August 2009           Brittany Travel would like to know what their customers think...

Brittany Travel have commissioned Customer Maze to carry out an ongoing customer feedback survey during the summer months of 2009.

The main aim of the survey is to gather valuable feedback and opinions from customers that have recently returned from a holiday with Brittany Travel. 

Customer’s are contacted by Brittany Travel once they’ve returned home and they are asked to provide feedback about their stay in Brittany by completing an online survey. All customers that had holidayed with Brittany Travel throughout the summer months of 2009 will be contacted and their feedback will be collated.

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July 2009                   Mystery Shopping for the 2009 Northwest Regional Tourism Awards

Following the mystery shopping success for the Cumbria Tourism Awards, Customer Maze Ltd have been commissioned by the Northwest Regional Development Agency to undertake a range of visits to 25 tourist attractions and accommodation providers across the region.  

The purpose of the programme is to support the judging process of the Northwest Regional Tourism Awards, which will take place in September 2009.  The tourism awards recognise excellence across the tourism sector in the region, which comprises of Cumbria, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire.

5 finalists from each of the following categories will be mystery shopped during July and August:

• Large hotel
• Small hotel
• Bed and Breakfast
• Large attraction
• Small attraction

Mystery shoppers from Customer Maze Ltd will spend at least one night at each of the finalists within the accommodation categories and each of the attractions will receive an onsite visit.

Gary Lowthian, one of Customer Maze's Directors has been selected to be a member of the judging panel and will present all of the findings from the mystery shops to the other judges on the panel early in September. The winners will be announced at the Northwest Regional Tourism Awards, which are being held at Blackpool’s Tower Ballroom on the 28th September.

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June 2009         The Gateway Project - Inbound Passenger Survey

Lancashire and Blackpool Tourist Board [LBTB] have commissioned Customer Maze Ltd, on behalf of the Gateway Project Group, to carry out research analysing the movements of in-bound visitors, primarily from Ireland, travelling into and through Blackpool International Airport.

The research will highlight data such as intended destination and the geographical area travelled by visitors and will provide valuable information for future campaign planning. The research will run until November when the results will be collated and presented to the Gateway Project Group in early December.

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June 2009        The 2009 Carrier Group Conference: Innovative Marketing, 16th June, The Belfry

The 2009 Carrier Group Conference at The Belfry certainly went with a swing!

Managing Director Bob Carter welcomed delegates and industry partners before handing over the reigns to Tim Manson, Operations and Policy Director of Marketing Birmingham who gave an inspirational opening address.

Delegates then took part in workshops covering five core topics; Destination Management, Consumer Data, E-mail Marketing & SEO, Social & Viral Marketing and Market Research, presented by a host of knowledgeable experts. Additionally, one to one advisory sessions were available throughout the day, offering new marketing concepts and practical advice.

Gary Lowthian of Customer Maze presented two well received workshops on Market Research during the day, with a lively question and answer session to close each workshop. Jennie Lowthian was also on hand, offering valuable tips on conversion research and mystery shopping.

Early feedback from our delegates indicates that the day’s events were incredibly productive and memorable, with many delegates already putting into action marketing tips they picked up on the day.

For a full overview of the conference, to see images of the event or to download conference notes please visit our event web pages.

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March 2009        Mystery Shopping for Cumbria Tourism Awards

Customer Maze Ltd have been commissioned by Cumbria Tourism to mystery shop all of the finalist of the 2009 Cumbria Tourism Awards.

3 finalists from each of the following categories will be mystery shopped during March and April:

• Large hotel
• Small hotel
• Bed and Breakfast
• Large attraction
• Small attraction

Mystery shoppers from Customer Maze Ltd will spend at least one night at each of the finalists within the accommodation categories and each of the attractions will receive an onsite visit. In addition to this, each finalist will also receive two mystery shopping telephone calls. Customer Maze will then present all of the findings to the judging panel in April to help with the judging process. The winners will be announced at the Cumbria Tourism Awards in late April.

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February 2009    Conversion Research

Customer Maze Ltd has been busy completing several conversion research projects between October and February for various clients and destinations. The projects have consisted of detailed research into how effective the relevant holiday guides have been during 2008, along with how the different media groups have performed in generating business and associated spend for the individual areas.  

