bare international (pdf)

www.bareinternational.com

History

Bare International began operations in 1987 as one of the first mystery

shopper organizations to provide consistent analysis of nationwide brands.

Restaurant & Hotel Services (RHS), BARE International’s predecessor, focused

on helping hotel and restaurant chains evaluate customer experiences

at multiple locations. The business succeeded because we developed

innovative new processes that brought uniformity to the examinations

done by the company’s fieldforce. It didn’t take long to understand that the

model applied in other industries as well, and RHS began to provide mystery

shoppers for health and wellness establishments, retail stores and financial

services institutions. Today, in addition to those industries, BARE shoppers

and auditors evaluate brands in the automotive, consumer electronics,

gaming & leisure, grocery, oil & gas, and housing industries.

After a decade in the business, we realized that the profession of mystery

shopping was threatened by the inability of many providers to deliver high-

quality consistent analysis of customer experiences. Our co-founder, Mike

Bare, joined forces with other leaders in the industry to create the Mystery

Shopping Providers Association in 1998. He served as the organization’s

vice-president that year, and then as president in 1999. In 2004, he was

inducted into the organization’s Hall of Fame.

Also in 1999, RHS added an overseas office in Antwerp, Belgium and became

BARE Associates International. The expansion was a natural extension of the

original premise behind our founding—if national brands needed accurate

consistent analysis of their customer experience, certainly international

brands could benefit from the same type of information. After more than

a decade of international success and expansion, our clients continue to

affirm this belief. BARE now has offices in eight countries and we continue

to grow.

A Track Record of Innovation and Leadership

Leading the way in

creating innovative tools,

and working across multiple

industries has given us the

leverage to provide success-

ful solutions worldwide.


International Experience

In 1999, we opened our first international office because we believed then, as we do now, that

businesses need consistent, reliable feedback on the customer experience wherever consumers

interact with the brand. After more than a decade of international success and expansion, our

clients continue to affirm this belief. At a time when many businesses have contracted or collapsed,

our operations continue to grow. In the last year, we have added an office in Singapore to support

increasing demand in Asia.

Bare delivers the most effective international brand evaluation services because we train and

monitor our own network of professionals. Where other companies franchise their operations

overseas and contract mystery shopper work to third parties, we manage all of our projects in-

house to make sure that your locations around the world are evaluated consistently against the

same standards. From 8 offices on 4 different continents, Bare oversees a global fieldforce of more

than 500,000 professional brand evaluators.

We maintain offices in the following locations to support over 25,000 evaluations per month in

over 120 countries worldwide:

A Global Leader in Customer Research for Brand Success

Fairfax, VirginiaNorth America

Sao Paulo, BrazilSantiago, Chile

Budapest, HungaryAntwerpen, Belgium

Shanghai, China

Mumbai, India

Singapore


Services

BARE International takes pride in the quality of the services that we provide. We strive to deliver the same thing that we help our clients deliver—an Excellent Customer Experience.

Our services give you feedback on each of these critical components in your customer experience and

insights on how to improve performance.

Evaluating Operational ExcellenceServices like our Mystery Customer evaluations and our Brand Standard, Compliance, Quality

Assurance and Integrity Audits measure how your employees and facilities measure up against the

standards that your leaders create. The result is a consistent, high-quality evaluation of your employees’

performance relative to the benchmarks set by your executives.

Gauging Employee Commitment Your business will always deliver an Excellent Customer Experience when people who serve your

customers believe in your mission and work hard. BARE offers four services that range from surveying

employee engagement and satisfaction to in-depth interviews and focus groups. We evaluate the

enthusiasm and effectiveness that your employees bring to the job, and the satisfaction that they take

away from a job well done.

Measuring Customer SatisfactionNo one can tell you how consumers relate to your brand better than your customers. The quality of

the feedback that you get from this vital source depends on the quality of the questions you ask and

the skill of the people doing the asking. BARE works to develop intercept interviews and phone- and

web-based satisfaction surveys that get to the heart of how customers view your employees, services

and facilities. Our social media data mining services monitor the status of your brand online where

feedback is often less inhibited than a survey or interview and where a few bad posts can damage even

the most successful brands.

Bare Services - An Investment in Quality

EXCELLENTCUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

OPERATIONALEXCELLENCE

EMPLOYEECOMMITTMENT

CUSTOMERSATISFACTION


Hospitality

Grocery

Grocery

RetailHealth

FinanceIndustries BARE began as a mystery shopping provider for restaurants and hotels.

