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Mystery Shopping in the gateway to the East
4th June 2010
Last week ABa attended the 11th annual MSPA Europe Mystery Shopping conference in Istanbul, Turkey.
With over 170 members drawn from over 40 countries, this was the largest and most successful event ever held by the MSPA in Europe. Delegates from Europe, USA and Asia met to discuss the important issues facing their businesses, to view new developments in their fast growing industry, and to learn how their colleagues had utilised mystery shopping techniques to better serve their many clients.
MSPA Europe President, Oksana Aulchenkova from Russia, opened the conference by welcoming the many delegates and providing a comprehensive overview of the progress made by the Association over the past year. Together with the incoming President, Cristiani Oliveira from
Portugal, Oksana presented the results of a comprehensive survey of MSPA members. Despite the difficult business climate over the past year, the survey revealed that the members had been able to grow their businesses, and looked forward to an even more successful year to come. Oksana said, "The success of our members shows how much our clients in retail businesses and elsewhere recognise the need to know exactly what is happening in their outlets. When customers are thin on the ground, it is all the more important to ensure that staff are performing positively and professionally."
MSPA Europe Director Stephen Hurst gave a teaser presentation of the initial results from a survey of Queues across Europe - a subject that the British will hold very dear to their hearts. Members had joined together to conduct the survey - which showed just how long the public have to spend in queues on a daily basis - and gave an indication of how reduced retail staffing levels may be having a serious impact on customer satisfaction. ABa will be contributing to the continual study and we're looking forward to being able to pull some really actionable insight out for our current clients.
The delegates then separated into a range of discussion groups, covering diverse topics such as:
- PR activities developed locally by Mystery Shopping providers
- Added Value of Mystery Shopping - Customer Experience
- New business approaches, new technologies
- How to fight the recession and grow
- MSPA as a quality stamp
Cristiani Oliveira, this year's president of MSPA Europe, closed the conference by thanking the delegates for their attendance, the speakers for their thought provoking presentations, the sponsors for their support, and the conference organisers for their hard work in making sure the whole event ran without a hitch. She outlined her objectives for the MSPA for the coming year, and rounded off by inviting everybody to the 12th annual conference in May 2011: in Barcelona.
MSPA Europe
