» Service Intelligence Mystery Shopping

Service intelligence mystery shopping has come a very long way. In the past, these hidden shopping assignments used to simply consist of a very basic shopping spree and run-down of what the consumer experience was like. Today, your average anonymous shopping service will offer you a wide range of basic and advanced analytical services. Many services even specialize in certain markets, like hotel or restaurant analysis.

What To Expect

The good news about service intelligence mystery shopping is that you can expect a wider range of assignment options than ever before. This ensures that you can get a better-rounded view of different situations. Conversely, it also means you can weed out feedback or strategies that you do not need to look into at the moment. Today, all hidden shopping services offer on-site evaluation – this includes a general assessment of what your business looks like during a typical visit. Apart from giving a detailed report on customer service, things like safety regulations, security features, general industry regulations and merchandising are also reported. This is why it is always a good idea to go for only for a service intelligence mystery shopping that employs trained and professional evaluators.

As more and more business have an online presence, it is also a good idea to get hidden evaluations done on websites. These kinds of anonymous shopping assessments include feedback on things like how easy is it to navigate the site Can a visitor easily find what they are looking for on the page Are all the links and pages functional If someone wants to make an online purchase, is it easy to do and are the necessary security measures in place These evaluations will also look into how long it takes to respond to an online request or query. Telephone evaluations can also be done on the customer service cell as well as corporate offices and specific store locations. A number of businesses also run evaluations on their competitor stores to see what their strengths and weaknesses are.

What Else

Ideally, your provider for service intelligence mystery shopping should be more than just a data-collector. You should be able to work with them in close partnership in order to find and apply the best evaluation strategies. This involves looking at your own business situation as well as the findings of past hidden shopping assessments. When looking at employee performance, you will need to consider their qualifications, training and the kind of performance markers that you have in place. All this information will make the data you collect more relevant to your business needs – you will avoid the pitfalls of having data that is too vague or relates to something you do not need.

It is easy to see that service intelligence mystery shopping deal with sensitive issues like employee assessments. Apart from that, you can only get useful data if the assignment is executed in the right way. This means that the shopper needs to go on a spree or store visit that is as realistic as possible. If anyone finds out that an assessment is being done, that will seriously compromise the data that gets collected. When reporting, it is also essential that the evaluator weighs the situation honestly. For instance, if it takes a long time to be served, is it because the store is severely short-staffed Apart from that, details like the time should be recorded as precisely as possible. Doing hidden shopping assessments on a regular basis can offer you consistent and impartial views on how your business is doing.

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