FEBRUARY 27, 2008. Shell Vacations Club (SVC), a leader in the development, sales and operation of high-end vacation ownership properties throughout North America, has selected LRA Worldwide to help measure and enhance the SVC prospect experience. LRA will build a mystery shopping program designed to measure the performance of SVC sales representatives at thirteen sales offices.

LRA, a leading consulting company in the rapidly-growing discipline of Customer Experience Management (CEM), will recruit, hire, train and deploy mystery shoppers to evaluate the sales experience as if they were a prospect. The evaluations will take place in every market where SVC sales offices are located: Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Canada, and Mexico.

'We are excited about implementing this program and using the data to enhance the experience with a partner of LRA's caliber,' explained SVC Chairman and CEO Sheldon Ginsburg. 'LRA's reputation in the industry, methodology for data collection, back-end analytical capabilities and overall point of view on the importance of customer experience made them the logical partner in this important endeavor.'

LRA's Quality Assurance & Mystery Shopping practice works with a number of the leading hospitality companies in the world, conducting nearly 13,000 evaluations each year across all sectors of the industry. In addition to lodging clients such as Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Choice Hotels and Hyatt Hotels Corporation, LRA provides QA services to industry leaders in sports (Troon Golf, the PGA TOUR), Conference Centers (ARAMARK), Timeshare (Interval International), the National Park Service (Yosemite National Park, Kennedy Space Center), Gaming (Churchill Downs, Hard Rock Hotels & Casinos), Homebuilding (Toll Brothers) and Travel (The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey).

'Shell was seeking a partner who could utilize data to determine more efficient ways to sell and market,' said Jeff Gurtman, LRA's Account Director for SVC. 'We design and deploy our programs with a specific business goal in mind, regardless of whether that goal is improved efficiency, customer experience or sales numbers. The LRA approach was a natural fit for SVC.'