There are many different marketing research methods, but mystery shoppers may not be as well known. A mystery shopper is also called an undercover investigation, in which an investigator poses as a customer to investigate the actual conditions of a store, facility, or other service. Some of you may have questions such as “What is the meaning and benefit of doing this?” and “How do I conduct the survey?”
This time, we will explain what a mystery shopper is, the benefits and precautions of implementing one, and the types of industries that use surveys.
What is a mystery shopper (undercover investigation)?
We will explain the outline and origin of mystery shoppers.
Mystery shopper is a type of marketing research
Mystery shopper is a marketing research method that is used to improve services in various industries, including customer service. An investigator pretending to be a customer goes to a store or facility, uses the service in the same way as a regular customer, and checks and evaluates items such as customer service and cleaning conditions. Because of the investigation method, it is also called undercover investigation.
Because investigators use the service naturally like any other customer, it is difficult for employees to detect this. Employees do not know who the investigator is or when an investigation is taking place, so they will continue to provide services as usual. Therefore, the mystery shopper can be said to be a marketing research method that allows you to check and evaluate the usual services provided at stores and facilities from a customer’s perspective.
Mystery shopper survey results are fed back to stores and employees, and are used to improve services and increase customer satisfaction.
Method born in America
Mystery shopper is a method that originated in America. It is said that it was first introduced by an American company in the 1940s as a way to conduct more effective employee surveys. In English-speaking countries, it is sometimes called “Mystery Consumer” or “Secret Shopper.”
Mystery shopper is a marketing research method that was created in America, so many people in Japan may not know about it. However, an increasing number of companies are now using mystery shoppers as they are recognized as an effective method for improving service and increasing customer satisfaction.
Examples of industries using mystery shoppers
What types of industries use mystery shoppers? Examples of industries and research objectives are explained below.
retail
In the retail industry, mystery shoppers are used by researchers to investigate customers’ impressions of customer service and whether there are any gaps in brand image. You can investigate from a variety of angles by asking questions, such as the ability of employees to make suggestions, the ease of understanding product explanations, and the level of understanding of the product itself.
Eating and drinking
In the restaurant industry, researchers actually order menus and conduct research. It is possible to investigate important points in the restaurant industry from the customer’s perspective, such as communication skills, food service speed, consideration for customers, and store cleanliness. In the food and beverage industry, where there is a noticeable labor shortage, this system is used in some cases, as it is expected to have the effect of properly evaluating employees who provide better customer service and lowering the turnover rate. Furthermore, as the needs of tourists visiting Japan have increased in recent years, it seems that they are conducting research from an overseas perspective.
stay
In the accommodation industry, researchers stay at hotels, etc. to conduct surveys. In addition to front desk operations, the survey examines things such as the ease of use and atmosphere of the hotel and facilities, the level of equipment, and the staff’s ability to provide detailed responses. The purpose of using mystery shoppers is to use these survey results to improve service quality and increase word-of-mouth and repeat rates. There are also cases where we conduct surveys to confirm and verify the flow from online reservation to accommodation.
finance
Mystery shoppers are used to improve counter services at branches of banks, securities companies, etc. Implementation aimed at improving the closing rate of insurance sales agents also appears to be on the rise. The financial industry is an industry that deals with precious money, and customer trust and satisfaction are very important points. The focus will be on whether you are providing thorough and easy-to-understand explanations and whether you are making proposals that suit the customer.
education
For example, in a cram school, children actually study, but parents pay for the cost. In order to conduct management with higher levels of satisfaction, it is important to increase the level of satisfaction of parents. For this reason, in the education industry, there are many cases in which mystery shoppers are used not only to improve the impressions and evaluations of children but also their parents. Based on the survey results, it is common to consider how to develop the education and support system for administrative staff and cram school instructors.
Manufacturer
Manufacturers make profits by selling their products and services wholesale to retail stores. For this reason, mystery shoppers are used at retail stores to investigate how their own products are lined up and how their competitors are treated. Based on the results, we will implement improvement measures aimed at differentiating ourselves from our competitors and further improving our performance.