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September 2008 Hillthwaite House Hotel

Hillthwaite House Hotel is a 3 star hotel, with a silver award in Cumbria that is committed to providing a consistently high level of quality and service and as such are keen to receive regular feedback from their guests.  Customer Maze Ltd has set up an online survey that can be emailed to guests after their stay asking for their feedback. Hillthwaite House Hotel now contacts their guests on a monthly basis asking them to complete the online survey. Customer Maze then collates and analyses the results on a monthly basis and

feeds them back to Hillthwaite House Hotel, together with guest comments

and feedback.

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August 2008       One North East commission Customer Maze Ltd again...for the 4th
                               year running

Customer Maze Ltd has been awarded the One North East Mystery Shopping Programme for the fourth year running. The mystery shopping programme for 2008 involves 38 Tourist Information Centres who will all receive one mystery shopping visit, telephone call, email and postal enquiry. Scores will be collated for each TIC and comparisons will be made with previous years to see how and where developments and improvements have taken place. The project is due to be completed by mid-October when the winning TIC will be informed by ONE.

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May 2008               The Big Day Out in Kent

The Big Day Out was developed to encourage local residents of Kent to experience all that the county has to offer them, their friends and their relatives by offering thousands of free tickets to a wide range of places to visit. Customer Maze Ltd were commissioned by Visit Kent to carry out an online survey of the Kent residents that took part in the 'Big Day Out'. This involved setting up an online survey, emailing the participants and offering an incentive to encourage them to complete the questionnaire. The aim of the research was to establish how successful the event was and to gain an idea of the resident's perceptions of the area.

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March 2008             Yorkshire Moors and Coast Holiday Guide Research

The Yorkshire Moors and Coast Tourism Partnership commissioned Customer Maze Ltd to carry out qualitative research examining how visitors to the area used the Moors and Coast Holiday Guide. The tourism partnership wanted to know how visitors used the guide for booking accommodation and also how they responded to the style of the guide, its layout, content and style etc. Customer Maze conducted a series of focus groups using a script that was devised specifically for this project. Attendees were asked a series of questions about the holiday guide by a trained focus group moderator and they were asked to express their opinions openly. Findings were then reported and presented to the Yorkshire Moors and Coast Tourism Partnership to aide them with future

guide production and development.

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18th January 2008     Scarborough Mystery Shopping Programme

Scarborough have recomissioned Customer Maze to undertake the mystery shopping programme for 2008 covering all of it's Tourist Information and Customer First Centres. Scarborough Borough Council are looking to monitor the performance of their Tourist Information Centres, Customer First Centres and Call Centres in terms of customer handling; this will involve an annual visit to each of the TIC's and Customer First Centres in the borough, monthly telephone and email mystery shops and, the generation of reports/recommendations for each. Customer Maze have conducted the Mystery Shopping programme in Scarborough since 2005 and are delighted to continue with the programme.

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20th December 2007  Conversion Research Projects to Date

During November and December Customer Maze completed several conversion research projects.  These have consisted of detailed research into how effective the relevant holiday guides have been during 2006 and 2007, along with how the different media groups perform in generating business for the said areas.  

Research has been completed for the following areas:

• Worthing
• Visit Herefordshire
• Western Lake District
• Pembrokeshire                                          

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15th November 2007  How's Business in Birmingham?

Marketing Birmingham has commissioned Carrier Direct Marketing and Customer Maze to to carry out research to establish ‘How’s Business?’ for their members in 2007. This involves interviewing Marketing Birmingham members in and around the Birmingham area and identifying how they feel Marketing Birmingham supports their businesses.

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31st October 2007      Great Yarmouth Re-commission Customer Maze Ltd

Customer Maze has recently completed a large conversion research

project for Great Yarmouth. This involved detailed research into the effectiveness of the visitor guide, with particular emphasis on evaluating the performance of the media campaigns. A similar project is currently underway for Worthing Tourism and will see completion shortly.

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1st October 2007           One North East TIC Winners

Congratulations to Rothbury TIC for winning Gold in the Tourist Information Centre of the year award at the North East England Tourism Awards.  Sunderland TIC picked up silver and Peterlee won the bronze award. To read more about the event please click here.

