The Value Of Using Mystery Shopping Programs – Part 1
and Why We Love It!
Mystery Shopping is an interesting topic. Many companies are using mystery shopping programs to evaluate the front-line service of their stores. Sending in Trained Shoppers to evaluate and audit the service delivered by the staff is a great way to spot and improve on aspects of the service delivered to your customers.
What makes us love mystery shopping?
1. It’s always about continuous Improvement.
Every company has its standards. Mystery Shopping lets us check on these standards and whether they are delivered by the staff on a daily basis to the customer. It’s really important that customer service is delivered to the level that is expected of the brand.
This is because a brand is associate with the customer service given. If one customer were to have a bad experience, it would reflect badly on the brand as a whole. If you’re thinking that one bad experience would not be the end of the world, that may be right. However, if left unchecked it could be the end of the brand. Mystery Shopping allows us to check on these situations and help the staff to improve on the service delivered.
Although, Mystery Shopping is not limited to Customer Service only. There are other ways of using Mystery Shopping. For example, to check on product acceptance in a specific market. Though, this would be extremely esoteric.
2. Valuable Insights from Customers.
The shoppers that are sent to conduct a Mystery Shopping audit are often trained on a given scenario or circumstance. They are sent in to evaluate the store/staff/outlet objectively based on the information given prior to the visit.
To add to that, the shoppers are also well aware that they are there to conduct an audit. The heighten awareness of the shopper can often lead to other discoveries that are not objectively evaluated in a Mystery Shopping Survey. We call these finding “insights”.
Insights provide valuable information that companies can act on immediately. It can be both a positive or negative insight. The power of the information could help lead to prompt action to improve on a situation or compliment a staff on a good performance. The latter would serve as a motivational factor, which can also lead to better overall performance.
To find out more read the Interview with our Insights Manager.
Stay tune for Part two of Why We Love Mystery Shopping.
If you would like to know more about Mystery Shopping contact us and we will be glad to help.
