Coventry, UK -- (SBWIRE) -- 12/31/2014 -- Waitrose supermarkets – part of the John Lewis Partnership - is implementing real-time survey technology across its little Waitrose convenience stores. The retailer has partnered with midlands based insight specialist CRT. The firm's patented software – ViewPoint - captures and analyses customer feedback at the point-of-experience. On leaving the checkouts, customers are invited to rate their visit to little Waitrose and give comments. The feedback is automatically relayed to the retailer, giving store managers the opportunity to respond rapidly to any to concerns as well as furnishing senior management with a big picture view of customer satisfaction and performance benchmarking data.
Completed customer surveys are filtered by ViewPoint's integral validation software which ensures that the feedback can be trusted as nonsense responses – such as children playing with the devices - are quarantined. The use of touchscreen technology is a shrewd move by Waitrose, as the onset of survey fatigue has seen a big drop in online survey returns, despite the incentives typically offered by retailers. Waitrose initially piloted the customer engagement software and saw an unprecedented number of responses, averaging 700 completed surveys a week across a handful of convenience stores.
The customer comments are particularly valuable, offering a rich seam of actionable information. CRT's research experts have developed text analysis tools to make sense of vast amounts of information by categorising it and presenting it in a variety of ways. Simon Rowland, CRT's CEO commented: "The technology is moving forward at a rapid rate; learning algorithms and neural nets will make more sense of customer behaviours and interactions in the future. I'm delighted by my development team's achievements and it's crucial that we continue to offer retailers the latest advances in research technology." Richard Quarterman, Waitrose's Service Innovation Manager, added: "We selected CRT because of their award-winning validation software that gives us confidence that we are receiving genuine customer comment. We have been impressed by their flexibility in responding to different and changing requirements, their positive attitude to find solutions and their understanding and empathy for our culture and approach."
About CRT
CRT is one of the leading providers of real-time customer feedback in the UK. They provide a full range of services and support through their research experts. They make sure that companies can manage their interactive surveys through multiple feedback channels including survey tables, mobile/SMS, survey kiosk, online survey and other modes. They also provide customer satisfaction surveys,visitor feedback surveys, and patient experience surveys.
For more information, please visit http://www.crtviewpoint.com