International News

Banks Not in Service
Herald Sun - Australia
Poor bank branch service and unhelpful call centres are forcing Australians to use internet banking despite online security problems. Once people hit the internet sites, however, the poor service there only further increases their level of frustration, driving them to seek even less traditional bank options. …

The Coffee Club Townsville wins Franchisee of the Year Award
Queensland Business Review - Spring Hill,Queensland,Australia
Now in its third year, the Franchisee of the Year award is judged on criteria including quality of the application, financial performance, a mystery shopper, store visits by the judging panel, and an assessment by the Franchise Relationships Institute. …

NSLC Looking for Undercover Shoppers
ChronicleHerald.ca - Halifax,Nova Scotia,Canada
The Nova Scotia Liquor Commission has issued a tender looking for mystery shoppers. … “That’s where you go into your retail outlet testing certain scenarios and performance of the staff at the store on the standards that we try to reach,” Rick Perkins, a spokesman for the Crown corporation, said Thursday. A company called Spot Check Services, which is based in Regina …

Online Shoppers Let Down by Customer Service
silicon.com > Retail & Leisure - London,UK
UK online retailers are still letting down web shoppers where it comes to customer service. In a mystery-shopper exercise conducted by customer service software maker Talisma, 45 per cent of retailers failed to reply to customer emails - and only 47 per cent of those who did provided accurate and complete information in their response. …

We All Have Our Own Bank Bugbears
Telegraph.co.uk - Britain,UK
What do you think of your bank’s customer service? … A report published last week showed how poor British banks are at customer service when compared with overseas rivals. It said standards were far higher in the US, Spain, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Germany and South Korea, to name but a few. …

IRD Helpline Not So Helpful
New Zealand Herald - New Zealand
The Inland Revenue’s helpline staff are ill-prepared for new tax changes and much of the information they’re giving out is incorrect, a Business Herald investigation has revealed. The Business Herald conducted a series of “mystery shopping” phone calls of the help lines last week and the vast majority of the answers received were incorrect. …

U.S. News

Hospitals Try To Cure Impersonal Service
KMBX-TV - Kansas City,MO,USA
The modern decor is offset with low lighting.She throws her car keys to a valet, breezes through the door, grabs a cappuccino from the lobby’s cafe and greets the smiling clerk on her way to check-in. This is not the Ritz Carlton, but it could describe the patient experience at one of hundreds of American hospitals trying to take their offerings to the next level. …

Anderson Presents Plan of Action
Pembroke Mariner - Marshfield,MA,USA
Selectman Don Anderson took a step toward progress Monday night when he presented his suggested Goals and Actions plan to the board. … Anderson’s short-term solution was to implement “mystery shopping” of town services, to assess quality and accountability. He also recommended the creation …

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