PRESS RELEASE 2009-04-08

The Smiling Report 2009 shows that the trend continues downwards

Mystery Shopping Providers around the world have participated in the Smiling Report 2009 which compiles customer service data from evaluations conducted across a spectrum of industries. The summary for 2008 includes answers to more than 2.5 million questions covering Smile, Greeting and Add-on sales in 66 countries.

Smiling 2008 was 77% compared to 82% in 2007 and 87% in 2004. The highest smiling country was Indonesia with 98% and the lowest was Pakistan with 44%. The best smiling industries were Health & Beauty Care and Transport with 86% and the lowest scores were in B2B with only 52%.

Greeting 2008 and 2007 was 81% compared to 88% in 2004. The highest greeting countries were Indonesia and Hong Kong with 98% and the lowest was Morocco at 48%. The best greeting was found in Government services with 94% while B2B had 70%.

Add-on Sales scores have always been much lower than smile and greeting. In 2008 it was 45% which is the same as in 2004. The score has been a bit better in 2005 51%, 2006 56% and 2007 48%, but now when sales is even more important it has dropped back to 45%. Highest sales score was in Pakistan with 82% and lowest is Finland with as low as 3%. B2B had the highest scores for add-on sales 65% while Leisure had the lowest with 40%

Big gap between the Continents
Australia had highest scores of all continents, in Smiling 89%, Greeting 92% and Add-on Sales 58%. Africa had the lowest scores of all continents, in Smiling 61%, Greeting 51% and Add-on sales 33%.

For more information about the Smiling Report please contact Veronica Boxberg Karlsson veronica@betterbusiness.se, telephone: +46 8 5118 5111, or the respective participating Mystery Shopping Providers listed on www.smilingreport.com