What do you need to know about ‘mystery shopping’ as a form of market research?

Mystery shopping is a type of market research that uses specially trained customers to evaluate a product or service in a real-world retail setting. Mystery shopping is an ideal initiative for evaluating all aspects of customer service, both quantitatively and qualitatively.

Advantages:

● Comparing mystery shopping to survey questions, which tend to tilt in favor of positive responses, mystery shopping can provide more casual comments and feedback on a number of in-store components.

● It is possible to reassess a firm’s operations from the outside in by working with a mystery shopping company.

● Using this form of market research, companies can pinpoint their employees’ development requirements and potential revenue streams, resulting in more satisfied customers on the front lines.

Disadvantages:

● It’s important to remember that a mystery shopper’s interaction in a store just represents one encounter with the employees and the physical place.

● A lack of employees, a busy day, or any number of other factors might lead to a poor customer service experience. This particular visit may not be representative of the average customer’s experience.

Example:

Recruitment of genuine customers and the employment of a market research team to uncover crucial business findings are two frequent best practices for mystery shopping.

Let’s understand this better with a concrete example.

Suppose you run an Eatery and you want to see how pleasant the serving staff is by inviting them to dine with you. It is possible to hire actual customers to eat at your eatery if you provide them with an assessment form so that you can keep track of their experiences. It is also possible to use mystery shopping to assess your employees’ understanding of your product/ service.

It is possible for a lending institution to contract with a mystery shopping research organization to interact with a loan officer in the role of a prospective customer interested in purchasing a home. According to this scenario, a bank could assess their employer on the basis of the following criteria:

● Expertise in the field of real estate and mortgage lending

● The ability to communicate clearly and to identify a solution is essential.

● Being approachable and professional when speaking is important.

● Keeping a promise to follow up with a “prospective customer” after it has been made