Customer experience is an important part of running a business. As a business owner, you may be wearing many hats and not always physically present. Don't let this be a reason to overlook the treatment of your customers.
Having a means to measure the level of customer service is vital to your business. This is where the benefits of mystery shopping come into play.
Hiring a mystery shopper gives you an objective view of how your employees are interacting with your clients. You can take the information and use it as a training tool for your employees.
Continue reading for five benefits of hiring a mystery shopper for your business.
1. Employee Evaluation
If your business relies on customer/employee interactions, you need a means of evaluating how the employee responds to your clientele.
Having a mystery shopper come in and rate their experience can go a long way in evaluating employee job performance.
The shopper will ask questions about your products, monitor the employee's knowledge and how well he represents your brand. You can have the shopper go so far as to make an actual purchase.
2. Customer Satisfaction
The benefits of mystery shopping allow you to assess customer satisfaction. The mystery shopper can watch how other shoppers receive your product or service.
A lot can be gleaned from observing other shoppers, listening to their feedback and engaging in conversation about the business. People will reveal things to strangers they see as sharing a common interest than they will with a store employee.
You can provide the mystery shopper with specific questions to use when engaging customers.
3. Competitor Comparison
Checking out the competition is great benefits of mystery shopping. If you are wondering how you stack up against the competition, this is a great way to do it.
Once the mystery shopper leaves your business, have them perform the same exercise at the place of a competitor or two. Have the shopper do a cross comparison on both the employee/customer experience, as well as rate your products.
You can also have the shopper evaluate the competitor's customers.
4. Benefits of Mystery Shopping Include Training Tools
The results from the mystery shopper analysis can be used to create training tools for employee development.
Intermittent training is essential for businesses. It is important to be able to address areas of concern or build on what is being done right.
Employees will know that you are paying attention. They will also appreciate being presented with opportunities for growth, and the tools needed to succeed.
5. Brand Recognition
Branding is essential to all businesses. Mystery shopping services is not limited to in-person interaction.
A mystery shopper can also gain insights and opinions about your business by interacting with consumers online. This works well for those businesses with a strong social media presence
Are You Ready to Hire a Mystery Shopper?
Now that you know how a mystery shopper can benefit your business, it's time to develop a plan specific to your business.
Contact us today so we can show you how our customer experience management can work for you.
