Ethos Consultancy and 7DAYS have awarded the first ever Retail Telecom Customer Service Award based on the Retail Telecom Benchmarking Study

The study was carried out through a 5 week period commencing early April 2006. Researchers focused on real scenarios where a perspective customer would enter a mobile phone retail outlet to enquire about purchasing a new phone, become involved in a sales process and observe the performance of the sales associate and their perception of the store using pre-defined criteria.

During the study mystery shoppers visited 210 UAE Mobile Phone Retail Outlets in Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi. 18 Telecom Retail Brands were considered in total. "Our key benchmarking objective is to establish what are the benchmarks relating to a new customer enquiry within a pre determined 30+ criteria," Robert Keay, Managing Director, Ethos Consultancy.

The criteria fell under 6 different categories: Outlet Appearance, Employee Appearance, Product Knowledge, Customer Service, Sales Performance, and Overall Satisfaction. The 6 categories carried different weights to reflect their importance to an overall customer experience.

The results of the Benchmarking study were very surprising. As an overall sector, Telecom Retailers scored 70% which is well below what is considered acceptable.

The Benchmarking study also revealed the following. Although Retailers spend a great amount of money on their displays and store appearance, the worst category was Sales performance. With a mark of 45% in this category it is clear that there is a lack of focus and understanding on what the customer wants to buy.

The retail Telecom industry is a high volume industry with many competitors. There is a huge opportunity for all retailers to increase their profit and customer loyalty in this industry and take a leap above their competitors by focusing on customer service and sales proficiency.

7DAYS joined forces with Ethos Consultancy as partners in this survey because of Ethos's ability to find out what prospective consumers really want. The mystery shopping method reveals how well the customer's expectations are being met to the point where they would choose that retailer to shop at. The Telecom Benchmarking study has produced three reports: The Executive Benchmarking Report, the Brand Specific Report and the Online Access to the Research Data for further analysis. 7DAYS and Ethos Consultancy will join again to Benchmark other retail sectors and praise those that have taken strides to put the customer at the centre of their business.