Why Mystery Shopping Program? 
Mystery Shopping Program (MSP) is a tool used to measure the quality of
service, or compliance with regulation, or to gather specific information
about products and services. The services related to MSP are usually being
deployed by third-party market research companies, watchdog organizations,
or sometimes it is done internally by companies themselves. The mystery
consumer's specific identity and purpose are generally not known by the
establishment being evaluated.
Mostly Mystery Shopping Program is considered by the corporates to evaluate
sales and customer service teams. This type of audit is helpful in
identifying the areas of improvement both for quality of deliverable and
its delivery channel.
TechSci provides technology dominated process for Mystery Shopping Program.
The in-house tech-driven software apps will enable
- To get newer customer insights
- To improve customer experience and satisfaction
- Bring New Sales
- Influx more revenues
- To Identify loopholes in multiple processes
- Improve customer deliverables
- To enhance Brand Recall Value
- To maintain Brand Image
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- Upgrade areas in service delivery
- Track and measure service performance
- Upgrade customer retention
- Provide feedback from multi department’s operations
- Monitor provision conditions - asset protection
- Ensure quality of a product or service
- Minimize customer complaints
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TechSci Research deals with more than 11 industries and is capable of
conducting audits efficiently with the help of pool of trained manpower and
extending the services to all kinds of Sales & Marketing Audits and
Training Initiatives for our clients. We have pre-designed matrices,
solutions and training programs to address every domain in all the
industries.
Whom to Audit?
A Mystery Shopping Program is conducted across retail establishments and
multiple parameters are audited for different objectives:
Trade marketing focused audits include validating information
furnished in terms of:
- Out-of-Stock
- Range / SKU availability
- SKU counts
Also helps in,
- Competitor comparison
- Category management
- Verify product distribution
- Compliance merchandising programs
- Planogram compliance
- Validation of store lay-out
- Implementation of VM
- POS presence
- Validate secondary placement
- Branding & signage guidelines
- Activation of campaigns
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Price Focused Audits:
- Verify own price consistency
- Track price compliance retailer
- Track competitor prices
- Ticket / Shelf / Register price
- Promotion strategies
- Discount strategies
- Coupon strategies
- Brand / Market / Retailer Trending
- Price - Promotion compliance
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At TechSci, we have curated specific steps and a proven blueprint for a successful mystery shopping program that can help organizations increase return on investment. Here are some simple steps to make mystery shopping program a massive success for your organization.
Start with a Strategy
The objective of the mystery shopping program is to solve a specific business question that delivers a precise value. Leveraging mystery shopping as a tool, organizations can create strategies for a clear direction on their customer-facing initiatives. Define objectives that align with your mystery shopping program to address all the loopholes and build better marketing strategies. Design your mystery shopping program strategy around the goals that you want to achieve, such as:
- Measuring adherence to specific brand standards
- Understanding competition better
- Analyzing training effectiveness of employees
Keep customers’ needs in mind
Many organizations make the mistake of conducting a mystery shopping program based on what is important to them rather than focusing on customers’ needs. For instance, while it may be necessary for a company that its employees wear a nametag, it might not be so crucial for its customers. Besides, the customers might expect employees to be more friendly, helping, and polite while providing service to them. Identify the pain and delight points of the customers to enhance their experience and drive customer acquisition and retention.
Create a realistic shopper scenario
Mystery shoppers are well-trained to enhance the experience of customers with the help of briefing materials. Playing out interactions beforehand is critical to ensure consistency, quality, and overall success of your program. Sometimes, the mystery shoppers are provided with written instructions that mention each step of the process. Calibration shops (test shops conducted by program stakeholders) are feasible and help mystery shoppers gather the information that organizations intend to collect.
Formulate a strategic sample plan
Organizations must have a clear-cut answer to how many shops to target under the mystery shopping program or how frequently to visit a specific shop, etc. Also, following the “every location, every month” method of conducting mystery shopping can be time-consuming and turn out to be obsolete. Therefore, tie your sampling plan back to strategy and objectives to find better solutions to unsolved issues. A smart sampling plan includes the right channels and techniques to shop and develop the right shop type mix for a comprehensive audit.
Prepare your analytical plan
The last step of a mystery shopping program involves collating all the data and designing an analytical plan for insight creation and access results. Proper planning for formulating analytics could provide you with the answers that you need to address your business questions. An analytical plan is simply the outline of the reporting deliverable that one expects after completing the mystery shopping program.
We at TechSci Do NOT
Conduct Mystery Shopping Program during peak business hours.
Take notes in an obvious manner. We understand and know that the managers
are on the lookout for mystery shoppers and a lens peeking out of our purse
or scribbling notes in front of anyone will most definitely tip them off.
Visit any store without doing complete research on the specific business.
Our mystery shopper is aware of what to expect once he arrives there.
Take up a mystery shopping job just because it sounds exciting. Mystery
shopping requires strong observation skills. Not everyone is cut out to be
a mystery shopper. We exceed beyond expectations!