The Concept Of Mystery Shopping

By Author: John Legraund
Total Articles: 13
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Mystery shopping is a tool utilized by companies to measure the quality of sales, service and the overall experience of the everyday customer. The concept behind mystery shopping is not new. Kings maintained to disguise themselves as commoners, and mingle with common individuals to discover what was being said about the subject as well as their reign.
Mystery shopping as you may know it today began in the 1940s as a way to measure employee integrity. In 1941, the first 'reveal mystery shopper' appeared within the movie 'The Devil and Miss Jones'. A shopper approaches Jean Arthur and Charles Coburn, who're working behind a counter in a department store. She makes her purchase and, following the transaction, 'reveals' her identity and demands that Coburn stop chewing his gum!
'Reveal mystery shopping' continues to be done today, however the business has evolved into several Mystery Shopping services. Although revealed shops such as the one above still exist, the majority are covert, and also the activity is performed secretively.
The customer interest in better service has ...
... seen a constant growth year on year. It is almost always a result of companies ongoing struggle to recruit and train new staff, mainly due to high employee turnover in the industries mystery shoppers tend to visit (retail, hospitality and leisure).
Managing a successful bricks and mortar business hasn't been so tough. With waning customer loyalty and the Internet offering 24-hour shopping with no queues, products delivered directly to the home, and many suppliers to select from.
As consumers, our time is valuable no matter what type of service we want. We do not possess the time for you to be on hold for five minutes; nor do we wish to order a product online and be promised a 2 day delivery, which ends up taking a week.
Efficient, friendly services are now a basic consumer expectation. The requirement for this service will only increase as customer interest in high quality, efficient service grows. In today's current economy, companies can not afford to get rid of customers. Thus, as competition in business grows, so does the requirement for Mystery Shopping.
Although mystery shopping started in the 1940s with retail establishments, today it's expanded to bars, hotels, restaurants, hair salons and health centers etc. Not all Mystery Shopping must be done in person; you will find phone an internet-based evaluation too.Nearly all service industry companies possess some type of mystery shopping programme in position. Not many are done internally; a lot of companies prefer independent suppliers for credible reports. Most companies not have the time, skill or resources to check on several locations in a short period of time.
Mystery Shopping does and will still alter the way companies coach and train their employees.
This can help better the sales departments and improve their performance that in turn will benefit your company. You are to hire the qualified Mystery shopping company that can offer in hand help to you with legit proofs and details.
For mystery shopping log on to: http://www.tern.co.uk