Company project with Mystery Shoppers Company

On RTA household travel survey

Submitted to: Dr. Vimi Jham

Submitted by: Aamir Ansari

SMBA13074

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This company project in RTA Dubai was wonderful chance for me to know and explore Dubai very closely and
one big chance to increase my insight in the world of hard work, to manage team and to operate the very
effectively and to enhance my understanding of the Dubai field plus the travelers behavior. This was an
experience, which has acquainted me to the working environment in a world class government part.
My sincere gratitude to my college mentor Dr. Vimi Jham, Professor (Marketing, IMT Dubai) for
providing with his insights in the course of this project.
As a special mention of Mr. Robair Boctor, General Manager of Mystery shoppers company for
recruiting me with his valuable advice and sharing his experiences. The successful completion of this project
would not have been possible without his constant guidance. I would like mention my gratitude towards my
project guide, Ms. Seema Sayed, Account Manager, whose enthusiastic support was always present
throughout this internship.
I would also thank my parents, my team in this project and co-workers who supported me throughout the
project.

- Aamir Ansari

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
I got this great opportunity to add RTA Dubai experience in my CV through a message from a job screening
agency for a 2 months job in Mystery Shoppers Company for this particular job. Through this job I got a
wonderful chance to explore the whole Dubai, which will be very useful for those guys who want to
work in Dubai in future and I am one of them.
For RTA the main reason behind the survey was to know about the travelers mode of transport used by them
mostly and their experience and most important to know about their travelling routes which they use on daily
basis.
RTA, it mostly appoints i4 Research Company for the market research and then next i4 research then
contacted mystery shoppers in which I was working. In mystery shoppers there were three teams, all the three
teams working in different areas and RTA has provided us netbook in which we have record the data, there
was a software built up in Microsoft excel to collect the data.
In first half of my company project I was as the team member but after my good performance they promoted
as the team leader. In all the three teams there were 12 members each. On the field my work was to guide my
team members to provide geo codes of the area and also to make a separate file for the locals and
expatriates. On off field my work was to handover the collected to the manager and then my manager forward
this data to the RTA.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION : ROAD TRANSPORT AUTHORITY, DUBAI......................5

INTRODUCTION : MYSTERYSHOPPERS MARKETING MANAGEMENT COMPANY6
INTRODUCTION : I4 RESEARCH COMPANY.......................7
OBJECTIVES OF THE COMPANY PROJECT..8
METHODOLOGY / SURVEY STUDY9
FINDINGS / LEARNING OUTCOME23
LIMITATIONS24
RECOMMENDATION25
CONCLUSION26

INTRODUCTION: ROAD TRANSPORT AUTHORITY, DUBAI

Since Dubai is one of the fastest growing cities in today's world, making the provision of high quality
infrastructure facilities absolutely imperative, and since providing an advanced transport network for the
people of Dubai has been high on the governments agenda, which is evident from its initiatives to enhance
the public transport facilities and improve roads across the emirate to make travel safer and smoother, the
Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) was formed by the decree number 17 for the year 2005. Initially started
as Dubai transport in 1998, the government of Dubai revamped the system to unify its services under the
brand name "RTA" in 2006, in order to accommodate the metro and other facilities under one name. RTA is
responsible for planning and providing the requirements of transport, roads & traffic in the Emirate of Dubai,
and between Dubai and other Emirates of the UAE, neighboring countries in order to provide an effective & an
integrated transport system capable of achieving Dubai's vision & serving the vital interests of the Emirate.
Dubai has a very large bus system run by the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA). The bus system has 193
routes on weekdays and transports over 30 million people weekly. The Public Transport bus system is large
and advanced but not large enough to accommodate the volume of people who use it. This means that in busy
areas, it is common that at the end of the day commuters may have to wait more than an hour before they
can board a bus. Unfortunately, the number of buses does not increase with the same rate as the amount of
passengers, which makes this problem worse as time progresses.
TRANSPORTS PROVIDING BY RTA DUBAI:

Bus
Taxi
Metro
Tram
Water taxi
Air travel

INTRODUCTION: MYSTERYSHOPPERS MARKETING MANAGEMENT COMPANY

Mystery Shoppers Company is expert in recruitment, training and management of field personnel. There is a
detailed range of services which will give you an idea of the types of activities we carry out on behalf. Mystery
Shoppers Company hires employees for particular project and events on short term basis. Mystery Shoppers
Company is a small company with very less employee because they appoint new candidates all the time as per
the requirement of the project.
Mystery Shoppers Company got this project from the i4 research company, this company deals directly from
RTA Dubai. Whenever RTA Dubai plans for a survey the i4 research company is the first preferred option to
give the project.
RTA Dubai also gave me an identity card to show on field.

