Module 1
Mystery Shopping Definition: A method used by businesses to measure service quality, compliance, and customer satisfaction through anonymous evaluations by trained individuals.
• Purpose: Mystery shopping helps identify strengths and weaknesses in customer service, employee performance, and operational processes.
• History: Originating in the 1940s, mystery shopping has evolved from basic compliance checks to a sophisticated tool for market research.
• Role of Mystery Shoppers: Shoppers act as undercover customers to gather unbiased and objective feedback about a business.
Mystery Shopping is an evaluation process that is used by market research companies and internally by organizations to measure the quality of the customer experience. It focusses on how organizations compliance with regulations, but mystery shopping is additionally used to collect specific information about products and services. The central objective is to improve organizational performance.
Mystery Shopping is above all a tool to assess the quality of service, organization and management, rather than a market research technique. Mystery shopping generally reviews how staff perform against pre-determined standards during an interaction with a customer.
Mystery Shopping is also often used to determine exclusively objective facts such as...
Proper placement of point of purchase materials.
Consumer product placements and...
Price checks.
Ethical Principles
The objective of a mystery shopping project should be to provide management information on processes and/or quality of service, in order to aid re-training plans and improvements in service. The objective is to increase customer satisfaction, advocacy and loyalty.
Mystery Shoppers are hired as independent contractors by stores, financial institutions, restaurants, retail establishments, department stores, service providers, and other similar businesses in order to measure customer service, product quality, and the general environment of the aforementioned establishments. Their main responsibilities include making purchases and filing reports on their overall shopping experiences. Mystery Shoppers play an important role in meeting clients’ expectations by pretending to be ordinary customers while observing and determining various factors that might require improvement.
