» Secret Shopping Center

Find Out What The Real Customer Experience Is

Hiring the services of a secret shopping center can give a business complete insight into what the real consumer experience is. The truth is that when it comes to the actual consumer reality, there is no one out there that can really give you an unbiased opinion. Employee feedback is bound to be biased. Consumer feedbacks via surveys are also weak because people simply do not want to spend the time in filling these out. An anonymous shopper gives you the rare opportunity of getting first-hand feedback on what your customers really experience in your store.

Find Your Niche Service
 
When looking for a secret shopping center , its important to look for one that has experience in your business. Nowadays, anonymous shoppers are not just restricted to retail – people from non-profit organizations, restaurants, hotels and even real estate agents, all use undercover shopping services. It just makes sense to go with a service that has ample, hands-on experience dealing with your particular kind of business. Many people might wonder if this is really necessary – but the truth is that even within retail, different stores operate in different ways. A store that sells pet food will have a different consumer experience than one that deals with jewelry or children clothes.

So how do you find a secret shopping center that has experience in your field. The task is not as daunting as it seems – first, you should check out the listings at the industry or trade association of anonymous shoppers and covert shopping service providers. Services that are listed here generally have a good track record and are well-respected. It is also helpful to bear in mind that quality is not cheap. There are a number of shopping companies out there that will charge lower rates. But at the end of the day, if you are not satisfied with the results, you will end up spending a lot more to clean up the damages and hire a new service.

The Importance Of Planning

After finding the right covert shopping center , it is important to sit with them and plan out exactly what you are looking for from your undercover shopping experience. First of all, you need to assess what areas are concerning you regarding the customer experience. Perhaps you are interested in the experience of a particular customer profile or of a certain situation, like returning an item. If you have a clear and well-detailed idea of what you want out of your covert shopping service, it will be far easier for them to deliver.

Bear in mind that a shopping center consists of much more than just the end shopper. There are also schedulers, fact-checkers and editors who are also a part of the process. It is best to go with a service that hires these employees on a full-time basis. Confidentiality and security should be a top-priority with your service provider – remember that any information they collect will be very important to your business. Ideally, the service should also offer you online access to your data at any given time via a secure remote accessing feature.

With the right kind of shopping center , you will be able to gauge exactly what the actual customer experience is in your stores. Instead of making the same mistakes repeatedly and wondering what going wrong, you will easily be able to hone in on the problem areas and rectify them.

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While anonymous shopping has certainly helped a number of businesses, many have also become apprehensive after the scam has surfaced. The truth is that there are a number of different scams associated with undercover shopping. The bad news is that with the advent of the internet, the number of scams is actually on the rise. In many cases, a well-crafted website is often enough to con people into thinking that they are working with a legitimate covert shopping company.  It is important to learn how to identify these scams and understand how they operate.

Who Is At Risk

The truth is that contracted shoppers are the most at-risk. When businesses look for covert shopping services, there are usually tell-tale signs that can help you spot a shady set-up. But with contractual shoppers, things are a little different. Many people who are looking for freelance jobs tend to look through websites and advertisements for shopping assignments. This is also how many of them get conned into a shopping scam. They will either come across an advertisement or receive an email stating that an assignment is available.

This secret shopping center scam assignment will usually consist of asking the shopper to cash a check. Along with the check, they are often sent a training package and a phone number that they can call if they have any questions. These are all done in order to make the job look legitimate. The problem is that the check is a bad one – this means that after the money is wired, the shopper will be held liable for the bad check from the bank. Anyone who comes across these kinds of offers is advised to report them to the Better Business Bureau.

What Else Do You Need To Know

There are other ways to spot a scam. First of all, a legitimate covert shopping company would never advertise in the paper or on the radio. They also do not send out unsolicited emails. It is also a good idea to be wary about any services that charge a fee to join as a shopper or to access shopping directories offering these types of assignments. Avoid any anonymous shopping service that sells any kind of certification or guarantees steady work – undercover shopping assignments are always sporadic. A spy shopping service should also pay their shoppers a fee over and above the reimbursement amount. 

You can also avoid any secret shopping center scam by knowing what legitimate companies and sites are like. For instance, a good company will be listed with the industry association of undercover shopping service providers. Do research on the different companies that you find – asking others about their experiences with these companies is always a good idea. From a business perspective, it is always a good idea to work with companies that have experience in your particular field. It is also a good idea to see what their policies are concerning hiring shoppers on a contractual basis.

While the majority of the scam operators do seem to be targeting the shopper, businesses also need to keep an eye open for scams. As more and more people recognize how effective covert shopping services can be, there will also be more people who try and scam others with it. Whether you are a business or a freelance shopper, it is important to be vigilant and identify any scam.

Storage Mart Total Quality Assurance Services :
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Natalie Thomas, Secret Shop specialist relates an episode of fun and games at the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Welcome to the PhoneSmart secert shopping blog an insider peek
at secret shopping and mystery shopping.

Wow. I think Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde just helped me.

PhoneSmart Your Offsite Sales Solution
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Self Storage Blog A diary of the self storage industry

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Welcome to the secret shopping blog, our diary of the secret shopping world.