I4 research based in Al Shatha Tower Dubai Media City is a shopper behavior research agency based in
Dubai and covering the Qatar and KSA markets. I4 research conduct cost-effective in-store filming and eye
tracking studies to generate actionable insights for consumer product manufacturers, retailers, F&B
outlets etc.
I4 research is expertise in dealing with survey clients. Type of information which this company can provide:

Travel survey

Purchaser conversion ratio

Category / Product Browsing duration;

Product Interaction Heat maps

Timeline, Order, and Type of shopper interaction

What does the shopper read during the decision-making process

Shopper / Customer / Employee interaction

Shopper Group Mix & Lead shopper analysis

Queue Analysis

In-store footfall & demographic counts

Video Clips of specific shopper behaviors

POS interaction

Employee Process Compliance.

OBJECTIVES OF THE COMPANY PROJECT

This project made me to learn about the Dubai transport field and the behavior of people who daily use
RTA transport. With the advancement in the project, the actual team work and the decision making were
understood and applied.
Objectives to be achieved through these methods:

To map the profile of the target segment as per the Income, marital status and size of the family.
o In this project surveyors has to enter the data in the software installed in the Microsoft
Excel which asks about the basic information about the household members and their
contact number so that RTA can verify randomly that the survey is fake or genuine.

Devise the expansion plan in the areas which are facing travelling problems.
o Another important objective was to find out the passengers problems which they are facing
daily like traffic problems, lesser bus stops etc. by doing this survey RTA will study the data
and can come up with more routes and more facilities.

To make good relation with passengers. Doing survey and to know about the passengers problems
and to getting their advice to make service good is better option to be in relation with the
passengers. In this survey RTA has also given some more options to passengers like water taxi and
bus rapid transit. Till now RTA didnt introduce these services across the Dubai but through this
survey they can get an idea about how many passengers like these two new options to travel.

METHODOLOGY / SURVEY STUDY

The project involved a lot of data collections. The data included both primary and secondary data. Primary
data I collected from on field myself. Secondary data I collected from asking from my some other team
member. The methodology involved various steps. As my project comprised of various activities, each has its
own method, but in general a method was followed. There were two surveys in the Microsoft excel, the first
RP survey was based on the personal, family and trip information of the household. The second SP survey was
like small game in which the household has given four or five modes of transport among these options the
household person has to select one option depends upon the hypothetical situation. In the next pages i am
giving you the form in which we have to fill up the information.
Two-stage survey

Stage1: Revealed Preferences (RP)

In the first stage actual travel behavior of individuals is collected (How did you travel?). A trip diary
issued for this purpose. Apart from trip details demographic data on the household and its members
are captured. This first part of the survey is to know about:

The contact form contains the information about the time and the number of visits.
C

Contact form
Question

Nr

Name

C2

HHID

Field

Description

Household numberautomatically entered if a new

HH is added

C8

Visit Nr

Serial number of the visitautomatically entered

C9

Date(dd/mm/yyyy)

Enter the day of the visit in the given format,e.g.21-052014

C10

Arrival Time

Enter the arrival time 24 h notation

C11

Departure Time

Enter the departure time in 24 h notation

C12

Result

Enter the result of the visit

C13

Note

Result

Enter comments in writing, if needed

Code Description

Successful interview

All persons in the household have been completely

interviewed (forms T1 and T2 only for those from 6
years)

Partial interview

Note all persons in the household from 6 years up

have already been interviewed or an interview with a
person is not yet completed
This household must be visited again

No contact with household

Nobody at home

Refused

Household doesnt want to participate at all

Non residential

The household comprises non residential members

only e.g. foreign consultants

Vacant/Demolished

Building or flat is vacant or doesnt exist

(Insufficient address)

(7)

(not applicable)

New HH

A new household is added

10

The household form contains the information about the building where the survey is being done and
households contact information, number of family members and number of kids below 6 years old

Household form
Question

Field

Description

Nr

Name

H-A

Number of floors

Count and enter the number of floors in the building.

in building

If the building has different parts with different

heights then enter the highest floor number.

