Mystery shopping is a form of observation which belongs to the category of participating observation as the mystery shopper participates personally in the process of buying therefore becomes involved in the events. Mystery shopping takes place with the participation of a disguised customer who collects data and impressions about the service provider and its staff in a real situation (e.g. a visit to the company, a purchase or a phonecall to the customer service). By the method of disguised purchase it is possible to get results and conclusions that can effectively improve the procedure of handling customers thus enhancing customers’ satisfaction.
It is often much more difficult to keep a customer than to win new ones. Due to this recognition telephone, traditional and online mystery shopping has become more valuable and popular in marketing research. We recommend mystery shopping to our clients primarily when the main goal of the research is to test salespeople and customer account or to assess professional skills, problem solving skills and attitudes of those in contact with customers or to prepare inside training materials helping customer management or to get familiar with competitors’ customer management.
In the course of mystery shopping the interviewer visits the company in question or calls its customer service as a client. Based on a pre-planned scenario they make a purchase or generate a problematic situation. After the mystery shopping the customer (impersonator) record their experiences and opinions by filling in a questionnaire within 15 minutes. Mystery shopping in the classical sense implies asking for information or problem solving at the point of sale or customer service, however, sometimes it involves the actual purchase of the product or service. Complex mystery shopping is increasingly popular with domestic service providers where their customer service is tested personally, on the phone and online as well.
