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Everything You Need to Know About Mystery Shopping
Mystery shopping is an increasingly popular term in consumer research, allowing companies to test the marketing of a product or service. It is considered one of the most advanced digital tools in analyzing customer experience and measuring performance. This service is a cornerstone for businesses and organizations striving for excellence and innovation. In this article, we will cover the concept of mystery shopping and everything you need to know about it.
What is Mystery Shopping?
Mystery shopping is a method for testing the quality of services. It can be used to evaluate product quality, customer service, or employee performance. The company selects customers to assess the quality of its services. A mystery shopper should not be treated as a special customer but should act as a regular customer to fully understand the situation. Mystery shopping is conducted to verify that quality standards are met within the company and that employees comply with procedures.
The Main Purpose of Mystery Shopping
The primary goal of mystery shopping is to monitor the performance of customer service employees, promote discipline, and improve service levels within the organization. It is also a tool for continuous improvement. Mystery shopping offers several key benefits, including
- It can be used for market research and customer satisfaction surveys.
- Companies can evaluate their employees’ performance through mystery shopping.
- It provides valuable insights into how employees uphold the brand’s promises and follow standard operating procedures, enabling better training.
- Mystery shopping is a way to collect customer feedback to identify issues and propose solutions.
- It helps companies gain an objective perspective from their customers, who are their primary critics.
- Employees may not be objective when reporting issues, as they know it might lead to increased workload.
- It can offer constructive feedback on your company’s internal procedures.
It can be used to evaluate new products or measure the success of existing product sales.
How Does Mystery Shopping Work?
- Setting the Objective: This could include ensuring service quality or identifying cleanliness issues. Once objectives are set, customer satisfaction criteria must be defined to guide the mystery shopper and ensure the desired results.
- Preparing the Evaluation Tool: The company or agency prepares an evaluation form (paper, app, or website) based on the quality standards guide. This document outlines how the mystery shopper should assess each aspect of customer satisfaction.
- Recruiting Mystery Shoppers: Companies often hire an agency to conduct these evaluations. The agency then appoints a team of mystery shoppers who meet all the necessary requirements.
- Executing the Secret Visit: Mystery shopping involves customers testing company services in a way that ensures they go unnoticed. They must act like regular customers and follow all standard procedures so no one suspects they are being monitored.
Reporting and Analyzing Results: Once the mystery shopping task is completed, shoppers return to the main office and fill out their evaluation forms. These are then analyzed by an internal employee or external consultant, revealing gaps and strengths that need improvement.
Types of Mystery Shopping
Mystery shopping can be classified in several ways, including in-person, over the phone, or online. In each scenario, the mystery shopper aims to collect information about customer service and experience.
- In-Person Mystery Shopping
In-person mystery shopping is common in sectors such as retail and food services. The mystery shopper visits the location and interacts with employees as if they were a typical customer. This type is often used to measure how well employees provide service and how the facility performs from the customer’s perspective.
- Telephone Mystery Shopping
Telephone mystery shopping is designed for call center environments and industries where the phone is an integral part of the customer experience. For example, a telecommunications company might use telephone mystery shopping to assess how effectively call center staff handle incoming customer calls.
- Online (or Hybrid) Mystery Shopping
Hybrid mystery shopping combines in-person and remote mystery shopping, where the mystery shopper evaluates the entire customer journey. For example, a hotel might use hybrid mystery shopping to assess all aspects of the customer experience from check-in to check-out. Many companies use hybrid mystery shopping because it allows for quick and comprehensive evaluation of the customer experience. Mystery shoppers can use various methods to collect information, such as personal interviews and surveys, providing companies with a comprehensive picture of their customer service commitment.
Types of Mystery Shopping
Companies across all industries use mystery shopping for various purposes. Some of the most common uses include
- Retailers use mystery shopping to test customer service and checkout processes.
- Online businesses use mystery shopping to test website usability and check for errors.
Social media companies use mystery shopping to monitor customer service representatives’ responsiveness to complaints and inquiries on social platforms.
Common Mistakes in Mystery Shopping
- Asking Vague Questions Like “Were the Employees Nice?”: Surveys that lack clear criteria make it difficult to obtain analyzable results. This approach is highly subjective and only partially measurable. There are better ways to define “kindness.”
- Selecting the Wrong Mystery Shopper: It is generally advised not to use friends, acquaintances, or even regular customers as mystery shoppers. These individuals tend to be loyal and may provide dishonest feedback out of fear of hurting others’ feelings. It is better to hire a mystery shopper who has never used the company’s products or services, as they can provide a more accurate and unbiased evaluation.
Overloading Mystery Shoppers with Complex Tasks: Often, an average person cannot correctly assess certain matters, such as determining the accuracy of a diagnosis in a car repair workshop. It is better to select an experienced mystery shopper who can deliver reliable results based on predefined criteria that require expertise.
In Conclusion
Mystery shopping provides your company with an opportunity to assess service quality and identify strengths and weaknesses. When you are aware of both, you can take corrective actions to fix errors and enhance positive aspects, contributing to higher customer satisfaction and increased loyalty. Therefore, if you deal directly with customers, you should always act professionally and carefully, treating them kindly even if they behave inappropriately—it might just be a test from your company. And never forget to comply with your company’s customer service procedures and policies when handling issues.
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