Prepared for Dr. Nizar Alsharari

Prepared by:Mohammad Abou Naaj 201211917Mohammad Nour ALmonier 201011449Sami Reyad Shammout 201211673Mohammad Rajeh 201011617Malek Saeed Al-abssi 201220338

Ethos

KnowledgeTRAK

Table of Contents

Abstract......................................................................................................................3Introduction...............................................................................................................5Data description.........................................................................................................6

Mystery Shopping...................................................................................................6The King Abdullah II Center for Excellence...........................................................7

The Importance and Role of the Mystery Shopper in the Evaluation Processes:7Sheikh Khalifa Excellence Award, 14 years of sustainable Excellence..................8

There are Three categories in which the Sheikh Khalifa Excellence Award is given..................................................................................................................10

The comparing between Sheikh Khalifa Excellence Award, 14 years of sustainable Excellence and The King Abdullah II Center for Excellence.............11Sheikh Khalifa Excellence Award (SKEA); 14 years of sustainable Excellence....11

The King Abdullah II Center for Excellence......................................................12Surveys....................................................................................................................14Data analysis............................................................................................................15

Governmental Level..............................................................................................16Political Level.......................................................................................................16Organizational Level.............................................................................................18

Conclusion...............................................................................................................18References...............................................................................................................19

Abstract

Our group conducted an interview with Ethos Integrated Solutions team in order to understand the impact of changing their in-house Mystery Shopping& Surveys System AKA “KnowledgeTRAK” and gather feedback about this change, taking into consideration that they have been using the old software for 10 years. The change occurred in February 2016.

Interview consisted of many questions covering 3 levels:

- Political & Economic Dimensions.- Governmental Level.- Organizational Level.

In general, the team’s satisfaction about this change was neutral so was the client’s, due to many advantages and disadvantages of the new system, and the huge level of stress and tension they went through during the migration phase.

Mystery Shoppers UAE formed from a passion to contribute to the elevation and development of customer service delivery in this region.

Working closely with our colleagues in the UK who have provided mystery shopping and customer satisfaction research since 1991, we combine their extensive background of expertise and resources along with our own local know-how. Our own combined experience in this region of over 20 years has enabled us to witness the rapid physical development of business and trade. We believe that an investment in the ‘people’ component of the equation will ensure that organisations will improve sustainability and an authentic experience for both their customers and their staff.

Our aim is to work with you to achieve an elevation in service delivery, a higher level of employee retention and ultimately an increase in your brand loyalty. The service we offer involves providing you with more than just data – our aim is to deliver a complete solution that is measurable and clearly demonstrates a rate of return on the investment in your brand.

Our priority is professionalism and the up keep of ethical standards and conduct in all that we do. That’s why we are members and supporters of organisations like MSPA (Mystery Shoppers Providers Association), MRS (Market Research Society) and the Institute of Customer Service (UK). These professional associations have been integral at providing global barometers and benchmarks for the benefits of providing positive service experiences.

Introduction

KnowledgeTRAK System – Mystery Shopping & Surveys

Ethos Integrated Solutions is the leading customer service and customer-experience Consultancy Company in the UAE. Started in the UK back in 1995, and established in Dubai early 2004. The exclusive partner of the UK based TICSI (The International Customer Service Institute), the CEO and founder of Ethos Mr. Robert M. Keay, is also the co-founder of the TICSI.

Ethos provides Customer Service Measurement solutions such as Mystery Shopping and Surveys, in addition to other services including TISSE certification, Training, E-Learning, Seven Stars Government and many other online customer servicesolutions.

Unlike other companies that use Microsoft Excel for their measurement operations, Ethos built in-house software for Mystery Shopping & Surveys called “KnowledgeTRAK” where all fieldwork, questionnaires, reports and calculations are automated and accessible from anywhere as it’s an online website.

Due to the rapid change in this market, and the different requirements of clients and government in the Customer Experience field (i.e. calculation methods, reporting needs etc…), the operations requested massive changes and modifications in their “KnowledgeTRAK” system, but IT team was not able to accompany all these requirements as the programming language was “old”, so they had to re-write the whole system using a modern IT language that is able to accommodate all the new requirements.

Data description

The system as discussed earlier is mainly used to run the company’s measurement operations (Mystery Shopping & Surveys).

Mystery Shopping

The company is measuring the customer service level provided in their client’s branches, stores, locations, call centers and websites based on international standards.

Within the system, you can create a new client, and add their locations (branches, call center and website), then you can create programs and waves, programs mainly includes the type of activity such as visits, calls or website evaluations, and the waves refers to the cycles on which the mystery shopping activity will be conducted (monthly, quarterly, semi annually etc…). Then the questionnaires are created with agreed weightings, and the client can decide the shopper’s profiles that are eligible to conduct the mystery shopping activity (age group, gender, nationality group etc…).