H-B

Number of

Count the number of dwellings (flats) in the building. If

dwellings in

you are unsure then ask the guard or the head of the

building

household. The number can only be an estimate.

A dwelling/flat is a building or a part of it originally
prepared for residence and has an independent
entrance.

H-C

Name of head

Enter the name of the head of the household. This is

of household

the person acknowledged as such by other household

members. In most cases the head of the household
bears the chief responsibility for the economic
maintenance of the household (e.g. head of a family).
In collective households it can also be a spokesman or
another representative.

11

Household form
Question

Nr

Name

H-D

Phone

Field

Description

Enter a phone number on which the household

can be contacted, ideally those of the household
head

H-E

E-mail

Telephone numbers are required for data

Enter
one email
address on which the household
verification
purposes.
can be contacted
E-mail addresses are required for data verification
purposes.

H1

People living
permanently in
the household

Enter the number of persons who live in the

household. A household is defined as

A person or a group of persons.

Related or unrelated.

Living together permanently.

Making common provision for food,

accommodation and other essentials for living.

Sharing kitchen and bathroom(s),

Including drivers.
A driver is employed by the household. His task
is to drive other household members by car on
demand

No Members of household are

Those whose period of absence exceeds two months

Those who have more than one residence and
usually spent more than half of the nights in
another housing unit

Visitors having another usual place of residence

Maids and servants

12

Enter number of children under 6 years

Enter number of person from 6 years
H2

People

Enter the number of household members that are

present

present on your first visit. The number is either same

during first

or smaller than the number in H1

visit
H3

Dwelling unit
tenure

Enter the dwelling unit tenure

Household form
Question

Field

Description

Nr

Name

H4

Number of

Enter number of motor vehicles available to the

motor vehicles

household. This does not necessarily mean that these

in the

vehicles are owned by the household

household

H5

Enter0(zero)if no motor vehicle is available

Number of

Enter number of bicycles available to the household.

bicycles in the

This does not necessarily mean that these are

household

owned by the household

Enter0(zero) if no bicycle is available

H6

Motor vehicles

Enter detailed information for each of the motor

in detail

vehicles stated.
Enter type of vehicle
Enter owner of vehicle
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H7

H8

Distance to

Enter the walk distances to next known bus stop.

nearest public

The respondent may also give just a rough

transport stop

estimate. If he/she doesnt know at all entercode9

Household income

Enter the estimated total income of the household in

Dirhams per month
The income comprises salaries, pensions or other
monetary income
It does not include the salaries of maids/drivers if
they are paid by the household
If respondent is reluctant to give information enter
(dont know).

H9

Residence type

Enter the type of property the household resides

in. The answer provided should match with your
own perception.

14

Person form
Question

Nr

Name

P1

Name

Field

Description

Enter the full name of the person in writing: Given

name followed by the family name
This information is required to identify
individuals for telephone callbacks.

P2

Household status

Enter the relationship to the head of the household

for each person

P3

Nationality

Enter the nationality for each person. It is the legal

nationality of the person based on which his/her
passport was issued.

P4

Gender

The nationality of a multi-national person who owns

Enter
of eachisperson
more the
thangender
one passport
determined by the oldest

P5

Age

one acquired.
Enter the age for each person as of the
report day (completed age years)

P6a

Main occupation

If the person doesnt provide its age then enter an

estimate
Enter the present main occupation.
If two or more categories apply then select the
one the respondent spends the most time for.
Exception: If full-time work or part-time work are
stated among others then select full-time work or
part-time work in any case(

work has priority over

other categories)

15

Person form
Question

Nr

Name

P6b

Occupation-sector

Field

Description

Enter the sector in which the occupation of the

respondent falls
The question only applies if main occupation is either
fulltime work or part time work

P6c

Occupation-level

Enter the occupation level.

