ACR Nally adds event planning, mystery shopping

Event planning was added when Julie Wiseman and Rachel Peacock-Young – both of whom had previous event-planning experience – joined the company in August 2004.

“We feel that events are a … marketing tool for companies, because so many of them do open houses,” Nally said. “They have employee and anniversary events.”

Because the firm’s services often entail writing news releases about such events, Nally said, it seemed logical that the company outfit itself to oversee the planning and orchestration of those events.

“We were already doing pieces of the event planning, and it just kind of made sense for consistency’s sake,” Nally said. ACR Nally helps clients with all aspects, from finding locations for events to lining up catering and entertainment, planning and publicity.

The company has worked on several events, including a chamber mixer and Developmental Center of the Ozarks’ 50th anniversary celebration.

Who’s that shopper?

Secret shopping began after a client approached ACR Nally and asked whether it was a service the company could provide. So they tried it, Nally said, and it’s been working its way through the client list.

What the program entails is an ACR Nally rep visiting a client business as a shopper, unbeknownst to its employees. Sometimes, competitors of the client company are shopped, too, so that the owner will be able make a comparison on services or other issues.

“We can’t do it fast enough. We’ve done it from air ducts to floral to bridal to the next one we’re about to do, with a personal fitness (company),” Nally said.

After the experience, which might include in-person visits and phone calls, a report is presented to the company owner.

“Instead of it being personal opinion, we do it on a point system. We do a summary (and) we (look at) everything from doing the walk-in to telephone,” Nally said. “We’ve had probably the most fun with the secret shopper.”

Feedback

Karl Jones, whose company, Linda’s Flowers & Karl’s Tuxedos, is a client of ACR Nally, used the secret shopper program to find out just how well his employees were dealing with customer service issues such as up-selling various items for a customer’s idea or project.

“Actually, they did a complete profile (of) our business. They put together a 100-point evaluation sheet, which, after meeting with us, incorporated the things that we found to be important,” Jones said. “They shopped us two different ways. We were concerned with walk-in customers as well as phone customers, as far as how our employees were to handle it.”

Jones said his business was mystery shopped by phone and in person more than once so that the secret shopper would be able to gauge different employees.

“(I) wanted to learn whether our

employees were consistently greeting customers, first off, in a timely manner, answering the phone in a timely manner, being helpful as far as product knowledge, even down to card suggestions, message suggestions on the card … basically, as an owner, all the different things that you think your employees are doing, or that you trained them to do, but you’re wondering if you’re not standing there, is it really happening?”

Jones said overall, his employees did well, scoring between 85 percent and 90 percent in all areas.

“Obviously, it did give us some challenges to work with on those other 10 or 15 points, why weren’t we 100 percent,” he said. “It was a great learning tool for us.”

Staff specialties

Under Nally’s leadership, the company has grown from four employees to nine, with many of the new faces bringing knowledge of specific areas, like the previous event-planning work of Wiseman and Peacock-Young.

“We enhanced what ACR had by bringing on additional people with expertise in specific areas. Whereas, when they were a smaller company, they were all jacks-of-all-trades,” Nally said.

Nally’s husband, Mike Nally, is one of the company’s additions. Among other things, he handles clients’ media assessments and analyses, which Lisa Nally said were “huge” for the company in 2004.

“That’s where somebody already has someone buying their media or they’re buying it themselves. We’re going in and assessing that media for them, and giving them another pair of eyes,” she said.

ACR Nally focuses a great deal on garnering a return on investment for its clients, and that’s where the media assessments come in.

The assessments particularly address broadcast media, Mike Nally said, taking into account rates and the times messages are aired. The goal, he said, is to make sure companies are reaching the audiences they desire as efficiently as possible.

“We use the Nielsen and Arbitron ratings and judge it a lot on cost per point,” he said.

Assessments also look at company sales in comparison to when advertisements are aired, but Nally said not all companies measure success based on increased sales and customer traffic.

Specialty advertising

ACR Nally provides several types of specialty advertising, including Yellow Pages advertising nationwide.

Lisa Nally said her firm is a national Yellow Pages representative and is able to place Yellow Pages ads for clients in any directory across the United States.

The company has

ventured into the political campaign arena, helping clients with yard signs and buttons.

Nally said the firm worked on Roseann Bentley’s recent campaign for the Greene County Commission and with Peter Herschend on the campaign to keep gambling out of Rockaway Beach.

The agency is working on a turnkey package for its car dealership clients, providing everything from TV and radio ads to balloons, coasters and direct-mail pieces.

“They were getting those things from three different sources, but with the expertise we brought on board, we’re able … to handle that,” Nally said.

But while ACR Nally does contract with other companies for balloons, coasters and yard signs, Nally said it’s important for the money spent to remain in Springfield.

“Springfield is our No. 1 choice. And if we can’t find it in Springfield, then our No. 2 choice is that it is spent in the state of Missouri. We’re very adamant about that. On a bigger picture, it needs to be done in the U.S.,” Nally said.

Growing pains

ACR Nally posted $1.8 million in revenue for 2004, up from $1.2 million in 2003, Mike Nally said. He added that the company now serves about 50 active clients – 12 to 15 of which have been added in the last year.

“Some of it is strictly public relations, some of it’s full service. And we have others that we do things for, but they’re not active right now,” he said.

Between the added staff and the increased business, ACR Nally’s offices at 2840 E. Chestnut Expressway are pretty full. In fact, Lisa Nally said, one of her employees is working from closet space.

“We’re busting out of the seams right now,” she said.

Nally said a move to larger space is likely, but the timing is unknown.

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