Monday, March 28, 2011

Mystery Shopping Methods for Effective Market Research

Mystery shopping, also called secret shopping is a market research tool that is designed for improving a business’s product and service standards and therefore increasing sales. In other words, this effective tool is employed to assess the quality of customer service provided by the employees. In case of shortcomings, the companies train the employees further for better customer satisfaction. Secret shopping is also rewarding for the shoppers as they can reap great benefits on performing well.
Big corporate giants hire market research companies who are responsible for designing mystery shopping assignments and also recruiting eligible candidates for the same. Like paid surveys, mystery shopping jobs can also be taken up by any individual above eighteen years of age.
In every assignment, a mystery shopper is required to pose as a regular customer. During a mystery shopping assignment, a shopper needs to congregate various information like, performance of the employees, quality of the products, cleanliness of the assigned location, etc. and then write them down in details in a report. Some companies allow the mystery shoppers to carry audio or video recorders to capture the incidents LIVE.
Companies require mystery shoppers who are well trained in observing every nook and corner of a store, evaluating the customer service process, writing accurate and grammatically correct reports, and finally submitting the reports to the companies within twelve hours of completing the mystery shopping assignment. The reports are then reviewed by the market research companies and the data is then passed on to the client companies.
All businesses aren’t the same. Therefore, each mystery shopping assignment is planned based on specific client requirements. The client company has every right to set the objective measures for the brand evaluation.
Mystery shoppers are given a stipulated time frame within which they need to carry out the evaluation procedure. However mystery shoppers are allowed to make changes in their assignment schedule in case of emergency. This is one of the good things about mystery shopping. Again, as mentioned before, mystery shoppers can not only earn good cash amounts but can also get various free gifts and merchandise provided they successfully complete and submit accurate mystery shopping reports.

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