I wish I were a secret shopper today for the rental car company. It would have been an easy couple of dollars to earn. The routines went smoothly today when I dropped off my rental car. The staff members I dealt with all smiled at me and were friendly. They were all helpful. And they all protected my time by being brief and efficient.

When you deal with accompany whose routines are consistently smooth and whose people are consistently friendly, you get used to it and you don’t care to make a change. I am sure another rental car company could meet my needs. Another one might even save me a dollar or two. But it is not worth it for me to look into another company nor would I have a reason to go through the effort to switch.

When customers are pleased with you it is a hassle to switch. When customers are annoyed with you, it is easy to switch.

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One thing we are developing as an off-shoot of our secret shopping service is a peer reveiw process. Some people call it an 360 degree review. We are playing with a version of a peer review that will allow everyone in our company to reveiw every other person through a serious of questions and surveys. The person being reviewed will have a chance to see how they rated to give them a chance to improve any areas they are challenged in and to continue to do well in the areas that they are already good at.

We’ll let you know how things develop. If you are not doing some sort of a peer review in addition to your secret shopping efforts, you are missing ways to help people clarify their thinking as to what their jobs really are and how they are really doing.

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Welcome to our Secret Shopping Blog.

We’ve come a long way since our Secret Shopping business began. Years ago it was done by one person out of her home on an analog phone with a cassette recorder attached to it. Talk about “old school”. Our secret shops were done by Sarah who now works in our Administration Department. She’d just had a baby and always had an excuse to cut the call short if she needed to. One day, many boxes and pieces of equipment arrived at Sarah’s house from Radio Shack. It was kind of like a set of LEGO’s that Sarah had to figure out how to put together without the instruction booklet.

This was the process:

1. There were 10,863 wires and cables and connections that had to be hooked up to her phone. It was such a mess that if she hadn’t done it for a little while, it would take 15 minutes to figure it out before she could even start a shop.
2. She also had to figure out which wires needed to be connected to her cassette tape recorder. This usually took another 10 to 15 minutes.
3. Sarah located a cassette tape – made sure it was all the way rewound – put it into her recorder and was ready to begin.
4. Many times the greeting would be cut off because after pushing the record button, it would take a second for the tape to begin rolling. If the quality of the shop wasn’t so good, Sarah would rewind over what she’d recorded and begin again, this time pressing record a little earlier.
5. When all 80 shops were done, Sarah would rewind the tape again and get it ready to evaluate.

Speaking of evaluations, the crude version of our now in-depth eval form took all of about 5 minutes to complete. Now they take between 10 and 15 minutes depending on the length of the call. The form had few questions compared to our current version and was completed by hand. When Sarah finished her shops and evaluations, she would drop off all the cassette tapes and the handwritten evals to be sent to our 5 clients.

Today we complete over 200 shops a month and we’ve refined our process of doing secret shops. We no longer use cassette tapes as the calls are recorded and put into a special folder in our computer network. From there, we can edit them, rearrange them and cut them on to a CD. Nowadays, we typically email many of our clients’ shops by converting them to an MP3.
The evaluations have also come a long way. We’re no longer completing them by hand. We mark everything on the computer and those are emailed as well. The forms are much more detailed and are based on a point system that is a good indicator of where the problem areas might lie and definitely where their strengths are. We also put together reports every quarter that show the progress or lack thereof for the year. All this is sent via the information super-highway. No more tape recorders or 10,863 wires to connect to anything.
We’ve come a very long way in a few years. We’ll keep you up to date about how the next 3 years – or 3 months for that matter – changes how we handle our business.

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Welcome to the secret shopping blog, PhoneSmart’s diary of the mystery shopping and secret shopping professional.

Location! Location! Location!

At the end of every month we spend most of our time evaluating the shops we did at the beginning of the month. This month I noticed an unfortunate trend across the board; the majority of associates do not ask if they are conveniently located to the caller.

In case you may be unfamiliar with our evaluation form there is a question that reads, “Did the representative determine if the location is convenient for the caller?” The importance of getting agreement in this area can make or break a sale. There may be a number of competitors across the street or across town. In such a competitive market it is important to take advantage of every angle you can, and create the ‘ideal’ environment for your customers.

Every sales person knows the best way to make the sale is to ask questions on the phone that will get the customer’s commitment and allow them to sense value in your property. One of the most important questions, that I can almost guarantee the other guys in town aren’t asking, is, “Are we a convenient location for you?” The power of this seemingly innocent question can become one of your best selling tools.

A typical person shopping around for any service may call 4-5 locations. After they have made all their calls, how much will they remember about each individual location? It will probably become a muddled mess of information. If you however, take the initiative on the phone to ask this simple question, it will have an amazing affect on the customer. By asking, “Are we a convenient location for you?” the customer will have to verbally respond. Getting the caller to say ‘Yes’ will trigger a thought process in their mind that will equate convenience and value to your property. And now, as we sales people like to say, the customer will be in a ‘yes mode’. So when they go over the list of places they’ve called, yours will stand out in their minds. Some may even end their search right on the phone with you and decide to commit to your location.

What a great sales tool! If you and your coworkers can start implementing this small detail you will be quick to see what large effect it can have.

Ta Ta for now…
Sarah

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