News and Media
2023 CX Trends
In today’s rapidly-evolving marketplace, the need for brands to focus on their customer experience strategy cannot be overstated. React’s Jill Spencer and Amy Morgans explore the CX trends that should be on every business’s radar in 2022 – how can organisations gain and retain the trust of customers? And what role will bricks and mortar stores play in an increasingly digital world?
ReactCX sets course for sustainability and growth
We are delighted to be able to let you know that ReactCX has joined forces with Proinsight Research Ltd, one of the most dynamic and fastest growing mystery customer services businesses in the UK. Together, we will apply our collective expertise in the measurement of...
6 Trends for a Very Merry (C)Xmas
Switched-on brands know that Christmas presents the perfect opportunity to attract and retain customers for the year ahead. And the savvier retailers have already identified that consumer behaviour will play out differently than it did last year, given the financial...
Poor Service Limits impact of Christmas Advertising Campaigns
The UK retail sector is again investing more than £7 billion on advertising this Christmas, according to the Advertising Association and Warc Data, so it's critical that retailers ensure that the in-store customer experience lives up to the brand promise. “Retail...
CX expert predicts outlook for bricks and mortar brands in 2022
React CX's very own Jill Spencer was recently interviewed by Retail Times to discuss the challenges surrounding brick and mortar based businesses and identify ways to successfully navigate through 2022 and beyond. Human beings still crave in-location experiences,...
2022 CX Trends
In today’s rapidly-evolving marketplace, the need for brands to focus on their customer experience strategy cannot be overstated. React’s Jill Spencer and Amy Morgans explore the CX trends that should be on every business’s radar in 2022 – how can organisations gain and retain the trust of customers? And what role will bricks and mortar stores play in an increasingly digital world?
Man vs. Machine: Customer Experience 2022
Since the pandemic hit, the world has moved from a period of disruption to one of evolution. Operational strategies that were forced to change purely from a safety perspective have become the norm, and brands must understand - and invest in – a hybrid style of...
Back to Basics: The Politeness Problem
Fierce competition is driving a retail revolution, with brands relentlessly pursuing new ways to differentiate their offering and capitalise on today’s experience economy. However, whilst this innovation arms race is undoubtedly exciting, the unfortunate consequence...
It’s a Wrap! 5 Retail Trends to Give You a Competitive Advantage this Festive Season
Christmas is always an exciting time of year for retailers across the UK, presenting opportunities for brands to attract and retain customers for the year ahead. The more switched-on retailers have already identified that consumer behaviour will play out differently...
CSat: Mainstay or Cliché?
As I sit here, drinking what is my third coffee of the day (black, no sugar, if you're asking), my eye falls upon a bland-looking customer survey link printed at the bottom of my receipt. These feedback requests have become ubiquitous, with everyone from my dentist,...
Brits to spend big this Christmas: Is your business ready?
According to research from Future PLC Brits will spend big on the run up to Christmas this year. With nearly £200bn in accumulated lockdown savings, the majority of consumers plan to splash the cash on Black Friday purchases and Christmas gifts. The research...
CX 2021: Predictions and Recommendations
Extract from our predictions PDF infographic. '2020 was a transformative year, with brands the world over becoming understandably absorbed in digitisation. However, it’s likely that there are simpler fixes available to businesses leaders that would have a...
CX 2021 The Next Normal
These questions, and ones like them, are keeping business owners across the U.K. awake at night as they plan strategies to move out of lockdown (again) over the coming weeks. Businesses have spent much of the past ten months scrambling to adapt to extraordinary...
Customer Experience Matters: Waking up to the new retail normal
The Covid-19 pandemic has upended the U.K. retail sector. As the government stutters through its attempts to convince the public it’s safe to ease lockdown, the role of rebuilding consumer confidence will increasingly fall to individual retailers as they begin to...
React CX in the MSPA European Elite
The MSPA (Mystery Shopper Professionals Association) has awarded Elite Membership for the sixth consecutive year to React CX, the customer experience specialist. React CX is the only UK provider to have been received this six times consecutively. With over 450 members...
Broadgate Boosts Footfall with Visitor Experience Programme
Broadgate, the 32 acre central London neighbourhood, has increased footfall by 3 per cent to some 64,000 visits per day, with help from data sourced through ReactCX mystery shopping, to further improve visitor experience. Broadgate is the largest pedestrianised...
Retail and the ‘Experience Economy’: are you ready for 2020?
Amy Morgans on millennials and the ‘Experience Economy’. 'Studies show that millennials don’t want to part with their cash for mere “things” like their parents do; their preference is to spend their hard-earned cash on something less tangible. They are looking...
Brexit: Is your CX Retail Strategy Ready?
Do you know how your customers will react to Brexit and your business will be affected? Is your post-Brexit customer experience plan ready to go? It’s not necessarily all gloom and doom. In fact, Brexit could put UK shoppers off buying from abroad over the internet,...
Shopping & Leisure Estate ‘Knowledge is Power’
ReactCX designed a mystery shopping CX programme to measure the customer experience against agreed criteria and standards; GAP analysis of CX performance and delivery against targets; and then design of customer service and sales training programmes to promote optimal...
What Customers Really Want: iwoca Article
What Customers Really Want: iwoca Article To find out what’s important to customers, iwoca asked Jill Spencer, the president of Mystery Shopping Professionals Association (MSPA) in Europe/Africa, and chair of its Global Advisory Board, to outline the lessons...
