4 Ways Mystery Shopping can help Increase Company Productivity

Every business owner wants to increase company productivity. That’s the nature of business, generally speaking: essentially, it’s about sales. Those sales, however, are inextricably tied to the people who make them possible, a company’s employees and its valued customers. Without customers, a business would not exist, and without engaged employees, customers would walk away for lack of a great service experience. As they should.

Mystery shopping is a market research tool through which we can gain valuable insight into a business’ performance. If you’d like to know how mystery shopping actually works, check out this article. The question we’d like to address today is why companies should even bother with it; how does mystery shopping benefit your business? Can it really increase company productivity? How?

Firstly, yes, mystery shopping can increase company productivity, here are just four ways how:

1. Mystery shopping examines frontline employee performance

When a mystery shopper is sent in, one of the things they usually gain insight into is how well the staff on the floor of a business treat them. In other words, how well your company delivers its customer service. This is a great way to tell whether your team members are providing the right types of experiences to your customers. Armed with this knowledge, problem areas can swiftly be addressed to increase company productivity!

2. Is your brand resonating with your customers?

Another thing important to increase company productivity is determining how well your brand messages are resonating with your customers. Are they even aware of what you’re offering? Lack of or failing brand resonance is one of the leading causes of a drop in sales. Properly conducted mystery shopping research can reveal whether or not your brand has lost touch with its message and its customers.

3. Do all your outlets follow the correct product and marketing placement policies?

If you have multiple outlets, it’s important to make sure that all of your shopfronts are following your placement policies. Following on from brand resonance, this is an important way to make sure that your customers are not only comfortable in your store – i.e. they know where to find things, or check for updates! – but also actually see your onsite marketing material. No doubt you put a lot of effort into making sure your customers see what you’d like them to, it would be a shame if those efforts to increase company productivity and sales go down because one of your outlets didn’t get the memo.

Also read this article: Retail Customer Service: Reality of Retail Industry

4. Are your training & incentives programs helping to increase company productivity?

Training and incentivizing our employees is one of the best ways to ensure that they are meeting our company standards. This is by no means a bad thing, but it’s always a good idea to measure the impact of such programs and see whether they are meeting your expectations. At AQ, we’ve successfully used to take the pulse of such programs, particularly in the automotive industry.

And there you have it, a quick selection of 4 ways mystery shopping can help increase company productivity.