The highest scoring TICs for the following categories were:

Telephone performance:   Gateshead Central Library

Email handling:              Sunderland, Gateshead Quays & Gateshead Central Library

Onsite visits:                       Rothbury

Postal enquiries:                Rothbury

24th September 2007   New Staff Member

Customer Maze will be saying a temporary goodbye to Kathleen Thornton who is taking a year off for maternity leave.  Her replacement will be Jennie Lowthian who has worked in tourism and marketing for the last seven years and was previously the Marketing Campaigns Executive at Yorkshire Tourist Board.

20th August 2007          Cumbria Tourism VIPs

Customer Maze will be working with Cumbria Tourism to complete a contract of onsite mystery shopping within some of the areas Visitor Information Points [VIPs].  This will involve onsite visits to eight of the VIPs throughout the region.  This will look at many points, a handful of which will be the effectiveness of each site, the perceived impact of each site, the presentation of the premises and the efficiency of the accommodation booking service.

11th July 2007                Swansea Bay Conversion Research

Following a successful proposal, Swansea Bay commissioned Carrier Direct Marketing and Customer Maze to carry out their annual conversion research to establish how successful the marketing activities have been. 

The interviewing will commence in July and run through the summer months.

8th June 2007                One North East Re-commission Customer Maze Ltd

Customer Maze were again successful in winning the One North East Mystery Shopping Programme contract.  This is the third successive year that Customer Maze will have completed this work.  This allows for comparisons to be made when comparing the collected data each year.  The project is due to be completed by the 20th August when the winning TIC will be informed by ONE.

38 TICs will be mystery shopped onsite, on the telephone, over email and through the post.

24th April 2007               Kent's Big Day Out

Kent Tourism Alliance are currently using Customer Maze Ltd to carry out an online survey of the Kent residents that took part in the 'Big Day Out'.  This has involved setting up an online survey, emailing the participants and offering an incentive to encourage them to complete the questionnaire.  The aim is to establish how successful the event was and to gain an idea of the resident's perceptions of the area.

27th March 2007           Visit Herefordshire Occupancy Survey

Visit Herefordshire having been looking to increase the amount of participants within their monthly occupancy survey as membership in the past has been so low. 

Customer Maze are currently putting together an occupancy survey to be used within the serviced, self catering, caravan and camping and also the attractions sectors.  This will include gathering vital information which will then be fed into the STEAM Model.  The purpose of the STEAM Model is to provide an indicative base on which to monitor trends within tourism.

Sample surveys are currently being pilot tested to ensure all criteria are met.  In order to ensure a greater level of participation in comparison to the previous surveys, the members will be incentivised to ensure continued support.  The surveys are due to go ‘live’ in June. 

9th February 2007           Continued Conversion

Along with the mystery shopping side of the business, Customer Maze continues to carry out several conversion research projects throughout the year.

Conversion research looks at the success levels of different media campaigns in relation to specific holiday guides in converting enquiries into actual bookings. Once this is established we endeavor to identify reasons for visits to the area, activities undertaken whilst in the area and also reasons for not visiting at all.  During 2006 and the early part of 2007 conversion research has been completed for the following areas:

Chester and Cheshire                                      North Devon

Cumbria - The Lake District                           North Pennines

East Sussex                                                       Pembrokeshire

Great Yarmouth                                               Salisbury

Hampshire                                                         West Dorset

Hastings                                                             Worthing

Hereford

16th January 2007            Advertisers Forum

Following the success of the brand awareness research that we carried out for Chez Nous (a letting agent for over 4000 French self-catering properties) in 2006, Customer Maze have again been commissioned to carry out monthly research for the company during 2007.

An advertisers forum has been set up and members of this forum will be contacted on the first of every month in order to establish enquiry and booking details relating to a sample of the advertised properties.

22nd December                Happy Christmas

Customer Maze would like to wish all of its clients and contacts a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

27th November                 Cumbria Tourist Board Re-commission   

Customer Maze has again been successful in winning the tender for Cumbria Tourist Board’s Conversion Research for 2006.  This project will be very similar to the work that we undertook in 2005, primarily looking at the effectiveness of the various media activities that took place around the different marketing campaigns that were carried out during the year.  This year the campaigns are slightly different and we will research the success of:

• The Holiday Guide
• Hidden Treasures of Cumbria
• The Taste District Campaign
• The Garden’s Guide Campaign

25th October                     Training Workshops

Following the National Mystery Shopping Programme several regions have employed Customer Maze to run their training workshops with delegates from various TICs around the country.  The main aim is to increase the level of customer service that is currently offered to customers.

