Mystery shopping – a market research solution – is an effective means of measuring, monitoring and gaining insight into a business’s customer service and post-sales aftercare from a customer perspective. It’s a research solution that relies on observation and recall and which can be carried out on both small and large businesses across a multitude of sectors including restaurants, banks, insurance companies, retail outlets, automotive dealerships, colleges, airlines, travel agencies, hotels and other hospitality establishments – essentially any business that deals with customers directly whether in-store or online.
Mystery shopping has long been one of BMi Research’s offerings, providing clients with an effective way of understanding customer experience through objective customer feedback. In 2020, the company introduced CX Online, mystery shopping which surveys online e-commerce stores to help them improve their customer’s online shopping experience.
“One of the biggest challenges with mystery shopping traditionally has been to deliver feedback in as short a time as possible so that the insights can be quickly applied,” explains Jenni-Ruth Coggin, CEO of BMi Research. “The ability of our new mystery shopping platform to deliver results between 24 and 48 hours – and that includes time for skilled moderators to review the data - means that brand owners can implement improvements and changes quickly.”
Its biggest benefit is the ability to apply the insight gained from the mystery shopping to improve the customer experience, encourage customer loyalty and retention, build brand loyalty and ultimately, maximise customer lifetime value.
Mystery shopping is an effective way of identifying service gaps and levels and assessing how employees interact with customers, something which can be harder to do through other research techniques. Typically conducted by individuals trained to measure the customer service process, the mystery shopping process is ideally positioned to provide feedback on how consistent service levels are at all customer touchpoints.
“The kind of areas that our mystery shoppers assess include, amongst others, how employees greet customers, how attentive the service is, the cleanliness of a store, stock availability, teller engagement, store security, the payment experience and point of sale execution, product quality, expiry dates of fresh produce and value-added services. Our assessment essentially covers everything from the store’s exterior appearance, the interior store presentation, customer service and staff appearance and demeanour,” reveals Coggin.
She adds that, as a smaller and more agile research house, BMi Research is able to quickly pivot to the unique needs of each client, delivering insights to help businesses and brands grow to the next level.
The 2023 Future Shopper Report, produced by Wunderman Thompson, says retailers and brands must continue to improve their customer experiences which means they need to understand the full journey consumers take to purchase including what works, what doesn’t and where the weaknesses are that competitors can exploit. Mystery shopping research offers all this, and more, and with BMi Research’s faster result turnaround time, issues can be addressed in real time.
Equip your business with real-time customer experience research and contact Jenni-Ruth Coggin at BMi Research: jenni@bmi.co.za or (011) 615-7000.
