Mystery Shopping Brand and Service Check Methods to Improve Customer Loyalty

Mystery Shopping is a process that requires hired mystery shoppers to act as potential customers at any assigned retail outlet in order to monitor the products or customer service standards thoroughly. Many companies today use it as a tool for carrying out market research for any upcoming brand or for measuring the feedback of an existing product. Mystery shoppers are actually researchers disguised as normal customers but they a wide variety of tasks to perform. During an assignment, they might to buy a product, interact with the customers and the employees and ask them various questions, register client complaints, and also make note of the positive feedback from the customers. They create a report based on all the aforesaid observed factors.

Mystery shoppers are required to use a variety of tools to perform the tasks efficiently and get the clear picture of the company’s business practices. These include answering simple questionnaires to capturing the happenings of the outlets in audio or video devices. Mystery shopping can also be done using the internet. Internet based mystery shopping requires registered members of a mystery shopping company to participate in polls on public forums and register their views about a particular product or service. This is of great help to the mystery shopping companies.

Today, there is not one company or industry that employs mystery shopping. Although mystery shopping is mostly used in the retail sector, other industries like, fast food chains, movie theatres, restaurants, financial institution and banks, residential apartments, health clubs, gas stations, churches, non government organizations, health care amenities, etc., also rely on this method of brand and service evaluation.

Mystery shopping is a simple method. There is nothing mysterious about it as it appears from the title. Large companies hire market research firms or mystery shopping companies, who are responsible for planning survey models based on the requirements of the client companies. The survey model includes the information requirements of the client company and the improvement factors that would be derived from the feedbacks of the hired mystery shoppers. The guidelines for the mystery shoppers are drawn on the basis of the client’s requirements and accordingly, mystery shopping assignments and the tools are allocated to the shoppers.

Depending upon the guidelines provided prior to a mystery shopping assignment, the mystery shopper needs to include all the observed points. The details provided in the assignment report help companies get a clear view of their business practices. Specifically, companies can find out how their stores are maintained, whether the products are fresh, whether the employees and frontline staff are following the business ethics strictly, how apt the employees and frontline staff are in resolving customer issues, etc. The details if provided accurately help companies bring about the necessary change and thus improve customer loyalty as well as the brand.

Why do Companies Hire Mystery Shopping Services?

If an individual wants a part time job that grants him the freedom to create his own schedule and offers a rewarding pay, he can try and become a mystery or secret shopper. Mystery shopping jobs are simple and allow people to make money by shopping at various locations. The best part is that a mystery shopper can control his work time table and take up as many or as less assignments as he is capable of doing. That's why a career as a mystery shopper is considered a very good choice for those who wish to earn some extra income. And since this market research concept is gradually growing popular, more and more people are taking jobs as mystery shoppers.

Signing up with a particular mystery shopping company does not mean that he or she has to work on a contractual basis. Mystery shoppers are independent contractors and therefore they can sign up with multiple market research firms or mystery shopping companies to earn more. However, it is advisable to take up the assignments depending on one’s capability of completing them on time. Getting loaded with mystery shopping assignments in a day can mar the profession as the assignments would require one to travel across several business locations. It must be mentioned that mystery shopping can be ideal part-time jobs for additional income. If people expect to turn rich overnight doing mystery shopping jobs, they might be disappointed. Individuals can also perform mystery shopping jobs via the internet.

Each mystery shopping assignment takes almost a week to be completed. After every assignment, a mystery shopper is asked to fill a feedback form with his unbiased opinions on his overall shopping experience. Also he is required to present a detailed, accurate and grammatically correct report based on the observations. A mystery shopper is provided with strict guidelines before he sets out on an assignment. As per the guidelines, the mystery shopper needs to pose as a regular customer and keep an eye on various factors like, store maintenance, product conditions, behaviour of the staff, satisfaction levels of the visiting customers, etc. The accurate observations when forwarded to the client company in the form of the assignment report, helps the company get a clear view of its business activities and also identify the flaws and underlying issues. That is why companies from various domains have come to realize how valuable the service of a mystery shopper is and how useful the mystery shopping concept is.

Mystery Shopping Methods for Evaluating Business Activities

Mystery shopping is not mysterious. Mystery shopping or secret shopping is a business activity aimed at improving customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. To carry out the process, a mystery shopper is engaged by the business owner to find out how the customers are being treated by the employees and frontline staff and how well the store and products are maintained. In other words, mystery shopping gives a clear picture of the actual business activities in a business unit. A mystery shopper is required to give his impartial feedbacks in the form of a report to improve product quality, store maintenance and customer service standards. The mystery shopper too benefits either as he gets products or services free of cost for conducting such an inspection.

