When people think of mystery shopping, they tend to first think of traditional, onsite shops. Using shopping services for other areas of a business can be just as effective and streamline call center processes.
Telephone mystery shopping is an effective tool that can eliminate the need for additional supervisory staff to continually monitor calls for quality assurance. Similar to an onsite experience, shoppers can call customer service facilities posing as customers to evaluate services. Online mystery shopping can also gauge the entire process of finding items on a company’s website, utilizing the online chat and/or toll-free number to ask questions about an item, purchase, or service, making the purchase, and then making a return. These tactics are successfully used in many companies, and it’s a great way to see all aspects of the customer’s experience from an objective perspective.
Because mystery shoppers come from all areas of the world and many walks of life, programs can also evaluate “real life customer” experiences. They can pose as a true customer by making a purchase, or many times they are already a customer.
What can be done about more specific types of business where purchases may be geared more toward another business or specialty service? With the client’s help, fictitious accounts can be created in the system so that customer service representatives see a file for the customer when the shopper calls. These transactions can be targeted in the system on the client’s end so that upper management knows they are not actual transactions and are part of the program. This has been successful in many companies to gauge service levels.
Next time you’re considering implementation of a mystery shopping program, consider using one for ALL aspects of your business – onsite, telephone, live chat, and email. This is the best way to ensure all customers are getting strong service no matter which avenue they do business with you.