The training workshops address email and telephone handling skills, looking at best practice examples and hands-on learning activities.  If you would more information on Customer Maze conducting a training workshop in your area please click here.

28th September                Once Brewed TIC Winners

During July and August Customer Maze carried out an annual programme of mystery shopping for One North East.  Our congratulations go to Once Brewed as they achieved the highest overall score when considering the four elements upon which TICs were scored.

The highest scoring TICs were:

Telephone performance:   North Shields

Email handling:             Gateshead Central Library

Onsite visits:                      Hartlepool

Postal enquiries:               Stanhope

7th August                           Scottish Selection Hotels

Scottish Selection Hotels are currently is the process of using Customer Maze Ltd to carry out various mystery shopping exercises within their hotels in the Scottish Highlands.  The primary aim is to raise standards within the hotels and improve customer service.

17th July                               Tourism South East Onsite Visits

Tourism South East has commissioned Customer Maze to carry out digitally recorded onsite visits within the region’s Tourist Information Centres.  The aim of the project is to assess levels of customer service delivery within each establishment.

16th June                     North East Mystery Shopping Contract

Following the usual tendering process, Customer Maze was successful in winning the One North East Mystery Shopping Programme.  We conducted this project in 2005 and are delighted to be able to do the work again. 

The project consists of email, telephone, postal and onsite mystery shops within the region’s 35 Tourist Information Centres.  ONE will be provided with detailed reports including recommendations for future improvement and digital recordings of the telephone calls and onsite visits that can be used as excellent training tools.

19th May                      Customer Satisfaction Surveys

Customer Maze is currently carrying out a Customer Satisfaction Survey for Carrier Direct Marketing.  The project is being conducted online.  This has involved sending all clients and customers of the company an email with a link to the survey asking for their feedback on the level of service that they have received over the last year.  Analysis of the results will enable staff at Carrier Direct to contact customers to follow up on the feedback that has been received. 

Conducting customer satisfaction surveys gives an insight into how your customers really feel about the service you offer them.  Regular research of this nature provides direction when trying to improve the level of customer service.  Click here to see how and why we conduct customer satisfaction surveys within TICs. In order to download this information you will need Acrobat Reader, if you do not have this application, simply click on the Adobe Reader logo below and download the information. 

5th April                       CDM Open Day

Customer Maze’s sister company Carrier Direct Marketing, based in Devon, held an open day to reveal its new premises to its clients. Juliet Williams, Chairman of the South West Regional Development Agency opened the day to local businesses and clients.   Those attending enjoyed tours of the building and presentations on the different services that Carrier Direct Marketing and Customer Maze Ltd can offer its customers.  For a full list of services that CDM can offer click here.

15th March                        Chez Nous Brand Awareness Research

Customer Maze was approached by Chez Nous (an independent directory of over 4000 self-catering properties in France) to carry out its brand awareness research.  An incentivised online questionnaire will look at how customers view the brand in comparison to its competitors, establish their perceptions of the branding and try and gauge a level of awareness of Chez Nous’ overall marketing activity.  Approximately 25,000 people will receive the questionnaire; hopefully resulting in a response rate of over 10%. 

2nd February                     Opinions Gathered via Online Research

Kent Tourism Alliance commissioned Customer Maze to conduct their annual conversion research to establish the success of their holiday guide during 2005.  The difference with this research is that it is being conducted online.  Customers are sent an email and encouraged to click through to a website to complete the survey detailing the project, which they can complete there and then or at a later date to suit the respondent.  The project is incentivised and we hope to achieve a response rate in excess of 10%.

9th January                     New Mystery Shopping Package for TICs

Customer Maze is offering a new Mystery Shopping package for TICs, designed to improve their telephone and email handling skills. The package comprises advisory reports, 4 actual mystery shops and benchmarking information, all designed to improve TIC performance.

If you would like more information please look at our mystery shopping page.

20th December            Conversion Research Projects to Date

During November and December Customer Maze completed several conversion research projects.  These have consisted of detailed research into how effective the relevant holiday guides have been during 2005, along with how the different media groups perform in generating business for the said areas.   Research has been completed for the following areas:

• Arun                                                                                    
• Bridlington                                      
• East Yorkshire
• Lyme Regis
• North Norfolk
• Tees Valley 
• West Dorset                                                         

January will see a further three conversion research projects take place.

