Mystery Shopping

The mystery shopping – to rate the quality of the customer service

MYSTERY SHOPPING – The way to greater income

The mystery shopping method is often used to rate the quality of the customer service that is provided in a specific institution or office. Appropriately trained mystery shoppers visit a point of sale pretending to be ordinary consumers. The underlying principle of mystery shopping is the effort to see the business through the eyes of a potential / real customer. The mystery shopping method is used by nearly 90% of the companies worldwide in order to establish control over their branches and to improve their customer service and, by doing so, their business income.

Principle

A mystery shopper acts as a real customer visiting a store and communicating with the sales staff adhering to a scenario that has been prepared in advance. After the mystery shopper has visited the point of sale and collected information, he or she fills in an evaluation form that is based on the company’s customer services and standards. This includes open and closed questions and contains the mystery shopper’s comments and observations. The visit can be photo-documented and, if requested, the report can include other contents. Every evaluation is thoroughly reviewed before sending its findings to companies and clients.

This service:

  • Assesses business performance on company level and point of sale level
  • Provides findings and online statistics generated by a research software
  • Continuously monitors the level of service quality at a point of sale
  • Offers additional application methods which motivate sales staff to provide better services to customers
  • Provides detailed data analytics, including conclusions and special recommendations as to how to improve customer service quality

Advantages

We make use of our experience in every phase of the process, during the planning, development, execution and evaluation. We follow the consumer model in which the mystery shopper is chosen in line with the client’s customer profile, and one and the same mystery shopper is not be sent to the same point of sale more than once. With such an approach it is possible to compile different opinions and subjective assessments to make better decisions. Our mystery shoppers have been trained in several phases, thanks to their previous experience and to the quality assessments of their evaluations we make sure that our clients can confidently choose mystery shoppers for their industries and scenarios. Through mobile phone applications and automated processes, evaluation results are available within 48 hours after registration.

As a result of regularly performed checks during the process and a constant communication, the quality of the data obtained in mystery shopping projects is secured, which ensures the accuracy of the final reports. The analytics we offer includes not only statistical data but also various analyses and indexes (correlation, regression, NPS, etc.), recommendations for practical application and expert opinions.

The combination of different rating methods and the inclusion of important customer service elements ensure that the importance of an objective evaluation is duly taken into consideration.

Motivational mystery shopping

Motivational mystery shopping is a tool that is used to stimulate the offer of additional services and/or products or the sales of specific products.

Its purpose is to increase the current sales growth rate by engaging employees and motivating them to make additional offers to every single customer. A sales growth up to 50 % may be achieved this way.

Principle

  • The mystery shopper visits a certain point of sale and pretends to be an ordinary customer and assesses the customer service that is provided at that point of sale
  • During the visit the salesperson offers an additional product / service
  • The mystery shopper agrees to buy the product / service the salesperson is offering
  • The mystery shopper eventually reveals his or her identity and congratulates the salesperson on their proactive work and gives them a “bonus” (this is a reward which has been agreed upon in advance)
  • Additional suggestion – if the salesperson does not offer the sought for product, the mystery shopper reveals his or her identity and gives the employee a program brochure containing the conditions under which bonus rewards are won in order to motivate him or her

Through this method clients can:

  • Increase and accelerate sales growth in a short period of time
  • Increase employee loyalty and motivation
  • Engage employees more actively and create a positive workplace image though the motivation program
  • Ensure immediate feedback to employees after evaluation
  • Create a sound foundation for business development through an improved customer offer and motivational opportunities for sales personnel
  • Promote transparency between sales staff and branch managers. Every employee / manager has access to the records, where they can see the results

Advantages

  • Quick program installation: we reply to the initial request and install the program within 3 days after receiving the request
  • We constantly rotate our discreet mystery shoppers and usually more than one participates in a project
  • We develop every aspect of every project, from the planning and design phase to its analysis, in accordance with your needs and goals
  • Instant feedback messages within 24 hours after the visit of the mystery shopper, which allows you to quickly monitor your employees

Potential mystery employee – Finding good employees easily

This method is used to monitor and improve recruitment processes. It comes into use when companies are facing challenges due to a lack of qualified candidates and difficulties in finding them. Its goal is to minimize the costs of finding and keeping employees. For this reason, it is important to interview the company that is looking for new employees.

Principle

Under the disguise of a real applicant, the agent (potential mystery employee) submits an application to the company, goes through all steps of the recruitment process and rates those steps afterwards by evaluating:

  • The company’s presence and activity on recruitment portals
  • The quality of the recruitment process
  • The quality of the interview and of the presentation of vacancies

After the process has been completed, we will send you our findings and special recommendations regarding the recruitment process, which can facilitate the process of hiring and keeping employees and thus cut business expenses.

Why choose this method?

  • We offer personal consulting services and expert consultant support for the management of human resources
  • We have accumulated a base of qualified and trained agents
  • We organize not only additional focus groups with our agents, but also personal interviews based on revision results

We also have a set of tools to further diagnose problems and the results of anonymous employee satisfaction and engagement surveys.