It is no more difficult to locate good mystery shopping jobs. The Internet is full of mystery shopping job announcements. Companies are always on the look out for individuals who are willing to take up mystery shopping jobs for brand evaluation. One of the several good things about this job is that anyone can become a mystery shopper or qualify for a mystery shopping assignment. A good sense of responsibility and professionalism are all that are required. The rest of the training is provided by the market research firms or mystery shopping companies.

Mystery shopping is more than just buying products. It can involve getting a new haircut, or gambling, or traveling to a place, or dinning in a restaurant or even finding out the customer service offered at an amusement park, hotel, resort, etc. Individuals need not pay any fees to become mystery shoppers since legitimate mystery shopping companies can be signed up for free.

Since there is no fee involved for registration and no contract periods, a person can register with many mystery shopping companies, so that he can get a fair chance to do mystery shopping and get paid for his efforts. Mystery shopping companies provide training and training manuals to all the hired mystery shoppers for free. The companies that charge money for registration and training are scams.

When a mystery shopper gets his first assignment, he must ensure that he performs so well that he is assigned with more mystery shopping assignments from the company. The success in getting mystery shopping assignments lies on the acceptance of an assignment within short notice, completing it within the time limit and submitting the feedback or report in a professional way. Even though mystery shopping may seem to be a fun filled activity, it calls for a professional approach to the whole activity. Commitment to the job is very essential. If the commitment cannot be met within the time frame, rescheduling or extension can be requested.

After completing a series of mystery shopping assignments, if a mystery shopper is recognized for his dedicated efforts, he can have a better prospect in the mystery shopping industry.

Mystery Shopping Jobs for Effective Evaluation of Product and Customer Service Standards

Mystery shopping jobs advertisements can be never seen outside a store. But mystery shoppers are always in great demand by the companies. The demand will keep rising unless the companies turn to e-commerce for all of their sales. This, however, is nearly impossible. So as long as people are still writing and calling in complaints there will always be a job for mystery shoppers.

Mystery shoppers provide companies with an insight into their actual business practices from an unbiased perspective of a consumer. By doing this, they ensure that companies always provide their costumers with good customer service and have them coming back. Through mystery shopping tasks, a mystery shopper lets a company know what needs to be improved. The observations or feedbacks are presented in a mystery shopping report.

Mystery shoppers aren't regular employees, they are independent contractors. As an independent contractor, a mystery shopper has more control over his career. A mystery shopper can choose the assignments depending on his schedule. The only thing a mystery shopper needs to remember is that he has to complete his mystery shopping assignments and submit the accurate and detailed reports on time.

Mystery shopping has several benefits. A mystery shopper has to perform a wide variety of assignments. During this course, they get to watch movies, dine at fine restaurants, go on small trips with family, stay in hotels or resorts, visit golf course, shop at branded stores, and so on – for free!. Some assignments require mystery shoppers to purchase products as a part of their mystery shopping tasks. The amount spent in such cases is not only reimbursed by the mystery shopping company but the mystery shopper also gets to keep the product.

Mystery shopping is an effective brand analysis tool. It not only helps to assess product and customer service standards but also brings forth several flaws and underlying and unattended issues. Mystery shopping assignments are designed keeping in mind the requirements of the client company. Individuals can look for mystery shopping job announcements in online job boards.

The mystery shopping field is also full of scams. Therefore, it is important to check the status of a mystery shopping company before signing up with it. One can check reputed consumer forums for the market standards of a mystery shopping company and also look for complaints registered against the company. Also, online blogs and forums comprise information on the mystery shopping industry.

Profile of a Secret shopper

An individual who simply get paid to visit local business outlets and evaluate the kind of service & products they provide. An individual enters the business outlet and acts like an ordinary customer, just to keep the identity of secret shopper a secret. A secret shopper evaluates various features of the service as well as of product while they are in the outlet.

Secret shoppers provide corporate with more information through the use of questionnaires and detailed narratives, data, graphs, etc. These questionnaires provide corporate with an impartial assessment of how they are apparent by the customer. Secret shoppers relieve the business owner of this value added responsibility. Business owners who presently utilize such kind of services are now getting a more practical picture of how their customers observe and remark their company.

