10 good reasons for mystery shopping

Have you ever thought of setting up mystery visits in your branches, but are hesitating? If so, we're here to help you better understand what mystery visits can do for you.

You'll soon realize that mystery shopping is a win-win situation. We explain it all in 10 points.

1 - Evaluate your customer experience

It's sometimes difficult to check whether your standards are being met in the field. Whether your network is extensive or not, whether it's made up of branches or franchises, the stakes are the same.

You need to make sure that your operational teams comply with your benchmark to evaluate the customer experience as perceived by informed consumers.

Mystery shopping helps you take stock of your customer experience.

2 - Adapt your quality standards

Have you ever questioned the validity of your quality standards? If it exists, is it still adapted to the realities of the field? These are the answers mystery shopping can provide. In advance of your visits, we'll help you define the key criteria to be assessed.

We're here to help you identify the ones that guarantee quality service. Together, we build the reference system by identifying all the essential components of your offer and breaking them down by theme.

Equipped with this reference tool, plan in-house training courses to enable your teams to adopt and apply it in the field on a daily basis.

3 - Identify your strengths and weaknesses

The advantage of our mystery shopper visits is that they provide a precise, objective picture of the strengths and weaknesses of your entire network.

This gives you the opportunity to rapidly implement areas for improvement, and to use the "best practices" of some to deploy them in others, when results are heterogeneous.

Mystery shopper feedback gives you a mapping of your different establishments, enabling you to challenge them against each other and homogenize your service quality.

4 - Gather consumer feedback

Mystery shopper comments are confidential. Even if they are benevolent and objective, you are free to decide whether or not to circulate them internally.

Some may not need to be visible to everyone. If some of the feedback is negative, it will enable you to clear up sticking points quickly by taking action.

In this way, you become proactive in avoiding future negative reviews.

5 - Gathering feedback

Mystery shopper feedback arrives within 48 hours, virtually in real time. This reactivity enables you to gather "on-the-spot" feedback on specific points of the customer journey. You can choose to carry out 2 different but complementary types of visit.

The compliance visit is responsible for verifying that your standards have been met, by means of objective answers, with the aim of obtaining a scored summary.

The customer experience visit, on the other hand, gives our mystery shoppers more freedom to express their feelings through rich, comprehensive verbatims.

6 - Involving teams

Mystery visits are carried out by your external service provider, with mystery shoppers who are completely external to the company. This ensures total objectivity in the comments collected. With this in mind, you have in your hands a tool that avoids any fantasies or suppositions about the reality on the ground.

Reports enable you to challenge your teams and talk about operational performance on a concrete basis.

To ensure that these visits are fully accepted internally, present them to your teams well in advance, involving everyone.

7 - Surround yourself with friendly mystery shoppers

Our mystery shoppers are knowledgeable, passionate consumers whose comments are constructive and caring. Their aim is to help you move towards continuous improvement.

Their ability to put themselves in both your and your customers' shoes means they can provide valuable suggestions for improvement through their comprehensive feedback.

8 - Convert new customers

Our mystery shoppers don't always visit familiar brands or locations. Sometimes, these visits enable them to discover and appreciate new brands.

Whether they're your target customers or not, it's also an opportunity to convert new customers.

9 - Send a positive message

Being proactive in the face of possible bad reviews sends a strong signal to your customers and prospects. You project a positive, action-oriented image. You don't wait to be criticized, if you have to be, but aim to bring out the best in your teams.

This very positive image is particularly well received by your customers.

10 - Use modern mystery shopping

Mystery shopping has evolved thanks to new technologies, and Smice is no exception. On the contrary, we've even decided to develop our own app, as well as our own platform. Specially designed by mystery shopping specialists, our tools are the first on the market to be specifically dedicated to mystery shopping. 

Discover these new tools here