Mystery Shopper: Truro

This month we sent our Mystery Shopper to Truro in search of a digital camera priced at £100-£150.

PC WORLD – 9/10
As I walked into PC World I was greeted by a member of staff who had a customer champion badge on. She was polite and very pleasant, and welcomed me into the store.

I made my way to where the cameras were and was approached by a sales assistant who asked me if he could be of any help. I mentioned I was interested in buying a digital camera and he recommended the new Samsung model. He gave me a small demonstration of the device and told me that it was a very popular product and was one of the best-selling cameras in store.

He was very pleasant, had a very polite manner and seemed to go out of his way to help me. His knowledge was very good, he told me the camera was priced at £399.99 and said that they had that model in store today. He also said that they only had the white version in stock and they had cases to go with it. He also went through a few other cameras but stated that this was the best.

The store was very tidy and although it was quiet the staff were making themselves busy. The sales assistant seemed like he knew what he was talking about and was very much focused on finding a suitable product for me.

I was very pleased with my visit and staff were very pleasant to deal with.

Overall, PC World was a really great visit. I would return here in the future to ask for advice. I would also recommend the store to others.

CURRYS – 8/10
I walked into the store, which was clean and tidy, and went to the camera section of the store and waited several minutes until I was approached by a member of staff. The assistant asked if I was looking for anything in particular and I told her I wanted to buy a digital camera.

The assistant recommended the Canon XUS 230 Camera in black. I asked if there were any in stock today and she asked me to wait a moment while she went to check. She returned after about five minutes and informed me it was in stock and also had a print out of the model. I requested the price and was told it was £149.00.

She asked if I wanted to view the product and took me over to a display model to play around on. Although the Canon camera seemed like a good product, the assistant did not offer me any other cameras to look at, which was a shame as I would’ve liked to have seen a variety of products to compare against each other.

The sales assistant seemed to enjoy her work and was very enthusiastic throughout my visit. The store was not very busy and only had about two other customers the whole time I was there.

The members of staff seemed very pleasant and did offer up a camera that was within my budget of £100-£150. Printing off a spec sheet for me to take away was a nice touch too. However, I would have liked a range of cameras to choose from rather than just the one product.

MAPLIN – 7/10
Within minutes of entering the store I was greeted by a smiling member of staff.

I walked down the store and within seconds I was greeted by a different store worker, who approached me and asked if she could help in any way. She asked me if I was just browsing or if there was any products in particular that I wanted to look at.

The sales assistant spoke very clearly and made me feel very at ease. She seemed to have excellent product knowledge and when I said I was looking for a digital camera, she fully demonstrated how to use every aspect of the product

She suggested things I could add on to the product, also how much I could get out off the product. The camera she suggested was the best- selling item in store at the moment and was on offer too. She recommended the TWIST F536, which was priced at £135 but did not recommend any others.

All staff were very busy at work with no staff members standing around chatting, they were very friendly and helpful but yet again, I was only shown one camera.

STAPLES – 10/10
As I entered the Staples store I was approached by a member of staff who asked if he could help.

All other staff members were busy serving and helping customers, or stocking and cleaning shelves.

The store was well sign-posted so I could see where I wanted to go and easily found the products I was looking for. The store lay-out was excellent for walking around and finding items.

The enthusiasm from the staff was excellent. The staff member fully covered all my needs and understood what I was looking for straight away. I would feel very comfortable buying from this store in the future.

I asked for a digital camera and from the sales assistant’s personal opinion, he recommended the A 1300 Canon Power Shot at £95.00. He showed me how to use the camera and explained how to edit pictures.

His product knowledge was excellent, he fully covered all the features of the camera, and mentioned that this product was a best-selling item and was currently on offer. The only available model in store was the A 1300 but he told me I could order other models in this range if I wanted.

The customer service in this store was absolutely fantastic. From the moment I entered the store to the time I left I felt that the sales assistant fully covered all my needs. I would definitely come back to this store for advice when looking to buy any technology products.

SUMMARY
Most stores were very helpful when finding a digital camera for me, although there was a serious lack of variety in each store.

Each store managed to find a camera within my budget of £100-£150 and PC World and Staples were particularly helpful.

It was a close call, but Staples came out on top as the sales assistant has excellent product knowledge and he took the most time when displaying all of the functions of the digital camera. Staples was also the only store to suggest ordering products that were currently out of stock.