Benefits of companies using mystery shoppers
Mystery shoppers are used in a variety of industries. So, what are the actual benefits of using mystery shoppers for companies? I will explain it below.
You can investigate the actual situation.
A big advantage of being a mystery shopper is that you can investigate the situation.
Let’s assume that the person conducting the investigation is an area manager who knows the internal affairs well and is well known to the employees. In that case, on-site employees may respond differently than usual in front of the area manager, who is the investigator, in order to get a good evaluation. Also, area managers may be underestimating the stores they are responsible for. This doesn’t give you a true picture of the store or its employees.
The most distinctive feature of mystery shoppers is that the investigator, who does not know the circumstances of the company and does not know the company’s face, conducts the investigation under the guise of ordinary customers. Employees do not know who the investigator is or that they are being investigated, so they respond as usual. As a result, researchers can realistically check how employees interact with customers from a perspective closer to that of the customers.
Being able to investigate the actual situation on-site can be expected to be effective in resolving problems and increasing customer satisfaction.
Helpful in understanding areas for improvement
A major benefit of being a mystery shopper is that your company’s issues become clear.
In order to improve service capabilities and customer satisfaction, it is important to understand the current situation, identify issues, and resolve them. However, it is not easy to recognize the issues that need to be solved only from an internal perspective. By introducing a mystery shopper, it is possible for a third party to conduct checks from a customer’s point of view. For these reasons, it is easy to identify issues that are difficult to notice within the company, and is useful for formulating improvement measures.
The mystery shopper’s survey results are visualized numerically and submitted to the company. Customer service, cleanliness, store atmosphere, etc. can be objectively quantified and visualized, making it easier to identify problems.
Even things that are difficult to express numerically, such as impressions and atmosphere, are left as comments. By listening to opinions closer to the customer’s perspective, companies can discover issues that need to be resolved to improve customer satisfaction.
Some research companies have experts conduct deeper analysis, identify issues and problems, and propose improvement measures. Objective advice from a research company with a track record of research and analysis will be of great benefit to your company.
Feedback can be given to employees who have been evaluated
One of the benefits of being a mystery shopper is that appropriate feedback from a customer’s perspective can improve team strength and increase employee motivation.
Employees have little opportunity to hear from customers. Therefore, I had to set goals and work hard by receiving advice from internal people such as superiors and seniors, and by identifying issues on my own.
With mystery shoppers, an investigator who is closer to the customer’s perspective evaluates stores and employees, and the results are communicated to the employees. As a result, we can understand what customers want and where we can improve our services, and our goals as a team become clearer. Having a clear goal to reach will help increase team cohesion.
Mystery shoppers also allow employees to be evaluated and communicated about their positive traits from a customer’s perspective. Everyone is happy when they receive a compliment, and it’s even more rewarding when it comes from a customer. If employees learn about good qualities that they didn’t know about, they will be highly motivated to continue their efforts to further develop those qualities.
In addition, communicating employees who have received good evaluations as success stories in company newsletters, etc., or using them in an award system will further increase motivation.
Competitive research and large-scale research are also possible.
Mystery shopper is a marketing research method that can be used for competitive research and large-scale surveys.
If you conduct store surveys on your own, depending on the size of your company, there may be areas that you cannot cover. Since we will only conduct research to the extent that our company’s resources can cover, there may be issues that we cannot find. This makes it difficult to improve essential services.
Mystery shoppers are typically outsourced to specialized research companies. This allows us to conduct large-scale investigations that would otherwise be limited by our own resources. Research companies have many undercover investigators, so even large-scale investigations can be carried out in a short period of time.
Mystery shoppers can investigate not only their own stores but also those of their competitors. If you can understand the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors, you can take measures to further develop areas where your company is superior and improve areas where it is weak. Additionally, it will be easier to see the points you need to differentiate yourself from your competitors.
Types of mystery shoppers
As a mystery shopper, the client company instructs the research company/investigator about what they want the company to investigate. Common research methods include:
Customer service survey
Customer service research is a method in which a researcher pretends to be a customer, receives service, and investigates stores and facilities. Also called in-store research or field research.
