Evaluating Customer Service With Mystery Shopping
Market research companies use mystery shopping as a means of measuring the quality of the service provided by organisations.
The so called 'secret shoppers' go undercover posing as everyday customers purchasing goods, asking questions, making complaints and finally writing detailed reports and feedback about their experiences.
Recently mystery shopping has experienced a surge in popularity as companies recognise the significant effects it can have on the performance and reputation of an organisation.
The Market Research Society (MRS) supports this view, having embraced secret shopping and developing its own Code of Conduct.
This technique delivers hard truths about the actual level of service quality, which can be analysed against and compared with the performance of competitors.
These qualities are what make this practice uniquely valuable in turning research findings into genuine service improvements for the customer.
Customer satisfaction and word-of-mouth are becoming an increasingly important part of a successful business.
This is why many companies that provide face-to-face services including hotels, restaurants and particularly the tourism industry are now using different forms of secret shopping.
When running a business it is very difficult to measure the crucial interactions between your staff and your customers.
This is where mystery shopping steps in and enables a company to ensure it delivers a consistently high level of service, and to continuously develop and make changes to improve customer satisfaction and ultimately improve profit margins.
The current recession has affected industries in very different ways, which has made it very difficult to judge and predict consumer behaviour.
There is one trend, however, that seems to be dominant throughout that consumers are increasingly picky when choosing where to spend their money.
To stand out businesses need to provide added value and a point of difference, which makes customers choose their company over competitors.
Mystery shopping provides the tools that enable companies to do this by highlighting areas of weakness and points they need to improve on.
The so called 'secret shoppers' go undercover posing as everyday customers purchasing goods, asking questions, making complaints and finally writing detailed reports and feedback about their experiences.
Recently mystery shopping has experienced a surge in popularity as companies recognise the significant effects it can have on the performance and reputation of an organisation.
The Market Research Society (MRS) supports this view, having embraced secret shopping and developing its own Code of Conduct.
This technique delivers hard truths about the actual level of service quality, which can be analysed against and compared with the performance of competitors.
These qualities are what make this practice uniquely valuable in turning research findings into genuine service improvements for the customer.
Customer satisfaction and word-of-mouth are becoming an increasingly important part of a successful business.
This is why many companies that provide face-to-face services including hotels, restaurants and particularly the tourism industry are now using different forms of secret shopping.
When running a business it is very difficult to measure the crucial interactions between your staff and your customers.
This is where mystery shopping steps in and enables a company to ensure it delivers a consistently high level of service, and to continuously develop and make changes to improve customer satisfaction and ultimately improve profit margins.
The current recession has affected industries in very different ways, which has made it very difficult to judge and predict consumer behaviour.
There is one trend, however, that seems to be dominant throughout that consumers are increasingly picky when choosing where to spend their money.
To stand out businesses need to provide added value and a point of difference, which makes customers choose their company over competitors.
Mystery shopping provides the tools that enable companies to do this by highlighting areas of weakness and points they need to improve on.
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