Customer satisfaction is the primary goal of any company. In fact, every commercial activity aims to establish a stable relationship with its customers over time, that can only be achieved if the company is able to intercept clients’ needs, desires and expectations. But how do you measure the level of customer satisfaction? It’s easy, just ask your clients!

In-store interviews to assess customer satisfaction

Testpoint recently carried out 300 interviews in Rome at the exit of a well-known brand of women’s clothing to assess the degree of customer satisfaction. A store located inside a shopping center and two shops located across the street were tested: this was used to measure the different “appeal” of the two types of shops and to analyze all the factors that can affect sales.

 

In the shopping center, the interviews were carried out over the weekend, when the flow of customers is greater, while for the street stores the work was concentrated on weekdays.

 

The interviews involved not only customers who had made a purchase, but also people who had entered the store but hadn’t bought anything.

How exit interviews are carried out

Let’s hear from one of Testpoint interviewers how this type of interview is carried out: it is Paola, 30 years old, from Rome, who describes her experience.

 

“It happens very often to carry out in-store interviews for companies that need to evaluate the degree of satisfaction of their customers or that, for example, want to understand the reason for different sales levels among different stores of the same brand. It involves going near the exit of each store, or sometimes even inside the store with the necessary authorizations, stopping people and questioning them about their shopping experience.

 

Generally they ask us to interview a mix of people who have bought and people who came in just to take a look but who left without buying anything. We are often asked to interview customers of different age groups, both men and women: but of course this depends on the type of shop. Sometimes, the interviews concern the customers of the client company and also those of a competitor company.

 

We recently did these interviews for a well-known womenswear brand.
The interview was carried out using a tablet showing the questionnaire and it was very short, lasting a maximum of ten minutes. The aim is to understand what the customer thinks of the store, if they find it well-stocked, if the staff is efficient and collaborative, in short, if the shopping experience meets expectations.

 

Even the opinion of those who have not bought is fundamental: it is necessary to understand if customers have gone out empty-handed because they did not find what they were looking for, because they were not adequately followed and accompanied in the purchase or simply because they had entered only to look but they weren’t intending to buy at the time.

 

I must say that these interviews that allow you to get in direct contact with the customer and get to know their opinions are always interesting for us who carry out many ones: above all, we are certain that our work helps to improve the quality of the services that companies offerto their customers. “