Customer service surveys are most often conducted at retail stores. Investigators who pretend to be customers will investigate the state of product display in stores, the installation of promotional materials, the development of competitors’ sales areas, and the responsiveness of employees.
Customer service surveys tend to be commissioned by manufacturers who deliver their products to retail stores. This is to find out whether products are displayed as intended by the manufacturer, whether store employees are introducing products with the correct knowledge, and what prices they are sold at. By understanding these things, we will be able to plan effective product promotions and
marketing strategies
.
There are also cases where retailers request customer service surveys. We will understand what kind of services are provided by on-site employees, how the cleaning situation is going, and identify areas for improvement.
Telephone survey (mystery call)
Telephone surveys involve a researcher posing as a customer calling a store, facility, or call center to check the quality of service provided by employees and operators. Also called mystery call.
Since telephone answering work involves one-on-one communication between operators and employees, it is difficult to fully grasp the quality of the work. Therefore, in a telephone survey, a researcher actually makes a call and investigates set items such as the operator’s response quality, reception manners, speaking style, differences from manuals, and differences between operators. They also check to see if they respond politely even when they receive a wrong call, and also check to see if they are working hard to maintain their company’s brand image.
Telephone research may involve calling a competitor’s call center. This is to investigate the quality of customer service of your competitors and compare it with your own. This will help you clarify what strengths your company has compared to your competitors, and what challenges you need to solve.
Flow of mystery shopper implementation
How does a mystery shopper work? Here, we will introduce the process when conducting a mystery shopper by requesting a specialized research company.
Determining the purpose of the survey and questions
When requesting a mystery shopper, first meet with the person in charge at the research company to determine the purpose of the research and the questions. The following decisions will be made during the meeting:
- Research purpose
- marketing challenges
- What needs to be revealed
- Number of stores/area/survey time
The general process is for the purpose to be determined in a meeting, and the research company to consider, propose, and design the questions.
Among these items to be determined, the most important is the “research purpose.” The purpose of the investigation is the compass to aim for during the investigation, and if this item is not clear, all directions will be thrown off course. If the purpose is not clear, the questions designed will be ambiguous and there is a risk that the intended research results will not be obtained. Consider clarifying the purpose of your research and sharing your goals with the person in charge as a shortcut.
Questions are generally designed by research companies, but unique items can be added depending on the company’s wishes, research objectives, service content, etc.
Selection of investigator
We select investigators based on the content of the meeting and the questions we have designed.
Although it differs depending on the research company, the researchers are generally general consumers. General consumers are people who stand on the same level as customers, and it is believed that it is easy to conduct research from the customer’s perspective. For example, if you are researching a home electronics retailer, consider selecting general consumers who are interested in home appliances and regularly visit the store as researchers.
If the investigation content or operations are complex, we may select a professional investigator. In this case, staff members who have knowledge of the industry to be investigated are generally selected.
In line with the selection of investigators, the research company will create a manual and design a reporting system for smoother, quantitative research. Depending on the research company, there may be cases in which they conduct tests using these tools in advance and inform the researchers about precautions.
Research companies carefully select their researchers in order to submit highly accurate research results to companies.
implementation
Next, an investigation will be conducted by an investigator.
Investigators head to target stores and facilities according to specified conditions such as date and time. In this process, you will act as a single customer and investigate employees, stores, and facilities according to the question design.
When conducting surveys and evaluations in-house, the person in charge can observe employee movements while taking notes. However, mystery shopper investigators are not allowed to take notes during the investigation because they are pretending to be regular customers and must not be tricked by employees. Therefore, it is common practice to answer questions and submit a survey report on the same day so as not to forget the survey details.
Depending on the research company, some companies may set conditions such as requiring respondents to respond within an hour of leaving the store. In addition, in some cases, the investigator may be asked to submit images in order to check whether he or she actually visited the store or facility where the investigation was conducted.
All this is done to increase the accuracy of the survey. If you are looking for a more accurate survey, it would be a good idea to ask the person in charge how long it takes from leaving the store to responding.
