Looking for a company to coordinate your business’ mystery shopping program but you’re feeling overwhelmed? I can’t blame you for feeling that way. There are hundreds of providers out there, all with different specialties and strengths.
There are ways to get down to brass tacks with these potential providers. There are questions to be asked. But if you’re new to the very concept of mystery shopping, you may not even know where to begin.
Image by feffreyl via Flickr
I saw a great article on Coyle Hospitality Group’s website, discussing their top 10 questions to ask a mystery shopping company before hiring them.
Here are my five favorite questions:
1. Are they knowledgeable about, and committed to, your industry?
The answer, of course, is “they’d better be!” How would you expect a company to choose good shoppers who are qualified to evaluate your business if they don’t know the first thing about your industry? MeasureCP specializes mystery shopping services to the following industries:
- Restaurants
- Retail
- Medical
- Human Resources
- Multi-family housing and senior living
2. Can the mystery shopping provider set up actionable quality metrics?
“Actionable quality metrics?” It may sound like corporate lingo, but it’s just another way to say the results actually mean something to you. Offer you a potential edge on your competition going forward.
Our reporting begins with helping select the best, most qualified applicants for your shop, and continuing through the results process with about 45 customized, fully functional reports that many other mystery shopping providers could charge extra to enable.
3. Who are the mystery shopping provider’s evaluators?
As I mentioned above, MeasureCP’s reporting system ensures that you’ll have the best, most qualified shoppers coming to your business. Once an applicant is in our system, they’re assigned a rating that fluctuates depending on how well they perform in each shop.
Many of those shoppers can provide audio/visual information that provide richer results than a plain paper report. These shoppers, in addition to writing up their experience, will be your eyes and ears.
Beyond the shoppers we select for your shops, we also provide special teams who can ensure that your company’s branding, signage and menus are consistent and correct.
4. Where is the data stored, and how secure is it?
Obviously, the results of your shop are highly sensitive. They could be the key to your business’ competitive advantage. MeasureCP stores all results on a co-located, secure server, backed up and safe for you to access at your leisure.
5. Are the reports available online?
Long gone are the days where a static, paper report is enough to satisfy businesses with real-time demands.
A good mystery shopping service platform uses a dynamic database that updates continually. You’ll be able to see the results of your shop as the results have been posted, and since we’ve got 24/7 access to our service team, you can ask questions right away). The data also can be tailored to your business’ specifications using highly granular reporting and analysis.
There are a lot of questions you should be demanding answers to before choosing your mystery shopping provider. Never be afraid to ask these or any other questions — your business’ well-being is at stake.
Related articles
- Mystery shopping or Transactional surveys: Which is better? (customerthink.com)
- Mystery shop: How much more do you pay in M&S Simply Food? (confused.com)