The question only applies if main occupation is either
fulltime work or part time work

P7

NOL card

Enter whether the respondent owns a NOL card

(Gold, Silver, Blue)

P8

Driving license

Enter whether the respondent owns a driving license for

cars

P9

Car availability

Enter the availability of a car for each person

This question is applicable for all household
members. A driving license is no precondition as car
may be used as passenger

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T1

Cover trip form

Question

Nr

Name

Report day

Field

Description

Enter report day for this person by selecting

from the calendar. The report day is the
previous work day
Report days are strictly limited to work days (Sundays

Day type

T1-1 Left home on

to Thursdays. Fridays and Saturdays) must not be

(automatically entered)
used as report days
Enter if the person has left the home on the report day

the report day

T1-2 Reason for
staying at home

Enter there as on if the person didnt make any trips

outside the home on the report day
If none of the code list is applicable enter there

as on in writing
If the person didnt leave from home on the report day and the reason has been
entered the interview for this person is terminated

T1-3 Starting point

Enter if the starting point of the first trip was the

own home If the answer is Yes the geo code field in
T1-4 is
Automatically populated with the geo code provided in
form H

T1-4 Starting address

If the first trip of this

Person on the report day didnt originate from home
enter the geo code or the address of the actual
starting point

17

T2

Trip form
Question

Nr

Field

Description

Name

T2-1 Start time

Enter the start time of the trip in 24-hours notation

T2-2 Trip destination

Enter the trip destination by locating the

destination in the map and copy & paste geo code
to the respective field
Provide also the community name as fall back
information Use auto-fill butt for return home trips.
Rules for capturing trips crossing the border of Dubai
emirate
For trips which start in Dubai and ending another
emirate provide the geo code of the point of
border crossing in fieldT2-2f and select the emirate
where the final destination is located in field T2-2e
Correct geo coding is very important for
subsequent analysis and modeling purposes

T2-3 Purpose of the trip

Enter the main purpose of the trip

For purposes Shopping and Leisure detailed
categories must be provided

T2-4 Arrival time

Enter the arrival time of the trip in 24-hours notation

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T2

Trip form
Question

Nr

Field

Description

Name

T2-5 Modes of transport

Enter every mode that was used on the trip in the

sequence of use
Rules for capturing walk-only trips
Collect only walk trips outside buildings/properties
Collect a trip as a single walk trip only if it takes at
least two minutes
Rules for capturing walk legs in multi-mode trips
Collect only walk legs outside buildings/properties
Collect a leg as a walk leg only If it takes at least
two minutes

Details of mode Walk

T2-6 Walk time

Walk-only
trip Enter
walk time
Walk legs in multi-mode trips
Add and enter duration of all walk legs for that trip
regardless of individual walk leg duration
All walk times to be entered in full minutes

Details of mode Public transport

T2-7 Bus routes

Enter number(s) of used bus routes

T2-8 Metro lines

Select which metro line(s) were used

T2-9 Tickets

Enter type of ticket used for the ride

19

T2-10 Cost

Enter total cost for public transport ride(fare) in

Dirhams, if known
For NOL card users this can also be an estimate

Details of mode Taxi

T2-11 TaxiCost

Enter cost for taxi ride(fare) in Dirhams

Details of mode Car

T2-12 Crossed SALIK

Select all SALIK gates which were passed on the car trip

gates

20

T2

Trip form
Question

Nr

Field

Description

Name
T2-13 Car parkingType Enter the type of car park in gat the trip destination
Valet parking is coded Onsite (either free or charged
depending on the actual service)
T2-14 Car

Enter overall time needed for searching a parking space

parking
Search time

T2-15 Car parkingCost

Enter cost for parking the car in Dirhams

If the respondent pays an annual parking fee then
enter the annual amount

T2-16 Trip distance

Enter the estimated total distance of the entire

trip in kilo meters.
Encourage respondents to give an answer even if
they are unsure about the actual distance

T2-17 Trip companions

Select the household members who

accompanied the respondent on the trip
Enter how many persons from outside the
household accompanied the respondent on the
trip
The question is applicable for car trips only

21

Stage2: Stated Preferences (SP)

The aim of the second stage is to obtain information about the preferences of the respondents
with regard to modes of
transportation.Existingandnewmodesarepresentedinhypotheticgamesrequesting the respondents
to choose between different options (How would you travel if?).

The aim of the SP survey part is to obtain information about the respondents travel behavior under
changed conditions: When do respondents switch from the actual mode to another?

