Mystery shopping has been around for several decades and has evolved dramatically. Today, it is an essential tool for businesses to enhance their customer service and brand reputation. Companies often use a mystery shopping service to measure their employees’ performance and identify improvement areas.
The concept of mystery shopping originated in the 1940s. It was when market research firms started using “mystery callers” to assess phone operators’ service quality. Later, the Mystery shopping retail, industry adopted the technique in the 1970s. Since then, businesses have used it in various industries, including hospitality, banking, healthcare, and automotive.
Let’s learn more about mystery shopping and its various aspects.
What Is Mystery Shopping?
Mystery shopping is a research technique businesses use to evaluate customer service quality. It involves hiring individuals to act as customers and visit the business’s locations to assess the customer experience.
Mystery shoppers typically evaluate various aspects of the customer experience. This includes employee friendliness, product knowledge, store cleanliness, and overall satisfaction. Businesses use the data collected by mystery shoppers to identify areas for improvement and improve their customer service.
The importance of mystery shopping lies in its ability to provide businesses with valuable insights into the customer experience. Also, mystery shopping helps businesses maintain high customer service standards and improve their brand reputation.
Mystery shopping answers questions like:
- How can we increase conversions?
- Why does one location perform better than another?
- How can we gain and retain more customers?
- How can we increase the average ticket/product price?
- How can we increase customer loyalty?
- How can we increase sales?
Mystery Shopping – How Does It Work?
The mystery shopping company you hire will find an experienced person who can match your needs to become a reliable mystery shopper. These people are given specific instructions on what to look for and how to act in the store.
The instructions include details about the store’s cleanliness, the behaviour and dress of the sellers/employees, and what questions to ask.
Mystery shoppers are like actors with a specific role to play. Hence, they are well-prepared for their visit to the store.
Mystery shopping typically involves the following process:
- Planning and Preparation: Businesses determine the objectives and scope of the mystery shopping program, identify the target locations, and select the mystery shoppers.
- Data Collection: Mystery shoppers visit the target locations. They complete a pre-designed evaluation form covering various aspects of the customer experience, including store cleanliness, product knowledge, and employee friendliness.
- Analysis and Reporting: The mystery shopping company analyse the data collected and produce a report with actionable insights for the business.
Mystery Shopping – The Types
There are different types of mystery shopping, including:
- Traditional Mystery Shopping: The most common type of mystery shopping. The shopper acts as a regular customer and evaluates the service provided.
- Telephone Mystery Shopping: Shoppers make phone calls to the business to evaluate the quality of customer service.
- Online Mystery Shopping: Shoppers use various online channels like websites and social media to evaluate the quality of customer service.
- Video Mystery Shopping: Shoppers use video recordings of their experience to provide a more detailed evaluation of the service quality.
Mystery Shopping – Techniques
There are several techniques used in mystery shopping, including:
- Scenario-Based Mystery Shopping: Shoppers are given a specific scenario to follow, such as requesting a refund or asking for product recommendations. This helps them evaluate the quality of service provided in different situations.
- Competitive Mystery Shopping: Shoppers evaluate the quality of service provided by a business and its competitors. This helps them get insights into how the business can improve its customer experience.
- Compliance Mystery Shopping: This helps evaluate whether businesses comply with legal or ethical standards, such as providing proper labelling or adhering to safety regulations.
Importance Of Mystery Shopping
Mystery shopping is not just about getting data or scores. Instead, it is about seeing how well your employees do in real life. It’s like getting a “report card” on where you are doing well and where you need to improve.
But just getting this report card is not enough. You need to use the feedback from mystery shoppers to guide your discussions with your employees. You should not rely on the results of one mystery shopping visit to judge the quality of your location or employees. You should use the feedback to talk regularly about improving your customer service and sales techniques.
Here’s how businesses can benefit from mystery shopping:
1. Improving Customer Service
Mystery shopping is an effective way for businesses to evaluate the quality of customer service their employees provide. By sending trained mystery shoppers to visit their locations, companies can gain valuable insights into the customer experience.
The data collected by mystery shoppers can be used to identify areas where employees need further training or improvement. For example, if mystery shoppers consistently report that employees are unresponsive or unfriendly, a business can take action to improve its customer service.
2. Identifying areas for improvement
Mystery shopping provides businesses with a unique perspective on their operations. By evaluating the customer experience from the customer’s point of view, businesses can identify areas for improvement that they may have yet to notice otherwise.
For example, if mystery shoppers consistently report that a store’s shelves are poorly stocked or disorganised, the business can take action to improve its inventory management.
3. Enhancing Brand Reputation
Brand reputation is crucial for businesses; mystery shopping can help them maintain and enhance it. By ensuring that their employees provide excellent customer service, businesses can create a positive image in the minds of their customers. Mystery shopping can also help companies to identify negative customer experiences and take corrective action. This can help them prevent negative reviews and feedback.
4. Measuring Employee Performance
Mystery shopping is a powerful tool for measuring employee performance. By evaluating the quality of customer service their employees provide, businesses can identify top-performing employees and those who need further training or improvement.
Mystery shopping data can also be used to reward top-performing employees, which can boost morale and increase motivation.
The Final Say
In a nutshell, mystery shopping is a promising way for businesses to perform better by making improvements in areas where they lack. It allows them to understand their customers and employees better and make necessary changes in their operations and services.
To recap, mystery shopping involves hiring people to evaluate the customer experience at a business location. The feedback collected can help businesses improve their operations and even offerings.
The future of mystery shopping looks promising as businesses continue to recognise the value of this tool in improving their customer experience. Businesses will continue to rely on mystery shopping to gain valuable insights into the customer experience and make necessary improvements.
If you too want to leverage this amazing tool, consider hiring an experienced and reliable mystery shopping company. Filter out your options and see who you can rely on for your company’s betterment.
