Mystery shopper: Agencies uncovered
This month Ethos Consultancy’s mystery shopping team visited four major GCC travel agencies. ATN reveals their findings.
Mystery Shopping explained
Who was visited?
Each of the following travel agencies were visited twice by one of Ethos Consultancy’s 3000 well-trained mystery shoppers in July.
- Qatar Holidays
- Etihad Holidays
- Dnata Holidays
- Emirates Holidays
How does it work?
Each month ATN and Ethos will choose four different travel agencies from within the UAE to mystery shop and find out how satisfied your customers are. The purpose of this exercise is to find out the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to travel agencies’ customer service and sales execution performance across the UAE. Ethos will report their monthly findings as well as provide some insight and recommendations relating to areas which need improvement.
What were our mystery shoppers instructed to do?
Each mystery shopper was given three scenarios from which to choose:
- You are planning a family holiday in June/July. Ask the travel agent to recommend some destinations that you could visit and would be interesting for children as you are traveling with two kids who are under the age of 10.
- Ask the agency for options for a gift of a prepaid three-night package for a honeymoon couple.
- You are planning a holiday with friends and are looking for a holiday full of adventure and would be interested in staying at a hotel that can organise trips to the mountains, water sports activities, cycling ,etc.
What were our mystery shoppers looking for?
1. Agency appearance
- Was the outlet easy to find?
- Were the opening/closing hours clearly displayed at the entrance?
- Did the outlet appear clean and tidy?
- Were the travel brochures and related literature placed in a good orderly manner?
- Was the temperature comfortable?
2. Travel advisor
- Were the employees you encountered well groomed and neat in appearance?
- Were employee name tags visible?
- Were there a sufficient number of employees available to serve you and other clients?
- Did Travel Advisor employee make eye contact to acknowledge your presence at the desk?
- Did the outlet have a formal customer queuing system in place?
- How long did it take for you to be served?
- If you had to wait to be served, did an employee apologise for the wait?
- Did the employee serving you refrain from using the phone or conversing with other staff while attending to your enquiry?
- How were you greeted by the Travel Advisor who served you?
- Did the travel advisor provide all information relevant to your enquiry?
- Did the travel advisor have a friendly attitude towards you?
- Did the travel advisor who served you provide you with their full attention?
- Was the travel advisor knowledgeable about the services you requested?
- Did the travel advisor provide you with all the information you required in an easily-understood manner?
- Were you satisfied with the information you received?
3. Overall experience
- Overall, based upon your experience, would you recommend this outlet to family and friends?
- How satified were you with the outcome of your visit?
Outlet Appearance
Travel agency Average
Emirates Holidays 100%
Etihad Holidays 100%
Dnata Holidays 100%
Qatar Holidays 100%
Travel Advisor
Travel Agency Average
Qatar Holidays 92%
Etihad Holidays 87%
Dnata Holidays 70%
Emirates Holidays 65%
Overall Experience
Travel agency Average
Dnata Holidays 90%
Qatar Holidays 80%
Etihad Holidays 55%
Emirates Holidays 45%
All four Agency Scores Combined
Travel agency Average
Qatar Holidays 92%
Etihad Holidays 86%
Dnata Holidays 77%
Emirates Holidays 68%