The Need
3M’s Industrial Adhesives & Tapes Division sell their product via a network of specialist distributors and outlets. How effective these distributors are in selling and recommending 3M’s product is vital to their overall success and 3M needed an independent and objective assessment of how distributors performed in this area.
Our Approach
Opinium created a bespoke mystery shopping programme using industry experts such as architects, engineers and other relevant technical specialists. We then devised a series of different scenarios for each shopper to cover a variety of potential customer needs and product features.
The Outcome
From the first two annual waves of the study, the 3M team were able to identify any deficiencies and issues with specific distributors, as well as issues affecting their wider model that apply to all distributors. Subsequent waves then deployed different scenarios to test the implementation of recommended actions and provided clear benchmarks of success for individual outlets.
