pharmacy retail cross-comparison observation studies - mystery shopper method - m. b. cowley...

Cowley, M. (2015). Evaluating Family, National, & International Pharmacy Retail Outlets with the Mystery Shopper Method. Entrepreneurship & Management eJournal, vol.10, Issue 47, September 15, 2015. Innovation & Management Science eJournal, vol. 3, Issue 73, December 7, 2015.

Mystery Shopper Exercise: Health & Beauty Retail

QUANTITATIVE RETAIL REPORT

Authors: Michelle Cowley

Week 6: Training for Jobs in Sales & Marketing (Miriam Rogers, Retail Knowledge)

‘Evaluating Family, National, & International Pharmacy Retail Outlets with the

Mystery Shopper Method’

Momentum Sales & Marketing for Small & Medium Business SMES (2015)

Objective: To evaluate retail standards by sending a team of mystery shoppers on a targeted retail expedition. METHOD Participants. The Stores: Maher’s Family Pharmacy, Hickey’s Nationwide-Chain, & Boots International. The Mystery Shoppers: A team of five; three men and two women; approximate age range 24 to 52 years; approximate average age 35 years. The Task, Task Design, & Mystery Shopper Procedure. First, we divided ourselves into three groups of pairs to examine whether being a Luxury Purchase Shopper or a General Purpose Shopper affected the evaluation. One person from each pair was a luxury purchase shopper (e.g., purchasing make-up counter or electrical goods), and the other person was a general purchase shopper (e.g., purchasing dry-skin cream).

Second, we selected the following stores to represent Health & Beauty Pharmacy Retail: Family Stores, National Stores, & International Stores. We chose Maher’s Family Pharmacy, Hickey’s Nationwide Chain-Store, & Boots International.

Before the exercise began we constructed a 12-point itemised questionnaire to assign marks out of ten, on a scale where ten was the highest standard of customer satisfaction, and where zero was the lowest standard of customer satisfaction per evaluation question. Four questions for each of three pre-chosen categories were included in the questionnaire to representatively evaluate Store Appearance, Customer Service, & Store Products. See Appendix I for a copy of the Itemised Questionnaire.

Finally, each Mystery Shopper visited each store, for up to 15mins, to complete their assigned Luxury or General Purchase Task, and to fill in the questionnaire after each visit for

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each store. Once completed, Mystery Shoppers returned to meet their team to compile composite scores and a cross-table record of store performance for the stores’: Overall Evaluation, Overall Type of Purchase Evaluation, and Overall Evaluation for the categories of Store Appearance, Customer Service, & Store Products. RESULTS: Overall Store Comparison. The overall result revealed that Hickey’s Nationwide-Chain was ranked higher than either Boots International, or Maher’s Family Pharmacy on the same measures of evaluation. For the 12-point itemised scale on which customer satisfaction could be measured from 0-100%, Hickey’s Nationwide-Chain scored 67% customer satisfaction overall, whereas Boots International scored 56%, and Maher’s Family Pharmacy scored 53%. Luxury vs General Purchase. Moreover, the customer satisfaction result for Luxury and General Purchases showed that General Purchase satisfaction was similar across all three store-types (range 61-68%), while Luxury Purchase satisfaction varied (range 39-67%), and was lowest for Maher’s Family Pharmacy (39%) than for either Boots International (50%), or Hickey’s Nationwide-Chain (67%). See Fig. 1. Below:

Fig.1.: Overall percentage of mystery shopper customer satisfaction for Luxury and General Purchases, where 100% represents the maximum percentage of overall satisfaction per purchase type, per store. Overall Category Evaluation: Store Appearance, Customer Service, & Store Products.

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Maher's FamilyPharmacy

Hickey's Nationwide-Chain

Boots International

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The overall customer satisfaction for Store Appearance showed that Hickey’s Nationwide-Chain (77%) was more impressive than either Boots International (66%), or Maher’s Family Pharmacy (53%). Customer Service satisfaction however, was similarly low across all three store types (51%, 48%, 38%, for Maher’s Family Pharmacy, Hickey’s Nationwide-Chain, & Boots International respectively). That said, customer satisfaction with Store Products was highest again for Hickey’s Nationwide-Chain (77%), than either Boots International (57%), or Maher’s Family Pharmacy (67%). See Fig.2 below:

Fig. 2.: Overall percentage of mystery shopper customer satisfaction with Store

Appearance, Customer Service, & Store Products, where 100% represents the maximum percentage of overall customer satisfaction for each category per store. CONCLUSIONS For a retail sector associated with Health & Beauty, the stores’ appearance, cleanliness, and structured product signposting, varied to a surprising degree. Pragmatically a pharmacy should prioritise cleanliness and hygiene, as well as the appearance of a clean, hygienic, brightly lit, and clearly product sign-posted premises. The stores’ displays of products varied from store to store, where a confused layout for a family pharmacy contributed heavily to their lower scores, in comparison to the supermarket marketing display typology, or the brand-specific marketing predominance of the nationwide approach.

Most notable of all it was Customer Service that was consistently poor, in fact barely reaching 50% customer satisfaction scores at all across all three stores. In sum, much more work needs to be done to improve Customer Satisfaction across this sector in the locality.

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Appendix I Health & Beauty Mystery Shopper Questionnaire Store Name: Boots, Hickey’s, or Maher’s Shopper Name: _________________ Luxury or General Purchase Type: __________ Team Pair: __________________ INSTRUCTIONS Assigning marks out of 10, where 10 is of the highest standard of satisfaction, and where 0 is the lowest standard of satisfaction, rate the store on the following: Store Appearance

1. How good is the atmosphere in the store? ____/10 ____/10 ___/10 2. How clean, bright, and presentable is the store? ____/10 ____/10 ___/10 3. How visually impressive are the product displays? ____/10 ____/10 ___/10 4. How standardised or consistently effective is the store layout?

____/10 ____/10 ___/10 Customer Service or Staffing

5. How quickly was your need to be attended identified? ____/10 ____/10 ___/10 6. How effectively did the store employee identify a suitable product through

questioning and listening? ____/10 ____/10 ___/10 7. How effective were the store’s employee’s in making the case for the sale?

____/10 ____/10 ___/10 8. How well were you served, attended to, or brought to an appropriate employee for

attention? ____/10 ____/10 ___/10 Store Products

9. How specific, noticeable, and enticing were the products displayed? ____/10 ____/10 ___/10

10. Were price, or value for money promotions, made easily observable, explicit, and understandable to you? ____/10 ____/10 ___/10

11. Was the range of products and brands satisfactory to your requirements regarding the features or benefits of the product? ____/10 ____/10 ___/10

12. Was there a satisfactory level of stock, product range, and product facing off on the shelves? ____/10 ____/10 ___/10

SCORING Total Score Store Appearance ____/40 ____/40 ___/40 ____/120____/120 ___/120 Customer Service/ Staffing ____/40 ____/40 ___/40 Store Products ____/40 ____/40 ___/40



pharmacy retail cross-comparison observation studies - mystery shopper method - m. b. cowley...

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