Friday, May 20, 2011

Effective Brand Analysis with Mystery Shopping Methods

Mystery Shopping is a true way to earn a legitimate form of extra income. In recent times, companies have found out various ways to analyse the prevailing market trends and gather consumers’ standpoints on various products and services. As such mystery shopping methods have also been modified to a great extent.

Every company aims at improving its brand name, increase sales and achieve greater customer satisfaction. For this purpose, they need to collect honest and unbiased consumer feedbacks on their products. Based on the feedback data, the necessary decisions are taken. Big corporations hire market research companies, who in turn hire individuals for the pre-designed mystery shopping assignments. Vacancies are always available in the mystery shopping field since many individuals quit their jobs due to lack of interest or inadequate performance. Once the mystery shoppers are hired, the companies provide thorough training to all of them before sending them off for the mystery shopping assignments.

The working day of a mystery shopper generally involves visiting one or more stores, pose as a regular customer and evaluate the product conditions and the services offered by the store/s staff. This job helps a secret shopper earn in cash as well as reap other exciting benefits like, get eye check-up done, get a facial therapy done, try out clothes in posh boutiques or stores, eat at fast food joints, watch the latest releases in the nearby theatres, dine at restaurants, visit amusement parks and enjoy few rides – all these for free!. However, many mystery shoppers consider their jobs as a challenge as they need to remain undercover throughout an assignment and keep an eye on everything as instructed by the companies. The instructions keep changing with every assignment.

Mystery shopping or secret shopping is a type of market research tool that anonymously measures whether or not a company’s established customer service standards are being implemented at all of their locations. In other words, a mystery shopper needs to check the various product and service standards in the assigned locations while posing as a regular customer. As such, it is employed in various industries, like, retail, hospitality, education, travel, entertainment, medical, baking and financial institutions, etc.

Mystery shopping jobs can be performed by any individual having good surveillance and logical writing skills with the correct usage of grammar. The mystery shopping reports comprise of unbiased feedbacks of a mystery shopper on various products or service competencies in written or recorded form. As mentioned earlier, mystery shopping reports are extremely valuable for companies since the data help the companies make appropriate decisions. Hence mystery shoppers play a crucial role in improving brand effectiveness and thereby helping companies increase sales. Besides, insufficient customer service is addressed with equal importance so as to improve their existing standards and also reward some of the outstanding performers.

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