Mystery Shopper brings added value to Stoke and Staffordshire Conference and Meetings Venues

The award-winning Staffordshire Stoke-on-Trent Conference Bureau has published the results of a "mystery shopper" exercise aimed at helping the region's conference and meetings venues improve the service they offer their clients.

All 43 members of the Bureau were approached by the mystery shopper, whose job it was not to "name and shame" the venues, but to compile a report highlighting best practice and also showing where errors were made - and to then offer constructive criticism, and training.

"The strongest impression I got from the exercise was that almost everyone failed to consider what the client may know or may not know about the venue they were selling, or even about booking a meeting or conference space," reported Business Training Consultancy and Training's Joanna Aspin. "And because of this, several things were happening.

"In the first instance, for example, the majority of people only found out what date I considering and for how many people, and they then concentrated on availability and rates without learning anything else. I was also frequently given the standard sales 'pitch' because they had failed to establish what I might be interested in. And assumptions seemed to be made that the customer knows about the venue so they fail to sell it."

Other areas rigorously examined by the mystery shopper included the initial telephone greeting; the use of her name during the enquiry process; whether contact details were requested; how information was processed and passed-on; interest in the source of the enquiry; e-mail responses; the provision of additional information of local activities; and follow-up.

The overall result was that one venue as rated as "excellent", five as "very good", 6 as "good", 20 as "fair" and 10 as "poor".

Bureau Manager Claire Williams commented: "Whilst Joanna identified several venues which were missing things in terms of the service and experience she received, we viewed this exercise as an important means of raising standards across our region.

"And, as a result, was have now also run a subsidised training course, to which all member venues were invited to attend. This covered effective enquiry handling skills, how best to build client relationships, site visits and familiarisation visits."

The Bureau itself, meanwhile, has also recently represented all member venues at the upcoming EVENTS UK gathering, at the NEC in Birmingham.

Details of all venues are included in The Perfect Location, the Staffordshire Stoke-on-Trent Conference Bureau Guide, which can be obtained by e-mailing info@conferencestaffordshire.co.uk (Tel: 01782-232076). Or, for more details, visit www.conferencestaffordshire.co.uk.

For further press information, contact:
Claire Williams - Tel: 01782-232076 - E-mail: conference@stoke.gov.uk

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