It didn’t take long to realize that many other types of businesses could

benefit from the type of analysis that we do. Our typical client, regardless

of industry, has a centralized management operation with multiple

locations that serve customers. We provide unbiased information to

the executives about how their initiatives and processes are working

in various venues. Today, we serve clients in a wide variety of industries

around the world, such as:

Automotive

Consumer Electronics

Financial Services

Gaming & Leisure

Grocery/Fast-Moving Consumer Goods

Health & Wellness

Hospitality

Housing

Oil & Gas

Restaurants

Retail

Our headquarters team for each industry develops standards, training

programs and evaluation tools to ensure that the Mystery Customers,

Brand Auditors and other professionals who review your employees and

facilities arrive with an understanding of your industry, your company

and the customer experience that you are trying to provide. We certify

each member of our fieldforce for work in specific industries and, when

appropriate, even specific clients. Every Mystery Customer visit or

Intercept Interview is performed by a member of Bare’s fieldforce with

whom we maintain a direct relationship. We do not outsource any of

our review functions, as that would limit our ability to guarantee the

quality of the service that you will receive.

Professionals Who Understand Your Business

Every Mystery Customer

visit or Intercept Interview is

performed by a member of

Bare’s fieldforce with

whom we maintain a

direct relationship. We

do not outsource our

review functions.


Our Formula for Success

In order to deliver an Excellent Customer Experience, you need professionals who can deliver the highest quality objective feedback on your Operational Excellence, Employee Commitment and Customer Satisfaction.

Bare’s service offerings help your business focus on evaluating and improving performance in each component of the formula for success.



EMPLOYEECOMMITTMENT


Excellent Customer Experience

It’s Measureable. It’s Proven. It’s Successful.

Measures operationalefficiency and opportunities at customer touch points.

Determine employeeengagment, trainingeffectiveness and consistency.

Evaluate the customers expectations, experienceand brand loyalties.


Excellent Customer Experience



EMPLOYEECOMMITTMENT


Mystery Customer(In Person,

Phone & Web)

Brand Standard & Compliance

Audits

Quality Assurance

Audits

Integrity Audits

SatisfactionSurveys

(Phone, Email & Web)

Social Media Data

Mining

Intercept Interviews

VOC QR Code Surveys

Employee Satisfaction

Surveys

Employee Engagement

Surveys

F2F In-Depth

Interviews

Focus Groups


Case Study: Retail

A Fortune 500 retailer with over 500 locations in the USA

had concerns with their individual store execution of

world class Customer Service. The client guaranteed total

satisfaction to its customers but based upon customer

surveys and reduction in intent to return, they believed

that this service promise was unfulfilled. The primary

areas of client concern were: service quality, employee

knowledge of new product lines, and customer complaint

handling. The key objectives were to improve customer

satisfaction overall as well as to initiate higher ticket sales

to existing customers.

BARE set up a benchmark study of all stores in order

to evaluate the customer experience. Analysis of the

results clearly showed where service standards needed

improvement and where sales opportunities existed.

Action plans were generated from each visit for coaching

to the specific shop results. Stores were given 90 days

to correct and a results based bonus platform put into

place. BARE then began a monthly program in order to

provide consistent measurement and results feedback

through Mystery Customer visits as well as Customer Exit

Interviews.

BARE helped our client to establish a program that created

an atmosphere of positive change. Managers learned to

coach to reports and to continue the positive education

of their employees. Employee engagement improved,

customer loyalty was strengthened and average sale per

visit increased. This positive trending has continued over

a three year period.

RetailWorld Class Customer Experience Solutions

Results

Challenge

Solution

BARE helped our

client to establish a

program that created

an atmosphere of

positive change.

Employee engagement

improved, customer

loyalty was strength-

ened and average sale

per visit increased.


Case Study: Hospitality

A global Hotel company rolled out new service standards

to all of their hotels worldwide. After several months

of training, they were not seeing the impact on their

satisfaction scores or corresponding increase in revenue

that was expected. They had been told by a consultant

firm that they would experience a significant ROI if they

rolled out and trained to higher standards. They needed

verification of their process and effectiveness of training.

BARE International partnered with the ABC Hotel company

and designed an on-going 360° customer service

evaluation program. By touching the guest experience

through quarterly Unannounced Visits, Mystery Guest

Overnights, Front of House Audits, Back of House Audits, and

Guest Satisfaction Surveys, BARE was able to provide the

ABC Hotel company with the statistical data they needed to

validate their training, brand standards, and management

consistency around the world. Upon review of the data, it

became clear that the hotel employees were not following

the new standards during the course of their interactions

with guests. It also became clear that more internal training

of the management teams was needed in order to support

an on-going dedication to brand compliance.

By auditing for cleanliness, condition, brand standards,

and service interactions, ABC Hotels had full view of

the guest experience across all brands. Over the first six

months of the 360° measurement program, the ABC

Hotel company increased their guest satisfaction scores

by 11.1%. This increased guest intent to return, and each

property received validation of the success of the program

through their internal dashboards. Revenue flow held even

in a down market and has continued to show a slow rise

across regions. The ABC Hotel company has continued their

program and is now in the 5th year of working with BARE

to continue to understand and validate guest expectations

and experiences.

HospitalityHotel 350 Evaluations

Results

Challenge

Solution

Over the first six

months of the 360°

measurement program,

the ABC Hotel company

increased their guest

satisfaction scores by

11.1%. They now

continue to understand

and validate guest

expectations and

experiences year-round.

bare international (pdf)

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