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Aardvark’s new partnership with Piranha forms an exciting Marketing Menagerie June 2011
Local marketing company will now offer businesses complete and seamless marketing support from strategy to effective creative designs, websites and direct marketing.
Chris and Gill Hutchinson who together run Aardvark Marketing Consultants have been offering advice to local businesses in Herefordshire & Worcestershire for the last 6 years. We help with marketing strategy, planning, customer research and how to measure the effectiveness of marketing activities. By forming a new partnership with Eddy Ankrett of Piranha Marketing Solutions we are now able to support our clients further with great creative work to complement their marketing strategies. Gill and Chris will be managing the day to day running of Piranha Marketing.
The founder of Piranha, Eddy Ankrett, has many years industry experience in marketing and enthuses about the new relationship between the two companies. “We are already at work on a number of new projects for local businesses which shows customers value the breadth of knowledge, experience and products we can now offer”.
Gill Hutchinson commented on the new partnership “Piranha has been providing great design, websites, copywriting and direct marketing for over 4 years so we are very excited to be joining forces. We believe that Aardvark clients can benefit from the creative talent of Piranha and Piranha clients can increase their marketing effectiveness by consulting Aardvark”.
The benefits for all our customers will be seamless marketing advice and implementation using hand-picked specialists. We can now offer the right marketing solutions and service at the right price, all project managed by us so busy business owners and managers will have just one point of contact to manage all their marketing.
Mystery shopper audits to enhance your customer experience October 2010
NO MYSTERY BEHIND AWARD-WINNING CAFE’S EXCELLENT SERVICE
Mystery shopper visits by local marketing company boost teamwork at The Orchard Cafe and guarantee customers receive great service every day
The Orchard Cafe at Worcester Woods Country Park has won awards and plaudits for its food. Now, owners Nett and Guy Ward are working with Aardvark Marketing Consultants to monitor and recognise the cafe’s excellent customer service too.
Aardvark, based at Top Barn Business Centre, Holt Heath, has developed a weekly mystery shopper audit for the cafe. Nett Ward believes the visits have made customer service more consistent across shifts and boosted teamwork.
She said: “Guy and I want to ensure that all our customers receive excellent service every time they visit. We’re not always at the cafe so the mystery shopper gives us an independent view that standards are being maintained.
“It’s been a hugely positive and motivating process. The team feel very proud of themselves when they get great feedback, and they work together to achieve the results.”
The 20 full and part-time employees were involved in creating the list of standards assessed by the mystery shopper. This includes being greeted with a smile and eye contact, how long an order takes and if tables are clean.
Employees receive a 25p per hour bonus if they achieve more than 90% from the mystery shopper. This can amount to an extra £10 per week. Everyone in the team receives the bonus, regardless of who is on duty when the mystery shopper visits.
Mrs Ward said: “Businesses could run the mystery shop without the bonus, but rewarding our team is important to us, and it marks us out from other employers. The team have actually said the money is not important, they are happy just for the feedback.”
Aardvark director Gill Hutchinson said: “We’re pleased that our mystery shopper audit has proved so successful for The Orchard Cafe. Traditionally, schemes such as this have only been provided by national agencies to large companies. We believe Aardvark is one of the only organisations offering an affordable, local option to small and medium-size businesses.”
Aardvark has recruited eleven of The Orchard Cafe’s regular customers as mystery shoppers so that employees do not suspect when they are being assessed. One is a young mother. She said: “the Orchard café is very family friendly and has excellent food so it is our regular young mums meeting place.”
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