Retail Eyes Mystery Shopping and Market Research (marknadsinspektioner och kontroll)

Målet med fallstudien – Mysteriy Shopping Diskutera Mystery shopping som en teknik för moderna marknadsundersökningar Skillnaden med andra metoder Värdet av mystery shopping för att mäta kundservice, och för utbilda personal och duktiga säljare för goda prestationer Hur företag kan dra fördel av ett sådant koncept Värdet av att snabbt förstå och fånga förändringar i ändrade köpvanor Kritiska framgångsfaktorer för en framgångsrik Mystery Shopping Utmärka vikten av auditing online och dess kundnytta

Analyze under which conditions a retailer decides to use a mystery shopping research technique? Mystery shopping is a common research technique used particularly in retailing and it’s particularly suitable for service companies (e.g. tourism, hospitality), in which the quality of the customer service (e.g. kindliness, cleanliness, friendliness) is a core element of the product. The marketing manager of a retailer’s shop (offline or online) may decide to adopt mystery shopping to assess and improve the standards of service they provide to their customers. This research technique is mainly used when companies want to conduct research on the sales force or shop personnel by using people (mystery shoppers) acting as normal customers. Thus, marketers may use mystery shoppers to monitor employee compliance with procedures and to enhance their sales ability to retain existing customers or to attract new ones. The retailers’ customer service performance is analysed against the company’s own targets and against the standards provided by competitors and other organizations. Through mystery shopping, marketing managers can understand what areas of the services are working well and what needs to be improved. Mystery shopping is also used to obtain marketing intelligence on leading competitors as a benchmark against which performance can be compared. Marketers may recur to mystery shopping programs also to evaluate a company’s training program as it relates to customer service delivery. An individual respondent’s performance may be assessed as part of the process. Mystery shopping is also used to identify employees who deserve rewards or who needs further training. Accordingly, since mystery shoppers provide independent and impartial feedback, this reduces any perception of favouritism in incentive programs.

Identify a set of typical research questions should be answered by a mystery shopper? We can identify several questions that mystery shopping companies may request to its mystery shoppers mainly depending on the goals of the client and on the nature of the business. For example, for evaluating a retailer’s shop customer service, a mystery shopper may ask questions about the personnel, about the process or about the store atmosphere, such as:

Identify a set of typical research questions should be answered by a mystery shopper? Staff questions Were staffs smartly dressed? Were you made aware of any promotions? Did employees wear a name badge? Note the name of the person who served the consumer How was the attitude of the sales person in serving the customer? Was the staff attentive to your needs? Did the sales person know enough about the product and its services?  etc

Identify a set of typical research questions should be answered by a mystery shopper? Process questions How long did it take for the customer to be assisted by a sales person? Did they smile when they took your money? Did the staff try and get you to order something extra? Did the staff check the banknotes under ultra violet light? Did they thank you for your purchase? 

Identify a set of typical research questions should be answered by a mystery shopper?  Store atmosphere Were all prices visible? Were products correctly arranged on the shelf? Was the shelves filled with enough stock? How was the general atmosphere in the shop? There was some music in the shop? Was the shop clean?

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the mystery shopping technique compared to other market research methods ADVANTAGES The hidden nature of the observation in a mystery shopping study makes this research technique more effective and unbiased than others (e.g. research in which the sales force is asked to fill a questionnaire for customer service purposes). Provides reliable and real-time data about the consumer service and satisfaction of a retailer in a specific time. It often generates factual data, not perceptual one. In fact, mystery shoppers should respond objectively to the questions in the checklist according to their experience, providing facts. Whereas, using customer surveys for instance, customers share their overall impression of a service as they do not remember its specific elements. Enables a rapid tracking (and solution) of potential problems in the consumer service. May provide both quantitative and qualitative data, which enables a company to better understand its consumers and the service provided.

Advantages, continue … The nature of the research technique enables to get a lot of details about customer service and enables the analysis of its several facets. Can provide data on competitors’ customer service performance. It can be used as a complete training tool since it spots specific training needs to improve service delivery. Since mystery shoppers should provide independent and impartial feedback, this reduces any perception of favouritism in incentive programs. Mystery shoppers can also integrate digital photography and video as part of the audit process. Companies may gain a different perspective of their service, from one which uses professional researchers.

Disadvantages May engender ethical issues; thus, any organisation using them should advise their staff that mystery shoppers will be used periodically to check their service delivery performance. The method and sample sizes have been criticised from reliability and validity aspects. The mystery shopper may not possess good observational, memory or reporting skills. Reports may contain subjective and stereotypical opinions and attitudes about the personnel. The mystery shopper may not be honest and professional. Matching the right mystery shopper to the right situation may be difficult. It offers only a ‘snapshot’ of the service process; therefore some variables may affect the generalisability of a mystery shopping study results, like the time of day (or night) that the observations were made, the type of transaction being evaluated, the particular employee being assessed, the process being evaluated and the particular outlet being studied.

Discuss the innovations introduced by Retail Eyes in their mystery shopping program The company uses a software (re:view™) enabling clients to access all results in genuine real-time, 24 hours on 24 and 7 days a week so they can monitor and analyze the latest results as they occur. Retail Eyes has enlarged the number and heterogeneity of its mystery shoppers, choosing among more than 250.000 “real” mystery shoppers (and not professional shoppers or researchers), whose age ranges from 16 to 96 years old, with several interests and hobbies and who may represent the potential target of several companies. Retail Eyes’ mystery shoppers do not have to simply tick the box of a mental checklist; rather they also provide personal opinions, subjective feelings and other qualitative data. An online reporting system enables registered mystery shoppers to easily select tasks and to provide feedback on their mystery shopping experience. Retail Eyes mystery shoppers use a tablet pc instead of paper and pencil to rapidly complete their report after the visit. Mystery shoppers can also integrate digital photography and video as part of the audit process.