Whenever the mystery shopping set-up is completed, the assignments are created and published online so that the shoppers can view and pick up the ones that matches their profile and conduct it within the deadline. Once the shoppers conduct the assignment, they can fill the questionnaire online. Filling up the questionnaire will eventually give a score our of 100% to that location they have evaluated, and a report will be automatically generated and published online to the client

dashboard and an email alert is sent to the client with a link to view that report.

The client has access to the system and can generate various reports, and can also extract any type of data they need for their internal analysis and action plans.

The King Abdullah II Center for Excellence

The King Abdullah II Center for Excellence contracts a non-biased party to conduct the mystery shopper surveys. The mystery shopper assesses the services provided by the ministry / institution by acting as a citizen, investor or organization seeking service. The mystery shopper conducts several visits to each ministry / institution and fills out a questionnaire built on international best practices including the comments about presenting the service and interpreting the findings into scores for each ministry / institution.

The Importance and Role of the Mystery Shopper in the Evaluation Processes:

1. Mystery Shopper reports will be used by the evaluators as auditing and evaluation tools to verify the accuracy and correctness of answers provided by the participating parties.

2. The Award’s administration will give Mystery Shopper reports to participating ministries and institutions on a quarterly basis, and particularly during the qualification and preparation period before applying for the Award, so that these institutions can benefit from these reports in improving their status and addressing points of weakness noted by the Mystery Shopper.

3. The work of the Mystery Shopper will be repeatedly continuous and its reports will be submitted on a regular basis to institutions that were visited, which means that participating institutions will be continuously informed of the progress of their services.

4. Mystery Shopper reports will be documented and many will be accompanied by clear evidence clarifying the Mystery Shopper’s notes and observations.

Sheikh Khalifa Excellence Award, 14 years of sustainable Excellence

The Sheikh Khalifa Excellence Award was launched by the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce & Industry back in 1999 as a blue print, a roadmap and a methodology for continuous improvement aimed at enhancing the competitiveness of the Business Sector in Abu Dhabi and the UAE.

The uniqueness of the SKEA program at that point in time was the fact that it was the first program in Abu Dhabi to be fully aligned with the international best practice and adopting the EFQM Excellence model, a move that was followed by all other local awards in Dubai, Sharjah Ajman as well as RAK. Nevertheless, SKEA continued to maintain its competitive edge by becoming the Primary National Distributor and Representative of the real owners of the Excellence model in Europe, namely: the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM). Moreover, SKEA also led the way to prepare the first and foremost Over the long history of SKEA since its inception more than 10,000 organizations in the UAE used its model of Excellence and hundreds of them annually participated in its assessment cycles and tens every year are recognized as recipients of the SKEA Awards conferred upon them by HH the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, the official Patron of the Award.

Finally, its noteworthy that the Sheikh Khalifa Excellence Award (SKEA) program is not only an award, but a complete program offering all the relevant products and services pertaining to Quality & Excellence, including Licensed

Assessors’ training (EAT), Journey to Excellence programs (J2E) as well as Leaders for Excellence (L4E) courses designed for the senior executives and other members of the management team in all organizations working in the UAE. This of course, in addition to other recognition schemes such as Committed to Excellence (C2E) and Recognized for Excellence (R4E) both of which are international EFQM products aimed at encouraging organizations in the UAE to sustain their efforts towards achieving the Excellence Transformation. All of these programs are now offered by SKEA in both Arabic and English languages with the same credentials international recognitions offered by the EFQM.

There are Three categories in which the Sheikh Khalifa Excellence Award is given:

1. The Sheikh Khalifa Excellence Award – Diamond Category

The award is presented to organization based upon the recommendation of the jury that the applicant has demonstrated a clear evidence of continuous improvement over their past performance.

2. The Sheikh Khalifa Excellence Award – Gold Category

This award is presented to organization based upon the recommendation of the jury that the applicant has demonstrated clear evidence of continuous improvement over their past performance.

3. The Sheikh Khalifa Excellence Award – Silver Category

This award is presented to organization based upon the recommendation of the jury that the applicant has demonstrated clear evidence of continuous improvement over their past performance.

Last but not least, it goes without saying that the SKEA program is your partner and strategic supporter in availing you with the state of the art tools and techniques needed to help in your quest for achieving People Development in terms of knowledge, skills and attitudes, system development in terms of efficiency and effectiveness and hence achieve the desired Results

The comparing between Sheikh Khalifa Excellence Award, 14 years of sustainable Excellence and The King Abdullah II Center for Excellence

Sheikh Khalifa Excellence Award (SKEA); 14 years of sustainable Excellence

The Sheikh Khalifa Excellence Award (SKEA) was launched by the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ADCCI) back in 1999 as a blue print, a roadmap and a methodology for continuous improvement aimed at enhancing the competitiveness of the Business Sector in Abu Dhabi and the UAE.

