"Perception plays a pivotal role in all future customer decisions. Every employee should be responsible for making sure a customer has no reason to change his or her mind. This is the surest way to avoid having customers chase after the next new thing."

Perception Strategies, Inc. is a customer perception firm based in Indianapolis, Indiana specializing in healthcare mystery shopping and customer service improvements. Since 1998, the company has provided clients with thousands of insightful observations that have resulted in substantive, pro-customer changes.

Kevin Billingsley, president and founder of the company, has over 20 years experience in marketing and service industry market research. “At Perception Strategies, we believe that consumer perception drives the decision-making process more than any other factor,” explains Billingsley, “and it is human interaction that weighs heaviest with the customer. We feel that direct, unbiased observation is the only viable means of achieving consistently high standards of customer service.”

Co–owner Brooke Billingsley, who joined the firm in 1999, has spent the past 16 years as an accomplished trainer, speaker, and executive. “We also believe the key to success in customer service is giving managers the customer’s perspective and then teaching them the fundamentals of coaching employees to improve the customer’s experience,” she said. “The customers' perception is their reality and that is what we are constantly trying to help our clients improve upon.”