The Mystery Shopper’s Manual

Question from a mystery shopper:

If they do read them, why would clients allow that? Doesn’t it make mystery shopping less valuable if the employees know exactly what was reported?

Many client companies do share mystery shop reports with the staff who were shopped. There are good reasons to do so. …continue reading Do Employees Read Mystery Shop Reports?

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Have you ever looked at something on a mystery shop report form and wondered, “Who comes up with this stuff?” Most of us have, at one time or another, seen report questions, scenarios and other shop requirements that seemed unrealistic or just plain weird.

Although they may seem strange to us, those things are in the report for a reason: The client wants them there. The mystery shopping company may make recommendations or provide suggested guidelines and report forms, but the client decides what information they want from shops.

Businesses have service standards, and many of the questions on mystery shop reports relate to those standards. When you see a question about how long it took to get your food, or how much time passed before you were greeted, that is because that client has standards about how long those things should take. The same goes for things such as saying thank you, using your name or other shop details. …continue reading Who Writes the Mystery Shop Questionnaires?

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As mystery shoppers, we are often asked to present a specific scenario, and we may have to “act” the part of a customer much different from ourselves. However, the mystery shoppers described in a recent story in the New York Times seem to have taken this to new levels.

De Gelderse Roos is a psychiatric complex in the Netherlands, about 40 miles from Amsterdam. They hired a consulting firm to provide feedback on conditions in a locked ward in the facility, by placing mystery shoppers posing as patients in the hospital. The “undercover patients” were psychiatric nurses who were given detailed back stories and extensive training before being admitted to the facility. And just in case things got out of hand, they even had a “safe word” to use when communicating with the actors playing their family members.

Although the typical mystery shopper would never be asked to do such a potentially dangerous assignment, it is interesting to learn about the ways mystery shopping is being used to make conditions better in all kinds of places.

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Question from a secret shopper:

Do businesses that we shop tell their employees that they will be mystery shopped? I have heard that they do, but that doesn’t make sense to me. If we are supposed to be checking up on them, why tell them that they will get shopped? Do they tell them what we will evaluate them on? And doesn’t that mean that we are more likely to be spotted if the employees know to look for mystery shoppers?

Most businesses that use secret shoppers tell their employees about the program, and there are some very good reasons to do so. …continue reading Do Employees Know They Get Mystery Shopped?

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Suggestive selling, or upselling, involves suggesting additional items when a customer makes a purchase, or encouraging a customer to upgrade to a more expensive option. Perhaps the best-known example of an upsell is when the order taker at a fast food restaurant asks, “Do you want fries with that?” However, upselling is used in almost every kind of business.

Mystery shopping questionnaires may include questions about suggestive selling techniques used by employees. Here are examples of upsells that mystery shoppers may encounter: …continue reading Suggestive Selling and Secret Shopping

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Some of the most interesting mystery shopping stories come out of the U.K. We have seen news reports about extreme mystery shopping, mystery worshippers, and now police departments are being mystery shopped.

I have to admit that the headline, “Police search for mystery shoppers,” got my attention. My first thought was, “What did the mystery shoppers do?” But, no, the mystery shoppers are not on the lam. In fact, the Thames Valley Police Department is looking for citizen volunteers to evaluate the service provided by the staff at local police stations.

Volunteer mystery shoppers will be given a variety of scenarios to use when visiting the police stations, but none will involve making a false police report or other dodgy activities. And, no, you do not have to get arrested as part of the mystery shop.

In addition to interacting with the staff, the secret shoppers will be asked to comment on other issues commonly found on mystery shopper reports, such as cleanliness, waiting times and whether opening hours are clearly displayed. (Uh, does that mean that the police department closes down part of the day? Must be a quiet town.) …continue reading British Police Using Mystery Shoppers

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One of the things many people believe about mystery shopping is that reports are often used to fire employees. In fact, employees may believe that secret shoppers have it as their goal to find bad things to put in their reports, and they arbitrarily add negative comments to mystery shop reports in order to “get” employees.

Employees may fear or resent secret shoppers because they think that if the shopper is in a bad mood and gives them a poor report, they could lose their jobs. You can see these ideas and attitudes on many of the employee sites that discuss mystery shopping.

So are employees correct? Are shoppers out to get them, and could they lose their jobs as a result? …continue reading Do Mystery Shoppers Get People Fired?

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Most people think of stores and restaurants when they think of mystery shopping clients. You know, “get paid to shop and eat.” There are many retail and restaurant chains that use mystery shopping, but it certainly does not stop there.

Just about any organization that has contact with the public may use secret shoppers. That means not only for-profit businesses, but non-profit organizations and government agencies, too.

Secret shoppers may not disclose specific clients for whom they have shopped due to the confidentiality agreements we sign. However, it is acceptable to discuss the types of businesses that get mystery shopped. Here are some of the ones I have heard of. Although this list is far from complete, it will give you an idea of the many industries that rely on mystery shoppers to give them information about their businesses (including some kind of odd ones). …continue reading What Kinds of Businesses Use Mystery Shoppers?

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I spend a lot of time reading articles, blog posts and news stories about mystery shopping. Sometimes these are written by employees, many of whom believe that mystery shopping is unfair.

Many of these employees are under the impression that mystery shoppers are determined to turn in bad reports, even if we have to make things up. If only they knew . . . most of us would rather do a positive report. Not only because we want the employees to look good, but because it is easier to write a report on a good experience than a bad one. Of course, to do our jobs properly we have to report what actually happened, not what we want to report or what the employee would like us to report.

They also seem to think that we pick and choose what we report on. Aren’t their employers educating them about the mystery shopping program and how it works? Employees are (supposed to be) trained on the company standards and procedures. Secret shoppers are there to make sure employees are following the procedures and meeting the standards. It is not about what we think they should do, it is about what their employer expects from them. …continue reading Mystery Shoppers Seen Through the Eyes of Employees

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