About Secret Shopping

By Author: Linda Forbes
Total Articles: 1
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Every entrepreneur would realize that there is a gap between attracting consumers to one's stores or shops and actually converting such visits to real sales. As the majority of entrepreneurs would agree, of the people who actually visit a store or shop only a certain percentage actually buy something. Furthermore, another aspect that most successful entrepreneurs focus on is retaining the consumers that they have already connected with. All these goals depend on the quality of service and product that the shop or store provides to its consumers. Therefore, this is exactly why the concept 'mystery shopping' or secret shopping enters the chain of events. The process is undertaken to bridge any performance based gaps between attracting a customer and actually making a sale. However, there are still a lot of people in the world who are unaware of this concept and its associated facts. The following are some fundamentals involved with this concept.

What This Concept Entails?

Mystery shopper is, technically, an agent of the shop or store itself. The idea behind hiring a mystery shopper is to have him test the capabilities ...
... and performance levels of the staff by acting as a usual customer. Furthermore, secret shopping is not just limited to ideal conditions such as a consumer wanting to buy something. Instead, it could also involve the mystery shopper having some type of a request, problem or even behaving in an unacceptable way in order to test the staff in unpredictable situations.

How Does Secret Shopping Work?

The whole exercise starts with the shop owner approaching some agency that provides such services or even approaching a common person directly. Once the terms of the relationship are confirmed with the agency, the shop owner then provides them with specifics related to what type of information he or she is looking for. For example, it is quite common for companies to regularly conduct this exercise with respect to their customer support teams. Subsequent to deciding the parameters, the mystery shopper then approaches the shop or store with a loose script in his or her head to play out. During his or her presence in the shop, he or she mentally takes down a variety of information about the shop and its staff.

What Kind Of Information Can One Expect From Undertaking The Exercise Of Secret Shopping?

The information that a person can acquire from conducting such an exercise in his or her shop can vary in nature. In fact, the mystery shopper is usually given a briefing on what kind of information the client actually wants. The following are some basic things that this exercise can lead to.

1.Number of employees in the store during the time the mystery shopper was present there. This shows how serious and dedicated the staff is.
2.The time period before which the consumer was helped by one of the employees. This would show how alert and aware the staff is.
3.Performance analysis of the staff in the store and how much they could help the mystery shopper. This pertains to how efficient the staff is with respect to what they are selling.
4.Information related to the staff's behavior and way of talking is provided. These details would help the employer analyze how qualified his or her staff actually is.

For knowing more about Canadian Secret Shopping and Mystery Shopping visit the link: http://www.secretshoppingblog.ca/ .