Research will take place throughout 2005 and will be split into three sections.
Mystery shoppers will conduct standard visits to Big Yellow sites using a variety of scenarios to assess the full extent of self-storage company's on-site customer service.
Similarly, ESA will conduct a telephone mystery shop, using its in-house contact centre, to assess the efficiency of Big Yellow's telephone ordering service.
Alice Newport, training and development advisor at Big Yellow, said: "Although Big Yellow is not a retailer in the typical sense, customer service is still vital to our continued success because it is what differentiates us from our competitiors."
Finally, an electronic mystery shop will be conducted, in order to assess the functionality of the online response system.
In all cases, speed and efficiency of response and service will be examined. The findings of the research will be used by Big Yellow to identify areas of its customer service that can potentially be improved.
This, in turn, will enable Big Yellow to develop a customer service programme that better meets the needs of its customers.
Jamie Thorpe, client service director at ESA, said: "ESA's partnership with Big Yellow was a great success in 2004 and I am particularly pleased that it will be continuing for 2005."
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