Following the National Mystery Shopping Programme a benchmarking Report is now available for purchase.  If you would like further details please contact us. 

18th November                Lake District Marketing Campaigns   

Customer Maze has recently won the tender for Cumbria Tourist Board’s Conversion Research for 2005.  This project will entail analysing the effectiveness of the various media activities that took place around the different marketing campaigns that were carried out during the year.  These include:

• The Holiday Guide

• Hidden Treasures of Cumbria

• The Outdoors Campaign

• SeaBritain Campaign

This project will see completion in early December.

14^th October       Southampton joins CM Mystery Shopping programme

Southampton is the latest high profile city to take advantage of the CM Mystery Shopping programme. The City Council was looking to monitor the performance of their Tourist Information Centre in terms of customer handling; this involved a visit to the TIC, telephone and email mystery shopping, and the generation of reports/recommendations for each. A selection of other high profile TICs utilising this service on an ongoing basis are Scarborough, Greenwich, St.Helens and Salford.

7^th October         Cumbria Farm Research

Cumbria Tourist Board commissioned Customer Maze to work on two very interesting projects relating to the ‘Enjoy the Farm’ brochure; a brochure that is supported by the National Trust and specifically advertises farm accommodation.  The two projects differed: one focused on the customers that received the publication [conversion research], the second focused on the advertisers and how successful the brochure had been for them in terms of generating enquiries and bookings.

18^th September              CM Director running wild

50,000 people took part in the Great North Run [half marathon] from Newcastle to South Shields; among them was one intrepid youth by the name of Gary Lowthian. He claims to have completed the first 8 miles in around 15 minutes, however after much cramping of the hamstring thereafter, completed the course in a respectable [if not speedy] 2 hrs, 28 mins. Gary was pleased with his result, but disappointed at being overtaken by both wonder woman and a teenage mutant ninja turtle in the last mile. Gary wishes to thank generous sponsors who donated £217 to the British Lung Foundation as part of this effort.

19th August            Conversion Research

Customer Maze has recently completed two large conversion research projects for the following organisations; Chester City Council and Weymouth and Portland Borough Council.  These involved detailed research into the effectiveness of the areas visitor guides, with particular emphasis on evaluating the performance of the media campaigns. A similar project is currently underway for Worthing Tourism and will see completion shortly.

24 July          Our first RDA contract

Customer Maze is delighted to win its first RDA contract. One North East is the Regional Development Agency covering the North East region of England, comprising Northumberland, Tyne & Wear, County Durham and Tees Valley. Their vision is to create a vibrant, self reliant, ambitious and outward looking North East of England.

To help them achieve this, Customer Maze has been appointed to carry out Mystery Shopping with all 35 Tourist Information Centres in the region. This will involve onsite visits, telephone, email and postal performance monitoring, as well as regional reporting to inform future strategy.

19 July          VisitBritain appoints Customer Maze

VisitBritain’s mission is to build the value of tourism in Britain by creating world class destination brands and marketing campaigns. They’re tasked with promoting Britain overseas and England to the domestic market.

A big part of achieving this is ensuring that the Tourist Information Centres is London are performing at a high level. London is a key gateway to the rest of Britain, so Customer Maze has been appointed to carry out Mystery Shopping with 14 of London’s Tourist Information Centres.

17 July          CM welcomes new starter

Kathleen Thornton is the latest addition to the Customer Maze team. After stints within the Yorkshire Tourist Board market intelligence team and RBA Research in Leeds, Kathleen has taken on the challenging role of Market Intelligence Executive at Customer Maze Ltd.

Kathleen will be leading on our tourism contracts, with particular responsibility for our Mystery Shopping and Conversion Research products.

11 July           Customer Maze to Mystery Shop over 500 TICs in England

The National TIC Steering Group is tasked with coordinating a network of over 500 TICs in England, ensuring that visitors receive the high level of service expected.

To build on work carried out in 2004, Customer Maze has been appointed to carry out telephone and email mystery shopping for all Tourist Information Centres in England. This is a huge project, but one which will offer very useful benchmarking statistics and action-orientated feedback for the National TIC Steering Group.