If I Use a Mystery Shopper, What Do I Get?
Investing in a mystery shopper means getting someone that’s capable of reporting back on different parts of your business; in general, you’ll be visited by someone that freelances or works for the same mystery shopping services, and that has received training in how to best judge your business’s customer service and other aspects of merchandising. You may get a very experienced mystery shopper, or someone that’s relatively new, but by going with a mystery shopping agency you will get someone capable of producing a detailed report on their experiences.
Mystery shoppers are trained to focus on customer service; when they visit your store, they’ll see how staff respond to questions, and will also make notes on how quickly staff notice them, and how they manage problems with transactions. Other, more specific areas of customer service that a mystery shopper may look for include whether they were offered loyalty cards and information about new offers. In this way, you get the closest thing to an ‘average’ customer experience report.
Moreover, with a mystery shopper you get the option to tailor what they look for in your business; this might mean asking them to look at general and specific aspects of customer service, which could include asking a question about a particular offer, or seeing how staff respond to complaints. You can also send mystery shopping services detailed briefs over what a shopper should look for in terms of the appearance of your store, and the condition of merchandise.
What you receive as a business from a mystery shopper is a set of information that you can use for your customer service training – this may be as simple as recognising positives that you can celebrate and develop, or it might involve becoming more aware of problems with customer service and merchandising that you hadn’t noticed before. Getting a wide range of information from mystery shopper reports can consequently give you something to use with your staff alongside your own observations and feedback surveys.
Knowing that a mystery shopper is going to visit your business can also create incentives for staff to perform as well as they can, even if they don’t exactly know when they might be assessed. In the same way, your head office or regional manager might reward branches that receive consistently high mystery shopper skills, and can provide prizes for staff members that are particularly singled out for praise.
Ultimately, though, you receive insights into how your business is being perceived, and how well your customer service is being implemented by staff; this can give you a significant advantage over rivals in terms of identifying areas that need to be improved in your business, as well as enabling you to work out whether you can try to improve already strong results. Moreover, mystery shoppers can be useful as a way to shake your business out of complacency when it comes to assuming that your customer service was running at a good level.
Author Bio: Diyana Lobo has worked in HR, and understands the challenges faced by businesses in terms of staff training and customer service. She recommends looking at the mystery shopping services offered at Tern.co.uk.
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