The uniqueness of the SKEA program at that point in time was the fact that it was the first program in Abu Dhabi to be fully aligned with the international best practice and adopting the EFQM Excellence model, a move that was followed by all other local awards in Dubai, Sharjah Ajman as well as RAK. Nevertheless, SKEA continued to maintain its competitive edge by becoming the Primary National Distributor and Representative of the real owners of the Excellence model in Europe, namely: the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM). Moreover, SKEA also led the way to prepare the first and foremost Arabic version of the EFQM 2013 Model which as approved by all other Arabic speaking countries with local distributors and representatives as well as experts in the field of Organisational Excellence.

Over the long history of SKEA since its inception more than 10,000 organisations in the UAE used its model of Excellence and hundreds of them annually participated in its assessment cycles and tens every year are recognized as recipients of the SKEA Awards conferred upon them by HH the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, the official Patron of the Award.

Finally, its noteworthy that the Sheikh Khalifa Excellence Award (SKEA) program is not only an award, but a complete program offering all the relevant products and services pertaining to Quality & Excellence, including Licensed Assessors’ training (EAT), Journey to Excellence programs (J2E) as well as Leaders for Excellence (L4E) courses designed for the senior executives and other members of the management team in all organizations working in the UAE. This of course, in addition to other recognition schemes such as Committed to Excellence (C2E) and Recognized for Excellence (R4E) both of which are international

EFQM products aimed at encouraging organizations in the UAE to sustain their efforts towards achieving the Excellence Transformation. All of these programs are now offered by SKEA in both Arabic and English languages with the same credentials international recognitions offered by the EFQM.

Last but not least, it goes without saying that the SKEA program is your partner and strategic supporter in availing you with the state of the art tools and techniques needed to help in your quest for achieving People Development in terms of knowledge, skills and attitudes, system development in terms of efficiency and effectiveness and hence achieve the desired Results.

The King Abdullah II Center for Excellence

Amman, (16/06/2015) The King Abdullah II Center for Excellence (KACE) held a workshop entitled "Regional Development" over two days the 15th and the 16th of June 2015 in the Landmark Hotel. The workshop was presented by Professor Michel Thiolliere who discussed major topics regarding the Regional Development and gave practical examples on the subject.

On the first day of the workshop, Professor Michel Thiolliere tackled several important topics relating to the state, the local authorities, decentralization, and strategy building. He also presented a case study (on French cities) to be taken as a model for learning and application, and explained the methodology of building a strategy after industrial disasters take place.

On the second day, the main topics which were discussed were government services, outsourcing, a look at the perspective of

state and local authorities, preventive principles and civil protection, and institutions in the face of major accidents. At the end of the workshop a discussion took place regarding the role of institutions as local authorities.

It should be noted that Professor Michel Thiolliere is working as Commissioner at « Commission de Régulation de l’Energie », France, from 2010-2015, and Vice-president of the Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER) for the period 2011-2015

He worked as a President of MedReg (association of Energy National Regulators Authorities of 21 countries in the Mediterranean).

Mr. Michel was elected as a Deputy mayor of the City of St-Etienne for City planning (1983-1994), member of the department Council (1985-1998) VP of the Rhone-Alpes Regional Council (1998-2001), in charge of Higher Education, Research and Culture.

He was a mayor of the city of St-Etienne and President of the Metropolitan Council “Saint-Etienne Metropole” (population: 400 000) from 1994 through 2008. Mr. Michel was awarded 5th position in 2006 World mayors’ Awards.

He worked as a senator from 2001 through 2010, Vice president of the Culture, media, education Committee.

It is worth mentioning that the King Abdullah II Center for Excellence (KACE) has introduced in 2015 the policy of holding a series of sessions which consist of three workshops during which the participant is committed to attend all stages in order to receive a certificate accredited by the Center and the National School at the end of the year. Also, a mechanism will be adopted for calculating the training hours within the participating employee’s career for promotion purposes.

The first workshop in this field was held under the title "Public institutions and their policies" in March, which makes the "Regional Development" workshop the second one, and the third will be held before the end of 2015

SurveysMYSTERY SHOPPING CAN GALVANIZE YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE

So far, mystery shopping techniques have enabled businesses to work on the weak aspects of their customer service and capitalize for greater benefits in the form of loyal customer base. Statistics have shown that as much as 90% unhappy customers do not say anything directly to the service but switch to your competition straightaway whereas 69% of customers leave a business immediately due to poor customer service without a second thought. Repeat business is perhaps one of the most important aspects to a thriving company, therefore mystery shopping plays a vital role here. A US government study shows that consumer research shows that one unhappy customer will tell 8-10 people of their bad experience. Each of those 10 people, statistics show, will tell 5 more customers about the original bad experience. This means that 60 potential customers are actively

turned away when one customer is not cared for by your employees.