Year of the Customer: Ten Must-Do Resolutions to Get (and Keep) Customers
With 23,000 shops expected to close in 2019, according to research by real estate advisers Altus Group, positive customer experience Mystery Shopping is essential to entice shoppers instore and away from online shopping. Here’s the thing: when making a purchase, 64...
Man vs Machine: Customer Experience 2017
In ever tougher market conditions, how can you be sure you can deliver a great service to customers, to keep them coming back more often and spending more? Many of the major retail and leisure companies I speak to think the answer has to be a technology-based solution...
How to Improve the Customer Experience: Research Findings
I wanted to share with you the experience of 10,000 hours of mystery shopping activity so far this year. That’s the time React’s mystery shoppers have spent visiting shops, clubs, cinemas and other entertainment venues. Feeding back to me and our clients what works...
Your Holiday has been Cancelled
That feeling of being let down is rarely forgotten by you, me or any other consumer. Whether it’s a delayed flight, lost hotel booking, or a bad restaurant experience. This is peak time for the leisure sector as people take advantage of holidays and hot (we hope)...
The Value of Hello: £5.50
A new survey of 2.1m customer interactions worldwide shows 79% received a smile from staff, 81% were greeted, while only 58% received an add-on sale suggestion last year. In the UK, 73% of customers received a smile, 75% a greeting and only 47% a sale suggestion. The...
How to Save the High Street
Can the relentless downward trend in retail footfall be slowed or even stopped, as shoppers choose to shop online instead? Probably not: but individual retailers can still beat the trend. Here’s how: by providing a quality of customer experience that offers a level of...
The CX Battle Has Started: Are you Ready?
Customer Experience is now the key battleground for consumers’ purses and wallets – 89% of companies surveyed by leading analyst Gartner this year say that CX will be their primary basis for competitive differentiation. So how can organisations like yours find that...
Christmas Brand Campaigns let down by Customer Service
The UK retail sector is investing £5.6 billion on advertising this Christmas, according to the Advertising Association and Warc Data, so retailers must ensure that the in-store customer experience lives up to the brand promise. “Retail staff fail to meet the...
The Experience Economy: How to get Real Value from Mystery Shopping
Is mystery shopping still relevant for your CX measurement and improvement programme in 2017? The evidence is it can be transformative for customer experience and the bottom-line for retail, entertainment and membership organisations in particular, and I’ll explain...
UK Tops the ‘Smile’ Ranking for Customer Experience
For the first time in 14 years, the UK has topped the international Smile rankings scoring 94%, just ahead of Greece, Puerto Rico and Russia with 93%. The Smile report provides a summary of more than 1 million answers by customers to questions on B2C sales...
The High Street is Dead, Long Live the High Street
Can the relentless downward trend in retail footfall be slowed or even stopped, as shoppers choose to shop online instead? The number of people out shopping in the UK in November dropped to its lowest level since the 2008 recession, retail...
MSPA EU/Africa elects Jill Spencer as President
Ref: ReactCX MSPA President The MSPA, Mystery Shoppers Professionals Association, has appointed Jill Spencer as President. She is a Director of ReactCX, a leading UK customer experience research specialist. The MSPA is the international association for the mystery...
Less Engaged Employees Damage Sales
The latest results of the Net Happiness Score survey of the MSPA (Mystery Shopping Professionals Association) Europe of 43,775 stores show a decline in the quality of employee engagement, with an average score of 31%, compared to 34% last quarter. The UK continues to...
2019: The Year of the Customer
This year, the customer is in the driving seat; more empowered than ever before - ready and willing to vote with their feet and their fingertips to determine the success or failure of our traditional high street brands. The 2019 customer is savvy. They are using...
Christmas Brand Campaigns let down by poor Customer Service
The UK retail sector is investing more than £6 billion on advertising this Christmas, according to the Advertising Association and Warc Data, so it's critical that retailers ensure that the in-store customer experience lives up to the brand promise. “Retail staff fail...
Mystery Shopping: Mind Games Part 1
Mystery shopping is unique. It’s the only technique in the CX toolbox that can objectively measure the end-to-end customer experience. Whilst customers can feed back based on sentiment, they don’t have the trained eye to provide that micro view that shoppers look for....
The value of Mystery Shopping in the Big Data age
As technology continues to develop at a rapid pace, an ever-growing number of customer feedback opportunities are within reach of the majority of businesses. In the age of Big Data, it’s become common-place for businesses to glean real-time information about the...
Jill Spencer – MSPA Europe conference 24-26 May 2016
"The Economy of Credibility – The link between Trust and Profit" -During this session, Jill will examine the importance of credibility - to the Mystery Shopping industry as a whole, and at individual business level. She will discuss the issues that we face, and...
React joins the Elite…
The MSPA (Mystery Shoppers Professionals Association) has awarded Elite Membership to React, a leading customer service research specialist. The award has particular significance for UK retailers, entertainment venues and other users of mystery shopping services: this...
The Children’s Society boosts Gift Aid funding with Mystery Shopping
The Children’s Society has improved compliance with the Gift Aid scheme by its 97 stores to further increase its £8 million annual revenue to fund support services that help vulnerable children in England and Wales. The charity appointed React in 2014 to assess each...