250,000 Customers Help Alshaya Shape The Future Of The Customer Service Experience

07 Sep 2014

The successful new channel supports the goal of listening and responding to customer needs

M. H. Alshaya Co., the leading international retail franchise company, today announced that more than 250,000 customers have shared personal insights about their shopping and dining experiences in Alshaya outlets through its online survey 'Your Opinion Counts'. The survey - one of the biggest of its kind ever conducted across the region - is part of Alshaya's ongoing commitment to listen and respond to customers' opinions through the feedback channel that suits them. It complements Alshaya's region-wide Customer Contact Centre service and Mystery Shopper programme to help it understand customers' emerging needs and enhance overall service levels and the in-store experience.

'Your Opinion Counts' was launched last year and is accessed through the company's website www.alshaya.com, as well as through calls to its Contact Centre. The survey lets customers share insights about where they shopped or ate, the levels of service they received, their likes and dislikes, as well as being able to suggest potential areas for improvement. With over 250,000 responses now received, Alshaya is using the feedback to immediately address issues raised, as well as refine service levels. Where customers raise concerns, a service recovery plan is put into action and preventative measures are put in place to help ensure that the issue does not arise again.

The survey is part of a wider customer service offering that has been created to build connections between Alshaya and its customers and to expand its insights into ever-changing consumer behaviours and industry trends. Another key element is the Alshaya Contact Centre which provides a local call centre service to all Middle East and North Africa markets. The Contact Centre team operates 365 days a year from 8 am to 12 midnight, ready to resolve any service issues or customer concerns. To complement these two customer contact programmes, Alshaya has also run more than 120,000 mystery shopping trips across its stores and restaurants since 2007, helping to increase understanding of service levels and in-store responsiveness.

Listening and responding to customer needs is an integral part of the customer service culture at Alshaya. The company's growth has been built around customer-centric innovation and a commitment to continually elevate standards of customer service. Today Alshaya operates more than 2,600 stores for over 70 of the world's best known and best-loved brands including Mothercare, H&M, Debenhams, Topshop, Victoria's Secret, Starbucks and The Cheesecake Factory in markets across the Middle East, North Africa, Russia, Turkey and Europe. Ensuring consistency of service levels and an authentic brand experience across all its markets has been critical to the company's growth and as people's expectations continue to evolve, listening and responding to customers becomes ever more critical.

"The Customer Service team responds to the needs of around 35,000 customers each month by telephone and through social media, providing information on everything from store locations and opening hours, to stock availability and promotional campaigns. Whether the enquiries and feedback we receive are good, bad or indifferent, being able to talk to our customers can, and does, make us better at our business. We measure everything we do and are very pleased that over 90% of customers contacted have confirmed their satisfaction with the follow-up and resolution offered", said Mona Dabbah, Director of Customer Service at Alshaya.

"We have always worked hard to listen, understand and respond to what our customers expect - that is fundamental to great customer service and to Alshaya's ongoing growth and success. We want our staff to understand what our customers are looking for and the scale of feedback we have received through 'Your Opinion Counts' and other channels gives us incredible insight into how we can adapt our service in real-time to address customer needs and meet their changing expectations."