Ensure Success With Mystery Shopping Companies, 3 Important Tips

| Saturday, September 17, 2011
By Xavier Rault


Too many businesses assume that once implemented, a mystery shopping program will lead to more sales in addition to ensuring greater customer satisfaction. In reality, retailers play a large role in the process, and poor choices can lead to poor results.

Terminating a mystery shopping program because of a temporary plateau in the scores is one of the most common mistakes made by retailers. Make sure you're not one of the retailers who fall into this trap.

The three tips below can help you ensure that you get the maximum benefit from your mystery shopping program.

Shop the right stores - you may not feel it's necessary to use mystery shopping companies to see what's happening at your stores with the top sales volume. But wouldn't you like to know what they're doing right that could help other stores? Or what they could be doing to perform even better than they are already? Ensure you don't forget about your top shrink stores either; it's not just the least profitable stores that can benefit.

Recognize that increased sales aren't the only possible positive result. In other words, just because you don't see a steep rise in sales doesn't mean your stores aren't doing some things right. Based on your shopper reports, give praise whenever praise is due. Stores that show improvement in areas like efficiency or providing better customer service experience are having some success.

Realize that communication is important throughout the entire process. Using mystery shopping companies doesn't mean you don't need to get personally involved. Hold regular meetings with your store managers, and remain engaged and in contact with your customers. For example, you could keep your customers up-to-date and fully informed on all contests and customer service experience programs you plan or have in place.

It's also important to remember that although mystery shopping companies can take your business a long way, you'll need to take some important steps to benefit from the tools it gives you.




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