What steps are taken with an initial mystery shopping service?

If you are reading this, you are probably either looking for a mystery shopping service or wondering how one can benefit your business.

CHG is a mystery shopping company that has exclusively served the hospitality business since 1996. If you are not a hotelier, restaurateur, or spa operator, CHG is not the right fit for you. However, please read on to find the appropriate steps to begin building a world class mystery shopping program.

Industry DNA

Before you waste time getting RFPs or seeing sales presentations, the mystery shopping company you choose should have all of the following:

• Hands-on management experience in your industry.
• Existing clients within your competitive set.
• Clients that are of a similar scale.

Your shopping company should have walked a few miles in your shoes and have first hand knowledge of how shopping reports will affect your employees.

If a shopping company knows how to serve your competition, they will know how to serve you without compromising trade-secrets or integrity.

If you are a single-unit operator in Lake Tahoe, the company you are considering should be able to demonstrate how they will serve a single unit in a remote location. Similarly, if you are a national chain with 50+ units, the shopping company should prove that they can both perform at these levels and sustain a regular schedule without repeating evaluators.

It is not wise to let a shopping company sharpen their teeth on your business; the mistakes will cost you, not them.

Stability & Credibility

Nothing can undermine your quality measurement program quicker than using a shopping company whose reports are not timely , professionally presented and accurate. Your staff will begin to resist and progress will be stalled.

A good mystery shopping company will have held onto clients for several years (verifiable through references) and be able to show you anonymous samples of their work.

You will also want to work with a mystery shopping company with knowledge of state laws, especially if you want integrity checks for theft or cash handling to be a principle part of the evaluation.

Your mystery shopping company should probably be a member in good standing with the leading industry trade association, the MSPA.

Getting Started-Communicating Needs

Hopefully, you have found a shopping company you feel comfortable working with. The most important first step is for you to communicate your organization's needs and objectives for the program.

If your shopping reports are mainly to assess brand integrity, the shopping company should approach that quite differently than if you want to use the shops to train sales staff.

The shopping company should be curious how you will use the reports. If the reports are tied to management bonuses or you plan to fine franchisees based upon the findings, certain things need to be in place before you launch the program.

If your opening dialogue is all about what the shopping company can do for you and how they do it for others, take it as a warning sign. They should first be cross-examining you on your needs since client goals really do vary across a wide spectrum.

Technology

If you choose a mystery shopping company that does not allow you and your team secure and remote access to data 24/7, you will be settling for much less than you have to. All reputable shopping companies have online reporting/access capabilities.

Outsourcing

Find out how much your mystery shopping company will be outsourcing the functions of completing your shops. Hopefully, the shopping company will have their own schedulers and full-time editors/fact-checkers. If your shopping company is relying on other vendors or independent contractors to schedule evaluators and edit your reports they simply cannot attest to the veracity of the findings.

Along these lines, we highly recommend that you ALWAYS get a receipt/folio that proves the shopper was indeed onsite at the time specified in the report.

Evaluators

Most mystery shopping companies use independent contractors to complete the onsite evaluations. Your mystery shopping company should be able to clearly and succinctly tell you how they will go about recruiting and developing evaluators for your account. Be wary of any mystery shopping company that does not pay the evaluator a fee in addition to reimbursements.