People
often wonder where the true value lies in Mystery Shopping. And the
answer lies in the blend of insight it offers between asking real
customers what they think, and asking customer experience experts how
well you are performing.
SEE THE WORLD THROUGH YOUR CUSTOMERS' EYES
Mystery shopping, or secret shopping,
as it is sometimes called has multiple benefits for businesses and
organisations. But its first purpose is to enable management teams to
see their business through the eyes of their customers. This is
essential for managers, because the longer someone works with a
business, and often the more senior they become, the harder it is to
remember what it is like to be an authentic customer, experiencing their
product or services as a user rather than a provider.
Seniority in a business, and the
subsequent extra responsibilities that entails, can also make it
difficult to keep in touch with frontline staff and: a) keep an eye on
how they are interacting with customers and; b) see any pain points or
recurring issues that could be resolved through a process tweak or a
targeted training session.
MYSTERY SHOPPING AS A TRAINING TOOL
Using mystery shopping results and
insights for staff training and motivation is another key purpose of the
exercise. Not only do managers forget what it is like to be a customer,
so too can frontline staff, or any other staff in a business.
Mystery shopping provides very
detailed feedback reports, which can be used directly as a training tool
with individual staff members, feeding into training programmes or
being used as a demonstration of best practice.
Businesses who understand the purpose
of mystery shopping as a motivational tool commonly link the results of
their mystery shopping programme with staff rewards and incentive
schemes. This has the dual consequence of improving performance by
incentivising staff to score well, and nurturing a positive, supportive
learning environment.
Better performance leads to more
effective sales process delivery and superior customer experiences,
which leads to enhanced business growth.
Mystery shopping outputs are commonly
in multi-media format such as written transcripts, audio files from
telephone interactions, audio-visual screen grabs and recordings for
virtual interactions, and even video footage of face-to-face
interactions.
This wealth of evidence and research
materials make it an irrefutable record of what took place and creates a
powerful and versatile resource for managers. People learn in different
ways and a variety of media enables individual staff members to choose
the way that works best for them, brings the learnings to life, and
drives more effective assimilation of sales processes and customer
service delivery.
CUSTOMER JOURNEY & PROCESS TESTING
Mystery shopping is very versatile and
allows a business to set up custom-built scenarios and 'what if'
situations to monitor different sales processes, legal and financial
compliance (if applicable) and customer experience.
Managers can build a bespoke mystery
shopping programme to suit their precise business objectives. For
example, a large furniture retailer might want to look specifically at
how corner sofas are being sold to customers and whether extras
upselling is being done consistently and well. A mystery shopper can be
given a very precise brief to trigger particular work flows and test
staff knowledge. For a removals company, scenarios might include moving
abroad, short timescales, delicate or valuable items being moved etc.
The options are endless and give
managers the opportunity to test their frequent (or less frequent)
customer journeys in a safe, controlled way, looking at all aspects of
the process. In today’s online world this might include follow-up sales
activity monitoring, correct and complete delivery of email/text
communications, seamless digital form filling, refund/returns processes
and more.
CONCLUSION
Mystery shoppers interact with a business just as authentic customers do (they are real people after all).
So the fundamental purpose of Mystery
Shopping is to allow managers to see their business with new eyes
(without the inevitable bias of the insider); provide relevant feedback
and training for staff; and check that processes and customer experience
are being delivered as they should be – seamlessly and consistently.
