A large local bank was interested in commencing its mystery shopping activities in order to assess the performance of their branches in Lebanon. The aim of the study was to evaluate the branches appearance and measure the performance of their personnel and benchmark their progress and improvement over time. The study was based on a combination of face-to-face interviews which were carried out with the bank’s customer service personnel or front desk clerks and telephone mystery shopper interviews which were conducted with the call center and the telesales operators of all branches. InfoPro Research examined the following in its assessment: External and internal site evaluation, staff appearance, waiting time, personnel evaluation and performance, whether personnel had a positive / negative attitude, customer care assessment, communication skills, knowledge of products, and cross-selling skills. InfoPro also conducted an in-depth analysis of the call centers and telephone operators at all branches. InfoPro specifically assessed waiting time, hold and transfer techniques, respondent evaluation and behavior. The study was conducted over one year and entailed three mystery shopping waves. A total of branches (more than 40) were visited twice and contacted once per wave. InfoPro also assessed the bank’s call center five times. The recurring mystery shopping waves provided BOB with the strengths and weaknesses of each branch understudy and allowed the client to track the progress and regression of their performance over time.
