You are probably already thinking of ways that you can use mystery customers: rating your location’s level of customer service, reviewing the tidiness of the premises and ensuring that Point of Purchase (P.O.P.) and promotional materials are located in the right places. These are all important points, but when used properly, a mystery customer can tell you a whole lot more about your operations through carefully planned scenarios.

For example, how does your staff handle customer complaints? This is key because it represents a turning point for your business. Handle and rectify the complaint properly and you keep a customer. Handle it improperly and that customer could be gone for good. By using a mystery customer to test your staff’s responsiveness to complaints (or any other aspect of customer service), you can identify your strengths and specific weaknesses, which can often be remedied through retraining or staff meetings.

There are dozens of ways that you can utilize professional mystery customers including:

• Gauging the impact of P.O.P. promotions
• Measuring staff response time (the time it takes them to ask a customer “May I help you?”)
• Reviewing the overall cleanliness of your business
• Reviewing how customers move through your business
• Reviewing P.O.P. and promotional placements
• Reviewing staff product knowledge
• Food and restaurant reviews
• Showroom reviews
• Lobby and main throughways reviews
• Product accessibility and visibility

QMC’s advanced software also allows us to collect data through sight and sound. For example, if you own a pizza delivery restaurant, we can record the phone call when placing the order and then take a digital picture of the pizza once it arrives. This gives you the ability to actually see and hear the experience, rather than simply read it in the report.

Continuous Review for Comprehensive Results
Mystery shopping programs are designed to be an ongoing review of your customer service. By using mystery customers over time, you can gauge how your store is improving and where there is still room for improvement. It also increases objectivity, allowing for those occasional “bad days” that do not give a true reflection of your store.

A nice side-effect of the system is that by simply telling your staff that you have set up a mystery shopping program, they will tend to give better overall service. And with the QMC “Great Job Card” reward program, your staff will know when they have done an excellent job. If the mystery customer receives particularly great service, he or she gives that staff member a card, which will in turn come back to you or the store manager. You can use the “Great Job Card” to create your own staff incentive program, rewarding employees who receive the card as you see fit.

Quinn Marketing and Communications Customizes a Mystery Customer Program to Your Scale and Budget
As noted, there are several different aspects of your business that can be reviewed – and several different ways to get that data. We spent years developing the Mystery Customer Program for businesses across the country. QMC has the experience and insight to help you find the right questions to ask about your business and find the answers.

QMC will help you develop your set of guidelines for the mystery customer to follow describing what he or she should look for. Then we collect the reviews and interpret the data for you. We’ll even suggest operational changes for solving identified problems with proven methods that have worked for other clients.

Your involvement level is totally up to you. We can work together side-by-side developing aspects of your program or you may choose to let QMC use its expertise to evaluate your location(s) and send you a report of the results.

Either way, QMC will set up a Mystery Customer Program for your business that will be an invaluable source of knowledge and that will put you on track to higher customer service and product quality.

Quinn Marketing and Communications is a proud member of the Mystery Shopping Providers Association (MSPA) of America. View the QMC Mystery Shopping Demo or find out more about Dealing with Customer Service Issues.