No doubt, social media has made it easier for businesses to receive customer feedbacks, yet there are certain types of feedbacks that can only be received through the live experience of a mystery shopper. Mystery shoppers provide more details, less biased reviews and can be assigned to test or visit the website at specific times throughout the week.The fact that businesses having online presence need to know if their employees are keeping the common touch with the customers or not, makes it even more meaningful for them to employ such methods.

The system also contains a surveys platform where surveys are created and a link is generated which can be shared with thetargeted respondents (customers, partners, vendors etc…). The company provides three methods for the surveys which are Face-to-face interviews, telephonic interviews and email\online.

Once feedback is received, reports can be generated from the system to extract the customer’s feedback, raw data and surveys scores.

Data analysis

In order to understand the reasons that led to this change, we needed to discuss if there were any impact on the following levels: Political, Governmental or Organizational levels.

Governmental Level

Due to the rapid and continuous change in the science of statistics, the UAE government had to keep pace with this change. The Executive Counsel in the country is the local executive authority of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. It assists the Ruler to carry out his duties and powers, through regular meetings to set the Emirate's general policy, set development plans and supervise its execution, authorize projects laws and decrees before submitting them to the Ruler, supervise work flow in departments, local entities, and coordinate among them, to achieve general well-being of the country.

Part of this development plan is to conduct Surveys and Mystery Shopping activities to the governmental parties within the country, and analyze the data gathered through different methods, taking into consideration the various levels of the society (Gender, Nationality Group, Ethnicity, Age Group etc…). For

Examples of calculations methods are the Top Box, Top Two Boxes, 5 points Likert Scale etc… one of the latest introduced Data Analysis method was the PTM, which uses a complicated way to analyze the data, and the company had to systemize this method instead of depending on excel sheets where human error is promising.

Political Level

This change in the system had no affected by any political dimensions. It was mainly due to governmental and organizational motives as we explain further. BRIDGING THE GAP

According to YouGov, an online site that conducts mystery shopping surveys, customer service in the UAE lags behind Europe and North America though it is better when compared to the rest of the GCC. “People coming in from the West, they are traumatized by it,” said Mr Keay of Ethos Consultancy. The UAE needs to take care of all such peripheral things in order to make its mark in providing superior customer service. The findings of the survey also revealed that tourism does well but local firms, telephone and internet companies, estate agents, taxis, insurance companies and municipal service centers have the worst customer service.

Mystery Shopping now represents a billion dollar industry worldwide and is used in countless countries. Going forward with a goal to establish strong benchmark customer service standards for various industries – including auto, aviation, entertainment, finance, health, hospitality, retail, telecoms, travel & transportation or even government organizations – UAE is also aiming to edify its organizations to run the show flawlessly. Since 2009, expert agencies like Ethos Consultancy and Arabian Travel News have been carrying out campaigns like ‘Agencies Uncovered’ to find out how travel agencies across the UAE charge fare when it comes to customer service. Ethos has also launched a new reporting tool named KnowledgeTRAK, revolutionizing reporting capabilities for mystery shopping and surveys in the Middle East. It enables mystery shoppers to evaluate the service quality in terms of speed of reporting, relevance of information being provided, flexibility while dealing with extraordinary situations, clarity of communication and handiness while dealing with nationals speaking different

language. The entire evaluation is made over a small payment, hardly costing $10 to $20 for a store’s visit, but the revenue it generates is considerably large. Taking up many of such initiatives is what would pave the way for a definitive improvement of customer service standards. Customer’s feedback is not only important, but critical to success. Today, companies need more than just a good product or service to become successful. Based on mystery shopping survey results, companies are able to develop and deliver training programs that supports their clients in offering a customer experience better than your competitor. The more loyal your customers are, the better positioned you are to survive a downturn.

Organizational Level

As pointed earlier, and due to the massive amount of information and data; the organizations is eager to minimize human intervention in the calculations as much as possible, hence, they had to automate the newly adopted calculation methods.

In addition to that, further requirements and modifications in the system were requested by the clients and the operations team in order to facilitate their work.

Another reason were remarks pointed out by the mother company’s auditors who requested further details and logs to be registered in some areas within the system.

All these factors had a huge effect on the organization to replace the current system.

Conclusion

As we can understand from Ethos case, the factors that affect any organization’s decision to replace or renew its current system, usually falls within three levels (Political & Economic, Governmental or Organizational) but necessarily all of them.

References:

http://www.customerservice.ae/mystery-shopping-revealing-worldwide-customer-service-fine-points#sthash.YRpIwDnR.dpuf\

http://www.skea.ae/English/AboutAward/Pages/Introduction.aspx

http://english.kaa.jo/Shopper/default.aspx\

http://www.kace.jo/index.php/en/