If you’ve ever wondered why your business doesn’t perform as well as it should, it is possible that secret shopper services are the missing elements you’re looking for. In Dog and Pony’s following article, we will discuss why mystery shopping can be important for your company, and what you can expect from an agency if you decide your business needs such services.
What is a mystery shopping company?
Mystery shopping is about having one or more secret shoppers “infiltrate” your business (hence the name), assessing all possible onsite aspects of it from the point of view of a customer, and providing you with a report about the data observed during the process. A mystery shopping company like Dog and Pony also works as a full-service marketing agency, with mystery shoppers being one of the many services we provide.
The reason marketing background is so important is that mystery shopping isn’t just about providing you with data. When Dog and Pony agency provides you with mystery shopper services, the goal is to give you access to a detailed report about the onsite assessment of the use of key behaviors performed by your “frontline” associates.
Why do mystery shopping services work for so many companies?
There’s nothing mysterious about why mystery shopping services work. By analyzing the key areas of your business, the report you will get from Dog and Pony agency will let you know in which areas your team is strong, but what is more important, is that you will receive valuable information about what to improve. This is when “the marketing magic” can really begin, as your business will be in the possession of a focused roadmap about what key aspects you need to discuss with your associates.
As the old saying goes, knowledge is power: by knowing what to improve, you can raise the quality of your own services much more easily. Service expectations play a key role in how customers perceive your business, and how satisfied they are with it.
Not to mention that mystery shopping services can be much more straightforward than an extensive market research or consumer survey.
What do mystery shopper services usually cover?
As a professional mystery shopping company, the services of Dog and Pony agency will focus on providing you with an experienced secret shopper who can match your needs. This is also a great way to test your own expectations in how you think the services of your business should be handled by your frontline associates and salespeople. Thus, a detailed briefing (just like with any other marketing assignment) is of paramount importance if you want your mystery shoppers to know what to look for when assessing your services.
The aspects that a mystery shopping agency can cover may include, the location’s cleanliness, product positioning, and more importantly, the required behavior, script and dress code of sellers. The aspects regarding service representatives can cover a lot of questions that need to be answered, such as:
- Were they polite?
- Did they effectively assess the customer’s needs?
- Did they try to build a personal rapport?
- How accurately did they describe the store’s services?
- Did they answer the customer’s questions in enough details?
- Were they proactive in offering additional assistance?
- Did they take the initiative in upselling?
This list could go on even longer. In a nutshell: with a good brief, think of Dog and Pony’s secret shoppers as well-prepared actors, whose roles are spelled out to the tiniest of details.
What can I expect from a mystery shopping agency?
With the services of Dog and Pony’s mystery shopping company, you will be able to work with a marketing agency who has had years of experience in various industries, and will provide you with a fresh outlook on how to drive your business forward, and improve a key feature that is vital for all companies: overall customer experience.
Our mystery shopping agency’s services will bring you answers to questions such as these:
- How can I increase my number of conversions?
- Why does one of my stores perform worse/better than the other?
- How can I increase sales and customer loyalty?
- How do I get more customers, and retain new ones?
The verdict: does your company need secret shopper services?
Mystery shopper services are a great way to do cost-effective and valuable research and can be useful for both smaller business as well as multinational companies who want to test the effectiveness of their local branch. The right agency will know what kind of secret shopper will perform well in the assessment of your business. The results can also be incorporated in the training of your frontline employees, who will be much better equipped to achieve the best customer satisfaction possible, and drive your sales better than before.
All in all, if you’re looking for a professional mystery shopping company, you can definitely count on the secret shopper services of Dog and Pony agency. Do not hesitate to contact us if you want a varied team of experts to perform a full evaluation of your customer experience!
FAQ – frequently asked questions
WHY IS MYSTERY SHOPPING IMPORTANT?
HOW CAN MYSTERY SHOPPING PROGRAMS BENEFIT AN ENTERPRISE?✔️
Mystery shopping is an excellent cost-effective research that can benefit smaller and bigger business companies alike. Apart from learning how your salespeople perform, the right agency can also help you make your local branch better by helping you make new decisions for the future based on the secret shopper reports. This can help you increase your number of conversions and customer loyalty as well.
DOES MYSTERY SHOPPING REALLY WORK?✔️
Yes, it does! A legit, professional mystery shopping company will help you get access to a heap of vital information about why your store doesn’t perform well, or how it could perform better. One of the key aspects to make mystery shopping work (like in the case of any marketing-based activity) is a good brief. The more questions and aspects you can gather before the mystery shopping can take place will allow the secret shoppers to be well-prepared, and bring you answers to the questions you need answered.
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO HIRE A SECRET SHOPPER?⭐
The pricing of secret shopper services largely depends on the scope of the work, so the sooner you give details to the agency you hired, the sooner you can get an exact quote. Factors that play a role in the pricing of a mystery shopping company include the length of the questionnaire secret shopper need to fill out to assess your customer service, demographic and schedule restrictions, the amount of work hours needed to audit your retail environment, and the number of shops you need them to inspect.
WHAT IS MYSTERY SHOPPING?☝️
The term “mystery shopping” comes from using mystery (or secret) shoppers to collect information about the quality of customer service. It is a service provided by mystery shopping companies, who will send secret shoppers that will mirror the behavior of the average consumer, and bring back detailed reports about their experiences. In a way, you can think of mystery shopping as some sort of internal audit to test how products and services are presented to your customers by your frontline salespeople.
