Mystery shopping is a popular method of measuring customer experience where individuals are hired to portray an actual customer to shop at your store. The hired test buyers will share unbiased feedback of the actual experience they had during shopping. Covert shoppers fill out forms rating their experience while accessing the service and make suggestions to serve customers better.
Today, mystery shopping is being used by a variety of industries, including retail, hospitality, healthcare, and finance successfully. If you are operating in one of these industries, a secret shopping program can be an ideal method to research the market and gain customer perspectives. The report will provide invaluable insights that help improve customer experience and daily operations across stores.
Outcomes of the mystery shopping research
Multi-location businesses face the uphill task of managing daily operations and standards of procedures. As an operator, you can’t be present in every store to oversee operations and service quality. That is where the mystery shopping program can bring valuable data to drive actions. Here are the outcomes of this program for your business:
Gain objective and unbiased feedback
Mystery shopping programs can be tailored to evaluate specific operations and touchpoints in the stores. But, you have to train covert shoppers and hand over questionnaires that you wish to gain in the process. Moreover, shoppers work undercover and do not reveal their identities. As a result, you will get unbiased feedback based on their actual customer experience on the floor in the report.
Evaluate your frontline workers
Employees are the face of your brand at different locations. They should know how to execute daily operations and possess product knowledge to represent the brand well to customers. Through this program, you will identify top and underperforming employees while revealing skill gaps. It is also an important way to measure the impact of training programs on employees. As a result, you can focus on training to bridge their skill gap and provide value in the sale process.
Evaluate the execution of brand standards
Your brand has set procedures and operates on these standards. Employees are supposed to adhere to these SOPs and implement brand standards while delivering services to customers. A consistent customer experience comes when these standards are implemented nicely across stores. Unfortunately, the execution of brand standards changes dramatically across locations that impact customer services. Mystery shopping research helps you to measure brand standards and their execution at different locations.
Evaluate your competition
While most audits are done to see the internal operations, a mystery shopping program can be used to get insights from competitors. Evaluate your competition in the industry and see what differentiates your brand from the rest. Knowing the competition helps you to position your brand and stay ahead in the competition. External competitive intelligence will help uncover opportunities and drive action on customer service improvement to achieve success in the industry.
Brings refined data to drive actions
The tailored mystery shopping program is not just a customer experience measurement tool but brings actionable insights that matter for your business. The enriched data will be easy to analyze and drive action that is essential for your business success.