Secret Shoppers Provide Information on Your Customer’s Experience

You’ve had a mystery shop done at your business. Now what?

So, let’s say you’ve had a mystery shopper come to evaluate your business through an agency like Customer Perspectives. Then what? How do you best approach your employees about making improvements or to get their feedback on the types of things measured in the mystery shop? This article lists 10 different ways to approach the [...]

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Independent Evaluators Can be Key to Quality Customer Service

Good customer service is key to your business’s profitability. In a recent study, the American Express Global Customer Service Barometer, showed that two otherwise identical businesses fare very differently if one is lacking in excellent customer service and the other has it.

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Benefits of Mystery Shopping

Mystery shopping is a secret way to test the performance of your employees. Many businesspersons assume that the success of an organization depends on advertising and marketing or on creating a brand name. However, brand awareness or popularity is not the end of the story. It not only attracts potential customers but also provides what [...]

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Who is the secret shopper?

$600 million In 2004, the latest figures available, the U.S. mystery shopping industry generated nearly $600 million in revenue. More than 8 million mystery “shops” or evaluations were conducted. Revenue by industry: Retail, $100.8 million, or 16.8 percent. Banks, financial services, $85.2 million, or 14.2 percent. Fast food, $84 million, or 14 percent. Gas stations [...]

A Tale of 2 Burgers

No doubt you’ve had the experience of traveling along the highway with a rumbling stomach when, all of a sudden, there’s a billboard advertising a juicy, mouthwatering, cheesy hamburger, available within seconds at the fast food joint only one short exit away. Agreeing with your stomach that it sure looks good, you speed up a [...]

Mystery Shopping Programs Yield Results

When Delia Betterton breezes into the CiCi’s Pizza on Atlantic Boulevard, she’s no normal customer. Running down a mental checklist, she scrutinizes the beverage station, scans the employees’ uniforms and pops into the bathroom to inspect its cleanliness. Oh, and when she has a moment, she actually orders some food. To the half-a-dozen Cici’s employees [...]

Salesclerks, watch your step

Some anonymous consumers who regularly enter retail stores do so with no intention of buying a thing What they do, however, has a measurable effect on those who come with a shopping list. Mystery shoppers, as the undercover per-diem workers are known, enter shops and businesses, observe the demeanor of customer-service representatives and report their [...]

"Mystery shoppers" test taste, service, integrity

WHY CUSTOMERS DON’T COME BACK For companies in today’s competitive market, customer service often is the key to success or failure. Here are the top reasons why customers don’t return to a place of business: • Poor service (69%) • Product dissatisfaction (13%) • Competitive reasons (9%) • Other (9%) Source: Mystery Shopping Providers Association [...]

Mystery shoppers give retail managers "dose of reality"

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Among the hordes of shoppers looking for bargains and returning unwanted gifts may be a few spies too. They are secretly sent to stores, pizza shops, hair salons and hotels to report back to owners and managers about how they were treated by employees. Businesses nationwide spent nearly $600 million on mystery [...]

Mystery shoppers are watching

Take note, retail workers: Sometimes the customer might be something more What mystery shoppers pay attention to when visiting a retailer: Do employees greet and thank customers? Do employees introduce themselves Do employees inform customers about specials or sales? Do employees cross-sell products? Are employees dressed appropriately? Are the tables, floors and restrooms clean? How [...]

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