DriveGreen turns to ‘mystery shopper’ program to enhance emission testing service levels and integri
Tuesday, 23 July 2013 01:09
-
- {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
In a move aimed at both evaluating and improving the company’s service and customer satisfaction levels, DriveGreen, the country’s premier vehicle emission testing service provider, announced the continuation of the company’s ‘mystery shopper’ program that would look to ensure employees’ service levels are at their highest.
The mystery shopper program that has been periodically carried out by Drive Green each year since 2009 and which entails random unannounced emission tests carried out nearly 150 DriveGreen’s fixed testing locations as well as their semi-fixed and mobile testing stations.
The program has so far resulted in constantly improved customer service levels according to the company, and since then and has allowed DriveGreen to elevate and constantly improve customer service and has had a positive effect on the company’s ability to retain repeat customers.
In addition, to ensure completely independence and zero bias, the mystery visits have been carried out by individuals not connected to the company in any way and may also involve the services of a non-governmental organisation to carry out and manage the program in the near future, which would offer more valuable feedback on the measures needed for improvement.
For the majority of vehicle owners in Sri Lanka, the need to test the emission levels of their vehicles only arises once a year. That is, at the time of expiration of a vehicle’s revenue license and due to the mandatory emission test being a strict prerequisite of the renewal procedure. The vehicle concerned has to adhere to a certain permitted emission level in order to be licensed by the authorities to be driven on public roads.
This measure was introduced by the Government to address the country’s growing concerns with regards to pollution and air quality levels, which has led to a surge in respiratory and other related illnesses. The World Bank in a recent report had outlined Sri Lanka’s vulnerability in this area stating that, “while Sri Lanka is an early achiever on indicators of protected area, ozone depleting substance consumption, safe drinking water and basic sanitation, it has stagnated backward on forest cover and CO2 emissions”.
This is a clear warning to not only policy makers but the general public as well, of which it is vehicle owners that contribute the most towards depletion, on the needs to support the improvement of the country’s air quality levels by regular vehicle emission checks and appropriate remedial measures.
DriveGreen has one of the largest networks of emission testing centres, with nearly 150 locations spread throughout the country. DriveGreen testing centres are also unique, where they not only offer a near 100% accurate emission test report but also provide customers with an Estimated Fuel Wastage Report (EFW Report) free of charge.
This report details unnecessary fuel wastage caused by poor maintenance and offers guidance on simple maintenance procedures which would directly lead to much better fuel economy culminating in significant savings as well. The report estimates wastage as cost (Rs.) per litre measuring engine efficiency as a percentage based on tests conducted at high and low RPM (Revolutions Per Minute) levels.
Customers can then take corrective action based on actual findings and reduce overall fuel wastage and heavy maintenance costs. The company claimed that customers that carry out regular emission tests can save as much as 30% of their fuel costs while also helping to make a positive contribution to the quality of air in their living environments.
The ‘mystery shopper ‘concept has been very successfully used by many large retail companies in the US in order to self-evaluate and enhance their levels of customer service in their retail outlets. With specially trained mystery shoppers akin to professional auditors for a company’s customer service department, they are trained to know what qualities to look for and measure in the staff and the services they provide. They are hence able to offer constructive feedback on current customer service levels so that companies can make the necessary corrections that raise the bar on customer satisfaction overall.
With DriveGreen’s ‘mystery shopper’ evaluation system continuing as before, the company looks to offer customers an enhanced service experience paired with the most accurate testing report one can get.
These measures coupled with DriveGreen’s newly upgraded emission testing centres which now feature new improved customer areas, increased parking facilities, large gardens that create a greener, more pleasant environment and most importantly centres situated at convenient central locations, customers can not only be assured of the comfort, reliability and quality that DriveGreen has been known for but at a constantly enhanced level to suit their ever growing needs.
