The document summarizes a case study of a retail audit conducted by WeMark for a renowned western wear brand. The audit was conducted across 168 outlets in 78 cities to evaluate service quality, product display, employee behavior and adherence to standard operating procedures. Audit results found issues like substandard store ambience, unprofessional employee behavior and lack of customer focus. WeMark provided weekly and quarterly reporting of audit insights and helped the client align employee incentives and store rankings to audit scores, improving customer satisfaction and outlet operations over time. The client commented that WeMark delivered valuable insights through credible, large-scale audits while eliminating subjectivity.

1. CASE STUDY

2. The client is a renowned International western wear brand that offers an extensive range
of stylish & top quality western-wear to the modern men & women. They have always set
high standards for retail operations, be it in-store ambiance or customer service etc.
• To measure the effectiveness of training imparted to employees
• To recognize good employees based on findings of the audits
• To measure the extent of brand advocacy by multi-brand outlets
• To audit prices through a pre-designed negotiation process and
determine market operating prices
Audit Objective & Scope
Objective: To evaluate overall level of service quality across all retail outlets of the client
in the country. The audit have been conducted to ensure complete uniformity in terms of
products, hygiene and service in all stores spread across 78 cities.
Scope Of Work:

3. Audit Specifications
• Overall Assistance
• Brand Loyalty/Preference
• Promotional Material
• Customer Engagement: Need Analysis, Query Handling
• Employee Standards: Assistance Provided, Knowledge
• Customer Handling
• Recommendations
• Enquiry Management
• Infrastructure & Ambience:
Store Exterior, Interior
Audit Areas:
• Operating on a large scale across country and ensuring deliverables within the agreed
timelines
• Training the auditors in overall evaluation of required parameters to capture the best
possible insights
• Auditor shuffling to ensure new auditor for every visit
• Reporting the collected data through actionable reports
Audit Strategy:

4. Retail mystery shopping is used to measure service quality, and is usually part of a
company-wide program to enhance customer service. Employees are told what is
expected of them and that mystery shoppers will be used to evaluate their performance.
The idea is to learn from the consumer's point of view which areas of service quality need
improvement so the company can make those changes as soon as possible. Mystery
shopping is designed to reward good performance and identify areas for improvement
and is not intended to punish employees.
The information our mystery shoppers gather is very important to our clients. Although
the shopping assignments themselves are often fun, the importance of this work means
that mystery shopping is actually very serious business.
Audit Details
Audit Background:
Program Challenges:
• Operating at large scale and delivering flawless evaluation reports of 150+ stores every
month
• Developing a network of skilled freelance auditors conversant with consumer sales
• Over 168 stores to be covered in 78 cities
• Conducting audits in smaller cities

5. • Auditing different leading stores of every industry for the Quality Assurance of Collected
Data
• Assuring data integrity with supportive proofs
Audit Details
Quality Assurance:
Data Reporting
• Continuous training of auditors to comply with auditor shuffling criterion Data Reporting
Through Actionable Reports
• Online reporting of data for real-time access of information
• Custom-made dashboards & reporting through a secure online portal
Audit Details Shopper Profile
• Total No. Of Audits : 168
• Walk-Ins per outlet : 1
Shoppers were selected on the basis
of client specifications:
• Income : 5 lac & above
• Gender: Mix of Men & Women
• Age: 22-40 years old

6. Audit Execution
1. 2.
4. 3.
WeMark studied the parameters
and designed the following
process for shoppers:
• Store Visit
• Evaluating store up-keep &
overall ambience
• Merchandise arrangement
• Employee knowledge
• Proactive service offering
• Employee integrity
WeMark prepared a detailed
questionnaire focusing on the key
areas to be measured during the
audits. Questionnaire was
prepared according to weight-age
given by the client
Shoppers performed the audit and
filled the online report within 24
hours of audit completion. A three
step validation is conducted to
evaluate the reports
Analytics team of WeMark
delivered the following:
• Weekly Status report
• Online Reporting of daily
status
• Detailed Quarterly
Presentation
• Management Action Plan

7. Parameters
Industry
Standard
Audit
Results
Employee
Behavior
100.0% 89.57%
Outlet
Appearance
Exterior/Inte
rior
100.0% 92.64%
Customer
Services
100.0% 85.47%
Cash Counter
Services
100.0% 83.64%
Key Insights
• In store ambience was not up to the mark
and they were of sub standards as
compared to standard operating
procedure
• The professionalism, responsiveness and
selling skill of the staff member was also
an area of concern for the client
• Employee integrity was a major concern
Audit Results

8. Management Action
• KRAs of manager were aligned with the performance of stores and sales staff
• The incentives of sales staff were tightly linked with the audit ratings
• The stores with lowest store rankings were issued warnings and were not given
incentives
Audit Results
Results
• Staff engagement with customers increased manifold and so the loyalty
• Customer satisfaction index score increased by leaps & bounds
• Overall outlet operation became efficient and in line with the standard operating
procedures

9. WeMark Advantage
• Experience of managing large scale programs and mystery audits
• Special coordination teams spread across the country and developing the auditor
network
• Proprietary web based data analytics & reporting System
• Deep market knowledge combined with best-in-class technology to handle the
validation of whole or stratified sample selected by client
Client Comment:
…”We knew how sensitive our retailers would be to this form of research as there is
nowhere to hide as the camera never lies so we were initially concerned about the
impact, however just the first round of research proved so insightful that we knew we
had made the right decision. The advice and support we received from WeMark proved
invaluable in ensuring that all the subjectivity normally associated with this form of
research was eliminated. Their research team were well trained, totally credible and
provided us with the closest evidence we were likely to see of just how our franchisee
holder treated their customers.”
-National Sales Development Manager

10. Thank You!