Delivery of survey results
After the survey is completed, the research company will compile all the responses and reports from the surveyors. Although it depends on the research company, it is common for multiple people to check the research reports of the researchers. For example, some researchers may not be able to take notes during the survey, which may result in inconsistencies in answers. There are many free comments that make it difficult to understand the intention or make it difficult to see areas for improvement. The person in charge will check the problems with the investigation report with the investigator and have them resubmit it to create an easy-to-understand investigation result.
The survey results are delivered to the company that commissioned the survey, depending on the research company, the content and scale of the survey, but in most cases it takes about one week at the earliest, and two to three weeks at the latest.
Let’s share the estimated delivery schedule in advance.
Make improvement plans based on the results
Once the survey results are delivered, we will formulate and implement improvement plans based on them.
Survey results will be submitted in the form of not only aggregated data but also details that are difficult to quantify, such as the atmosphere of stores and facilities. If you look at the results of a mystery shopper survey, you will be able to see issues and areas for improvement from a customer’s perspective that cannot be seen through your own research, and competitive research will also allow you to understand the differences between your company’s strengths and weaknesses and those of other companies. Analyze this valuable data and plan and implement improvement measures to improve service and customer satisfaction.
Some research companies also provide consulting based on the submitted results. For example, we offer services that deeply analyze data, propose specific improvement measures tailored to your company, and share case studies similar to the results of this survey. Consider getting support to provide better service that increases customer satisfaction.
Precautions when introducing a mystery shopper
Mystery shopper is a marketing research method that uses a researcher posing as a customer to uncover difficult-to-see issues and lead to improvements. Although this method has many advantages, there are some points to keep in mind when implementing it.
Looking at the survey results from multiple perspectives
It is important to analyze mystery shopper survey results from multiple perspectives.
The survey results obtained by Mystery Shopper are quantified, making it easy to visualize problems. However, quantified data is just numbers, and it may not be able to highlight the problems faced in the field.
For example, even if a store ranks numerically high in survey results, customer satisfaction may not actually be that high.
In this way, it is not uncommon for there to be discrepancies between survey results and the actual situation. In order to make more effective improvements, it is important to view the survey results from multiple perspectives, such as understanding not only quantitative data but also qualitative data such as comments from researchers and questionnaires from field employees.
In addition, we may conduct fixed-point investigations using mystery shoppers on an ongoing basis. In this case, environmental changes such as stores and surrounding facilities must also be taken into account. For example, if a competing store opens nearby, you should consider not only researching your own store but also researching your competitors and analyzing the results from multiple angles.
Carefully provide feedback to the field
When implementing a mystery shopper, feedback should be given carefully.
The purpose of a mystery shopper is to accurately understand the current situation, find areas for improvement, and improve service and customer satisfaction. However, depending on the employee, there are cases in which an investigation conducted by an investigator posing as a customer may be viewed in a negative sense as “looking for something in the wrong way” or “monitoring them.” If this is the case, there is a risk that a deep rift will develop between management and frontline employees, leading to new problems.
In order to avoid creating such meaningless rifts, it is important to share with front-line staff the original purpose of mystery shoppers, which is “to make the store better.” Also, rather than having management immediately communicate improvement plans and have them implement them, it is important to share the results of the survey and discuss them together to decide and implement improvement measures that are appropriate for the workplace.
Mystery Shopper is a survey that can be applied not only to surveys, but also to recognition of high-quality employees. If you give awards based on survey results at company general meetings or training sessions, it will increase employee motivation and create a positive image of mystery shoppers.
Summary Mystery shopper that realizes appropriate evaluation of employees! Aim to provide better services through effective utilization
Mystery shopper is a marketing research method that uncovers problems and issues facing your company from the customer’s perspective. It can be said that this is a research method that can be used to improve service capabilities and customer satisfaction, as it can be used to determine whether on-site services truly meet customer needs.
Although you can conduct marketing research in-house, your employees will be able to see what you are doing, which will obscure your actual work. Therefore, if you are looking for higher quality research, a mystery shopper is recommended.
Please refer to this article and consider using a mystery shopper.