What are Mystery Shopping Companies?
Mystery Shopping companies are organizations that help other
businesses (clients) measure their own quality by reviewing the clients':
- Brand compliance
- Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) compliance
- Service Quality
- Facility Cleanliness
- Company Awareness
- Special Situations
Mystery shopping companies work closely with the clients to best determine how to measure quality and then act as an objective third-party partner, to ‘tell it like it is’.
How do Mystery Shopping Companies Work?
Mystery shopping companies develop and manage extensive databases of "shoppers" all over the world who perform evaluations. These shoppers pose as customers and behave like typical customers of the client.
The mystery shopping company organizes the client goals into actionable measurements that can be typically completed with one inspection of the client's operation.
The mystery shopping company then schedules the shoppers, providing a set of instructions that ensure the client needs are addressed during the inspection.
Shoppers then complete a report which is uploaded into the mystery shopping company's data platform, where it is compiled and provided to the end-client, typically via email.
Mystery shoppers are paid fees and expenses in exchange for detailed and timely report submissions and the shopping company bills the client for these fees and expenses. Mystery shopping companies warehouse the data and their involvement with the client may be as minimal as simply providing the data to conduct on-site training based on the findings.
Why it Works
Using mystery shopping companies vs. an internally driven program is desirable because the mystery shopping companies can at all times maintain objectivity and report data without being part of any agenda. Having an objective third party to report on vital customer service issues is the primary reason to use a Mystery Shopping company.
