locations will be called with the shopper or call center agent posing as a customer asking specific questions.

These conversations are recorded and are included as an MP3 link available on your customized Partner website.

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here are times when a covert evaluation of your business is not enough to discover important information regarding your operations.

Corporate Research International has a “Preferred” level of mystery shoppers within our database that can be utilized to perform customized Announced Audits within your locations.

Announced Audits allow you to thoroughly evaluate your organization and gather information normally unavailable through “mystery” shops. For example, convenience store coolers can be evaluated for proper temperature, product date codes, and adherence to product display guidelines or plan-o-grams. Although these operational factors may or may not influence the individual customer during any one visit, they are sure to be important drivers of customer satisfaction over time.

Announced Audits can also include digital photos embedded within the completed evaluation form to support the answers given.

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hrough the use of our mystery shoppers in the field, we deploy observational research techniques requiring our shoppers to make ongoing general observations of operations/employee behaviors over a defined period of time.

When engaged in Observational Research, shoppers gather much more data than can be collected during a traditional mystery shop, although the data is somewhat different in nature. For example, a shopper might observe all transactions and customer interactions that occur at an airport car rental counter over the course of one hour. Their assignment might then require that they go to another terminal within the airport and perform a similar observation at another counter.

Observational Research can be combined with traditional mystery shop techniques in which the observer also engages employees or requests service; however, it should remain flexible and may benefit by not being structured around a specific scenario. This allows the observer (our shopper) to remain inconspicuous during the observation and gives them the flexibility to adjust to on-site conditions. As with a general mystery shopping program, the individuals used for the observational research are trained based on the exact study they are conducting.

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onitoring your call center representatives can be a never-ending task. Corporate Research International offers a unique and unbiased program to facilitate call center monitoring.

Whether you outsource your call center operations or keep them in-house, there is typically a “black hole” effect on how easily your managers can view and monitor call center representatives' performance.

By utilizing Corporate Research International’s trained, in-house shoppers, you can effectively fill that “black hole”. These individuals can make as many calls as required on a monthly basis into your call centers, each posing as an everyday customer. Every call is recorded and displayed as an MP3 link available on your customized Partner website.

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ollecting data through Mystery Shopping and/or surveys is the first step in understanding your business and customers. Once you have the data, it is critical to understand what it all means.

To help you stay ahead of your competition, Corporate Research International can provide you with the understanding you need through data analysis. Our analytics help identify key drivers of operational success, customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction. Utilizing this critical information will help you and your business make informed and accurate decisions leading to better overall performance.

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orporate Research International has a key advantage over our competition in that we are able to provide custom-designed programs through our in-house IT Department. This includes not only all programming work but also a secure in-house data center that is backed-up at an off-site location.

Corporate Research International creates a custom Partner website that can provide you with reporting features for individual stores, at a corporate level, or any level of your company hierarchy in between.

We do not utilize any off-the-shelf software such as Sassy or Profit.