This is achieved by What if games with focus on transport modes ; also completely new modes
are tested

Data from SP will enable RTA to derive parameters which are filled in the transport model. The
transport model can then help test and assess future scenarios and measures.

Each respondent is presented 10cards with 3 options of transport modes. The characteristics of the
modes change systematically. The respondent must choose one option on each card

Verify the respondents answers in case he always chooses the same mode

Three modes of transport are presented as choice options on each card:

1. Car
2. Taxi
3. Public transport, specifically displayed as one out of

Public bus

Metro

Bus rapid transit

Water transport.

Car, taxi, public bus, and the metro are common, well-known options. This is not the case for Bus rapid
transit (BRT) and the specific form of water transport used for the SP.

22

FINDINGS / LEARNING OUTCOME

The company project in Mystery Shoppers offered me a period of great learning and experience. The exposure
to this flourishing paradigm of hospitality and tourism industry helped me to understand the following:

Exposure to i4 Research Company: The interaction with the i4 research company had helped me to
understand the practical intricacies and how systematically they approach to tackle them.

Understanding of ISP (Interactive Sales presentation): In this survey job we had to sell our service and we
had to convince household members to give their personal and basic travelling information. This helped
me to learn how to interact with customers during a survey pitch. It gave an exposure to the queries raised
by survey respondents.

Understanding the importance of market research: This company project also helped me to learn the
practical significance of market research and its relevance to the business world. To introduce something,
first the forecasting of the market is very important to know if the service and product are going to launch
is useful or not for the recent date.

In first half of this project my work was there as a team member, as a team member I had to go on field
and collect data from the given area, daily target was there according to the area which was minimum to
interview 20 people. After every 1 hour I had to give information of the collected data to my team leader.
After some days my manager gave me the team leader position to lead and guide the team. I learnt how to
read the person face and feeling during the interview like: if the person is ready to give interview or not
and how to take full information from the household person.

After finishing the survey I have to handover the Netbook to my team leader because team members were
not allowed to take Netbooks home and team members were also not allowed to keep any information
related to any household because of some security reasons.

23

LIMITATIONS
It is true that the environment was good but still they lacked in something for which I want to give some
recommendations to them some of these are following:

Lack of Team leaders: The Company provided Netbooks to feed the collected data, for each survey
interviewer use Google map coordinates (geocode). If the company had provided us internet
facility then searching location would be easier and faster. On the other hand because of less team
leader and more team members there was problem in dealing with many people at the same time.

Distance & Time: As we had to cover whole Dubai there had been far way places like Jebel Ali, The
Greens and Discovery Garden which took too much of time in traffic with less time to be spent on
the field. For this we had to most of the times start early in the evening and come back late. But
this all was normalized with the fact that it gave us an opportunity to visit far off locations at Dubai.

Communication: communication had been a great barrier in achieving our task. As we were not
able to converse in languages like Arabic, Bangla and Malyali it sometimes created a fussy situation
before us. We are thankful to the fellow members who were able to understand local language
which helped us out of this situation by acting as a translator at many instances.

Right feedback: Getting in the house of the person and get right thing out from his heart was a
important but little challenging task. It takes quite lots of efforts to make the interviewee at ease
and convince him to cooperate in the required manner. But trying to do this task helped us
improve our communication and analytical skills to get the information in the manner we wanted.

24

RECOMMENDATIONS

Encourage competitiveness between team members: In an effort to bring further uniqueness, style and
a touch of competitive edge to the project, developers should be offered incentive and bonus. I think
in survey job the hard work of employee is more important to perform well in the survey project, so
bonus and incentive are best option to encourage employees to perform well. Staff is not motivated
towards the job, because there was no individual incentive. There should be some incentive for the top
performer.

Communication: process information and initiatives in both formal and informal settings, and followsup on assigned actions as required.

TRAINING:
Training is the major area of opportunity for all type of jobs. It is important for the survey job to be
trained in every aspect of field to make the survey with household person in the best way. The
following are some of the recommendations in this area:
a) Use of survey manual which is missing should be done more often.
b) All team members should have training sessions once is 10 days.
c) The field team leaders help should be taken to develop all the training plans and also for any
procedural change.
d) Corrective feedback should be given to the project manager on a regular basis by the team
leader.
e) Off the job training should also be encouraged.

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