Category: Mystery Shopping

 

Sometimes you’ll learn more than you bargained for with a mystery shopping program.

 

While mystery shopping focuses primarily on customer service levels and adherence to operational procedures, there have been times when fieldwork uncovers other matters that a company may or may not have realized before, giving unique insight and additional areas for improvement and/or awareness.

 

One example is related to discrimination; okay, maybe discrimination is a harsh word, but we’ve seen it happen in the past. As a program rolls out, shopper reports start to show trends where levels of service provided may differ based on who the shopper is. Consider these two examples:

 

1. An electronics retailer uses a program to ensure that associates are knowledgeable about the products and encourage a sale when customers show “buying signals.” A program noted trends in when sales were encouraged vs. discussions that did not encourage a sale. The client learned that the associates were more inclined to encourage sales from those who “dressed the part” and “looked” like a customer who could afford a higher end product. As an expansion of the program, shoppers were divided into two groups – one was required to dress in a casual manner, while the other group had a more “business” or “professional” appearance to gauge service levels across the two groups.

 

2. A home improvement retailer implemented a program in which shoppers were inquiring about products for a home project. At one location, two female shoppers reported that they felt as though they were not taken as seriously, possibly because they were female, with one reporting that the employee suggested she “let her husband handle the project.” As this appeared to be a location specific concern, additional shops were conducted, this type with males and females, to gauge the differences in customer service, if any. This was helpful to pinpoint any discrimination that existed and retrain associates as needed.

 

It can go even farther than differences in customer service provided. A recent article cited a study conducted in 2014 in which mystery shoppers visited retail stores and dressed differently, with some neat and professional in appearance, and others more casual. The findings of this study revealed similar results to what our clients experience, but also some surprising results, including:

 

• Well dressed shoppers experienced more pressure to make a purchase than their casual counterparts
• Well dressed shoppers were quoted higher prices in some cases than those dressed more casualyl/less neat

 

Whether intentional or not, humans tend to perceive situations based on what they see. It’s important for employees to be aware of their perceptions and provided consistent service across the board.

 

 

I attended a webinar this week, and the speaker gave a quote that is so true:

 

“No one owns the customer anymore, but someone owns their moment of opportunity…”

 

Essentially, given the age of technology, customers are not as loyal as they once were to a brand, and they tend to go where they can do business on their terms, using their preferred method, when they are ready to buy. For some, this means going into a store after careful product research; for others, it means picking up that item they’ve thought about buying but they made the leap because of a timely email from a company.

 

As a business, you may not “own” the customer anymore, but you can make changes and evolve your strategy to “own” their moment…that moment when they are ready to make a purchase and choose to do so with you. While you may be CEO of your company, you are no longer the boss: your customers have taken over that role, for better or worse.

 

Below are some tips for ensuring your customers are getting what they need, and that you’re first in mind when the moment of opportunity arises….

 

1. Find out what they want: just because all of your competitors have recently rolled out an app, should you? It depends on your customers. Unless you ask though, you won’t know for sure. Replace (or enhance) your current customer feedback survey to incorporate some more generalized questions, such as “how would you like to best make purchases from us?” and “what is your preferred method of communication when you need help?” The insight you will get can be invaluable in helping you develop new offerings and strategies to best serve your customers.

 

2. Take some time to dig deep and get to know your typical customer: while this sounds daunting, utilizing a social media monitoring program can give you all of the information you need. Take the conversations collected and find out what people are saying they like/dislike about your brand? What are they saying about your competitors? If there are “wish list” items customers are talking about, take a closer look at them. Your customers may surprise you!

 

3. Focus on values, not features: show your customers the value of doing business with you. They can likely find any product they need anywhere, whether its in your store, a competitor’s, or online. Make them see why it’s good to do business with you, whether it’s a great loyalty program, real time incentives while customers are browsing the aisles, free shipping with no minimum, mobile shopping, or anything else that makes it easy to get what they need.

 

By building value, engagement, and ease of doing business with your company, you will be better equipped to stay in front of your customer so that when their moment arises, you will own it like a boss.

 

Mystery shopping captures a particular snapshot in time of one person’s experience in your place of business. While it is a great tool to get an idea of what customers experience, especially from an operational standpoint, sometimes doubling up could give you additional insight you didn’t expect.

 

Recently, a client asked us to send two shoppers into one of their locations on the same day, around the same time. Coordinating schedules, two shoppers visited the same location within the same general time frame.  What happened next was interesting…

 

Both shoppers were in the restaurant for the majority of their respective visits. One was seated at a table at one end of the restaurant, and the other was seated in a back corner, somewhat out of the way from the “main” dining area.

 

One of the questions on the report asked if a manager visited the table. The shopper who was seated in the more populated area of the dining room, closer to the kitchen and bar area, was visited by the manager on two occasions during the visit. The other shopper, seated a bit out of the way, was never visited by a manager. In fact, this shopper reported that the manager did visit those tables within close proximity to the kitchen/bar area, but never visited tables on the other half of the dining room.

 

One visit, two very different experiences. On further exploration, the company learned that this was the manager’s typical methodology, tending to only visit tables that he could visit quickly and get back to his other tasks, leaving a good portion of diners ignored.

 

While this could have been an isolated case, the double shops revealed some interesting information that the company may not have known. And sometimes it’s good to double up for the mere fact of changing up the mystery shopping schedule – over time, employees will come to realize the shopping schedule, which may impact the performance scoring.

 

In short, changing up a mystery shopping routine has many benefits, one of which is looking at a snapshot from two different lenses.