Mystery Shoppers Can Save Your Business
Mystery shoppers can save your business. Here are a couple of ways in which they can do that:
- They can help you to maintain a loyal customer base.
This is because they reveal to you what most other research techniques will not. The staff and customers at your retail outlet are free with the mystery shopper. They will vent their anger or express their joy as if they were an ordinary customer.
This will help you to gauge the effectiveness of your customer service. You can then tailor make that customer service to suit the needs of your consumers. By doing this you will maintain a constant and reliable customer base.
- They help you to check on the performance and capabilities of your staff.
Your staff will never be completely honest with you because you are the boss. They will never disclose anything wrong their colleagues are doing because of existing colleague relationships. However, a mystery shopper will reveal all of these to you. Your staff will act as they normally do when you are not around.
They will treat them as they would any other customer. The staff members that are usually slow to serve or rude to customers will also go about their activities in the normal way. The same scenario will repeat itself with members of staff that are incompetent. Thus, mystery shoppers will save your business by giving you a candid look at your staff's performance.
- They will help you to identify critical issues within your organization.
For instance, the ringing bell at a hotel reception may be out of order, the customer service line may take too long or a particular product could be defective. Your business' management team may not appreciate all of these critical issues.
However, mystery shoppers will experience the intensity of these issues. They will be truthful about their experiences whereas your management team may try to water down any potential issues at your organization.
-They can save your business by identifying members of staff whose efforts you should reward.
These rewards will stir up a competitive nature among the staff while at the same time motivating those members of staff whose work has been exemplary. In other words, mystery shoppers can help you to improve staff motivation and productivity by singling out members of staff who deserve a reward.
- Finally, mystery shoppers can save your business by always keeping your staff on edge.
The fact that any shopper could be a mystery shopper would increase the level of care and attentiveness your staff pays to your customers. The overall effect of this level of care and attentiveness is a happy and repetitive customer base.