What is a mystery shopper?
If you’re not familiar with the term, mystery shopping is a paid service where someone is hired to go into a business as a customer and report on their experience. This can include everything from the quality of the customer service to the cleanliness of the store. Mystery shoppers are typically required to complete a report after their visit, which can help businesses improve their operations. If you’re interested in the benefits of using a mystery shopper, there are a few things you should know.
There are a number of benefits to using mystery shoppers, which is why more and more businesses are turning to them for help. In this blog post, we’ll take a closer look at some of the benefits of using mystery shoppers. Keep reading to learn more!
Top 6 Benefits of using mystery shoppers
A clear idea of employee performance: The mystery shopper you hire will reveal in their findings who amongst your employees has a good or poor performance. With these findings, issues can be pinpointed down to specific individuals, and this can be dealt with before it spreads further through the business.
This can lead to higher efficiency within your business and lower costs for yourself and your workers. Employees are more likely to show their true colours to a customer than to a member of management – so mystery shoppers can collect more precise data on performance and efficiency.
Obtain a customer’s viewpoint – An obvious one perhaps, but the use of mystery shoppers allows you to see your business through the eyes of those who use it – your customers. They will not be aware of how employees work within a company, and this is a good thing; it means that they will not hesitate in providing constructive criticism and feedback that can help you to improve your business practice.
Discover small problems before they escalate – Hiring a mystery shopper can help a business to discover little problems before they develop to the point where customers may complain. This also helps you to acquire intimate knowledge of how things may be fixed before they escalate. This proactive response method ensures that your company is one step ahead of the competition in fixing minor issues before they become major difficulties.
Analyse the competition – It’s critical for your company’s success to keep track of how it’s performing in comparison to its competitors. One of the most valuable benefits of mystery shopping is that it helps you to evaluate your competition. You can simply examine their everyday operations and employee conduct to discover how customers react to their brand.
Knowing your rivals’ strengths and shortcomings can help you gain an advantage.
Make quick improvements for efficiency: Mystery shoppers are sent into stores without any prior knowledge as to what good customer service looks like for that specific store. Anything less than perfection will therefore show up as some sort of lacking, even if it is the norm for your store.
The feedback will be extremely detailed and will pinpoint issues you yourselves may have missed, allowing for a quick turnaround in improving efficiency. Of course this would usually be the responsibility of the store manager – however, even the best of them will develop subconscious biases that may cloud their judgement in some regards. This is something you would never have to worry about with a mystery shopper.
Ensure compliance – One of the benefits of hiring a mystery shopping service is that it allows you to keep track of compliance throughout your company. You may have a rudimentary grasp of what’s going on in each of your locations, but input from someone who has actually visited the location is more trustworthy and instructive.
Every business must guarantee that its employees follow specified procedures at all times. Simply following the rules is ineffective compared to following a company’s best business practices. It helps to keep your brand consistent and it has a beneficial impact on your entire public image.
Our Clients
Mystery shopping is a valuable tool that can be used by businesses to evaluate customer service and business quality. Our clients, which include some of the most prestigious retailers in Western Europe, trust us to provide them with accurate and reliable data about their customers’ experiences. If you are looking for a way to improve your customer service or want an unbiased assessment of your business quality, contact us today to learn more about our mystery shopper services. We would be happy to discuss how we can help you get the information you need to make informed decisions about your business operations.
Partner With Angleside Security Today
The quality of customer service and product offerings in retail stores can be evaluated by using mystery shoppers. If you are looking to evaluate your store or an industry competitor, contact our team today for a complimentary consultation. We have over 20 years experience working with major retailers across the country on their store evaluations, so we know what it takes to provide reliable data that will help inform decisions about improving business operations.