The secret shopper organisations work with their clients to establish mechanisms to measure and improvise their levels of service. The information provided by the secret shoppers is reported to the management of the clients and they utilize it to evaluate and improvise their customer support services. Eventually the purpose is to assist businesses increase sales.

An individual who work as a secret shopper would be generally paid to shop. It is true, a mystery shopper is paid to assess and appraise different levels types of customer experiences. One could be paid to fill up their car tank with gas/petrol, restaurant bill would be paid , would be offered with vouchers or cash to shop in any local hardware shop, Request information about a computer, depends on what type of assignment he is been assigned. At the same time would also be paid for the project assigned on a whole for working from home. Some tasks could and would only be performed by a phone call. The list of various types of secret shopping is very long as the number of verticals of businesses utilizing this method to collect information is very high. It is increasing every day by day with growing technologies.

The best part of being a secret shopper is that an individual are paid for each and everything they purchase. No matter if one has their lunch or dinner – during the assignments of restaurant secrete shopping the expenses are paid off by the corporate. if the assignment to assess the multiplex services one would be able to watch a movie free of cost as the ticket would be paid by the corporate only. Such type of job profile suits to the individual who are very adventurers and are shopping freak.

The motive of the big companies utilizing secret shoppers are to understand and evaluate why a normal customer leaves their business outlet being dissatisfied with the service he is provide with. Such customer would not go back to that same outlet again and eventually the corporate is losing its regular customer as well as the business. One might not be surprised to identify that most of business outlets or providers are very much interested in making good impression on their customers which actually is very vital for their organisation as well as for business and market growth.

Thus, the role of secrete shopper plays a key role in providing feedback to the corporate who want to put their efforts towards the improvisation of standards for customer service. Individuals who have a thought process and thinks that they have a capability to add value to the ongoing improvement of customer service are suitable for a job as a secret shopper. An individual who like to shop and get paid for it, are the perfect match for such job.

It is free to become a secret shopper for anyone or everyone. Individuals who would like to join as secrete shoppers would be getting full training on how to collect the information which are the need of corporate and they require from secrete shoppers. Being a secrete shopper for guarantee one would not have a loss of anything but at least gain a penny.

Becoming a Mystery Shopper, Taking Multiple Mystery Shopping Assignments for Higher Part time Income

Qualifying to be a mystery shopper is no more a big deal – thanks to its increasing popularity! Any literate individual with good observational and writing skills and the will power to tackle any challenge can become a successful mystery shopper. One can be in the league of unique job holders as long as he wishes to continue with the job. Mystery shopping, also referred to as secret shopping, is different from all other traditional part-time jobs. It is a challenging profile with great benefits. Mystery shoppers get paid to shop, watch movies, dine at restaurants, visit amusement parks, and so on – free of cost! This paid job also offers ample scope to the secret shoppers to schedule their work hours based on their convenience, take up as many assignments as they want in a day and earn more money within a short span.

Companies collaborate with mystery shopping companies who hire suitable candidates for the mystery shopping assignments. Each mystery shopping assignment is designed by the mystery shopping companies as per the client company’s requirements. If an individual signs up with multiple mystery shopping companies, he can have a greater income potential. Besides, there would be variations in the mystery shopping assignments and therefore, an individual can enjoy performing the assignments without getting bored. Many people have this notion that mystery shopping methods are employed by only departmental outlets and fast food chains. But the fact is that, this method of market research or brand evaluation has forayed into several other domains like, banking and finance, hospitality, car service and gas stations, cosmetics, entertainment, etc.

To get started with mystery shopping assignments, one needs to sign up with legitimate mystery shopping companies providing them with some basic information like, name, age, gender, marital status, hobbies, valid email id and valid contact address. One can verify the legitimacy of the company with recognized consumer forums before signing up. Once registered, mystery shopping companies provide adequate training to the hired individuals and help polish their observational and writing skills, which are the most essential elements of mystery shopping. Also, they provide each mystery shopper with specific instructions before the commencement of each assignment. These instructions are pre-designed and the mystery shoppers need to enact in the assigned outlet as instructed. There might be situations where things might not happen as written in the script. In such cases, mystery shoppers need to use their own discretion to resolve the matter. Hence, they should possess good presence of mind apart from good surveillance and writing skills. Good writing skills are required for creating a detailed and unbiased report with the correct use of grammar. The report is the most crucial requirement of a company as they can spot the flaws and unattended issues through the reports and act accordingly to improve the brand competence.