Business executives looking to monitor and optimize their company’s customer experience (CX) should be asking this question: how does mystery shopping work?
Mystery shopping is an essential part of maintaining and improving a business’s customer journey and experience. That’s because mystery shoppers provide keen insight into how the business actually operates, how customers likely perceive the process, and—most importantly—how to make it better.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of misconceptions that distort people’s understanding of this critical practice, even in the business world. Despite popular perception, a mystery shopper isn’t just some random consumer who gets paid to give their amateurish criticism about how the company operates. Instead, mystery shopping is about getting valuable, unbiased data from a skilled expert—data that can be leveraged into strategic operational refinements and improve customer sentiment.
To that end, this article seeks to answer the question “How does mystery shopping work?” It will also provide a step-by-step explanation of the mystery shopping process from a business’s perspective, as well as some useful information that can help executives decide how to source their mystery shopping program.
What Is Mystery Shopping Anyway?
Let’s dive right into the question here: what is mystery shopping and how does it work? Mystery shopping, or CX evaluation, is the process of deploying professional, trained evaluators to simulate an authentic shopper experience—then assembling the data they capture into a report to be delivered to the business for review.
The “mystery” part comes from the fact that these shoppers do their best to remain anonymous. That way, neither employees nor other customers will be aware that there’s an audit going on, and they will act in a typical fashion. This ensures data integrity and provides a better picture into everyday operations.
But evaluators don’t often go into a mystery shop merely to “check out the vibe.” They are usually sent with a specific testing objective in mind. For example, they might seek to evaluate an ordinary first-time shopper experience. Or their goal may be to check on customer service—so they call in pretending to return a purchase they weren’t happy with. Alternatively, they could browse a business’s website to check that everything lines up with their in-person experience, or verify brand compliance at various franchise locations. If the shopper sees anything noteworthy, whether positive or negative, businesses will receive it in their report and can either make changes to improve or capitalize on something customers already love.
So while the basics of how mystery shopping works are the same, this practice can be applied in countless ways to benefit a business’s CX—whether online, over the phone, or in person.
How Does Mystery Shopping Work for Different Industries?
Just as there is a plethora of applications for mystery shopping in the standard business model, it also works across virtually any industry. Here are a few examples:
- Retail: This is the classic mystery shopping stereotype—for a reason. Mystery shoppers assess staff behavior, store cleanliness, inventory availability, product knowledge, and even upselling techniques. With a pre-planned scenario in mind, like “looking for a gift,” shoppers browse and report on their time in the shop.
- Restaurants and Hospitality: Businesses in this sector focus on service quality, food presentation, cleanliness, speed, and overall CX for their mystery shops. Evaluators dine anonymously and take note of everything from how they’re greeted to the accuracy of their order.
- Banking & Financial Services: When it comes to money, customers expect a high level of professionalism—and mystery shoppers can help banks, credit unions, and more maintain that quality. Mystery shoppers may inquire about opening an account, applying for a loan, or using digital services.
- Business to Business (B2B): Although customer experience operates on basically the same tenets in every industry, the B2B world is markedly different than B2C (business-to-consumer). In this field, mystery shoppers will pose as a potential business client and inquire about products and services to evaluate their experience.
- Healthcare: Patients have different experiences and expectations than ordinary consumers—so mystery shops in this industry adjust in kind. Shoppers check for clear and supportive communication, tidy and inviting facilities, and appointment handling.
This is a small answer for the question “How does mystery shopping work across different industries?” But it’s clear to see that this practice can yield valuable insight for businesses looking to improve their customer experience.
The Step-By-Step Guide
With all this in mind, how does mystery shopping actually work in practice? What is the process involved? Let’s take the practice of CX evaluation step by step—from the perspective of a business executive.
1 – Define the Goals
Without setting goals first, it can be hard to tell whether mystery shopping was a success—or produced any noticeable return on investment (ROI). Therefore, the first step is to define specific objectives for the shop.
As noted, there are a number of general applications that mystery shoppers typically follow. For example, one shop could be focused on evaluating customer support. Another could target employee training and knowledge. Yet another might assess whether all locations are compliant with branding guidelines. Whatever the goal is, get it in writing—then use it to move to step two.
2 – Create the Assignment
With the objective in mind, the next step is to create a realistic scenario for the mystery shopper to use for the test. This will require knowledge of what the target audience is like—including demographics, behaviors, and customer journeys.
Evaluators can even model their simulations based on real-life experiences. For instance, imagine a really bad customer interaction—like an angry “Karen” type who wanted to get a discount even though her coupon had expired. This retailer could incorporate new deescalation tactics into their employee training and then use a mystery shopper to test if it actually helped. While most mystery shops won’t be this extreme, this is a powerful example.
3 – Send in the Shopper
Now that the business has its objectives and parameters in place, it’s time to start testing. Now, how does mystery shopping work for business executives? Depending on the particulars of the evaluation program, the executive will tag a mystery shopper, provide an evaluation rubric, schedule a time and location for the shop, and then let them take it from there.
While it could be helpful to explore exactly how a mystery shopper does the actual mystery shopping, it’s really just a matter of reviewing the evaluation rubric, going for a shop, and then creating a report on their findings.
4 – Receive the Report
After the scheduled shop, the evaluator will need some time to assemble their notes, generate a report based on the business’s rubric, and send it in. This could take less than a few business days or a little longer, depending on the operation schedule. Businesses will usually receive the report in the form of an email, or perhaps via a digital reporting platform.
5 – Analyze the Results
How does mystery shopping work if not to yield CX data for the business to work with? The shopper’s report is the end goal, and it’s essential for businesses to take some time to comb through the data results of a mystery shop to maximize ROI. Specifically, the report tells business executives what’s working well, what missed opportunities there might be, and whether there are glaring issues that need resolution.
Additionally, when applicable, it’s always good to cross-reference results with other CX information—like past mystery shops, shops from other locations, and sales data. This will frame a better picture of what the results actually mean.
6 – Strategize for Success
Next, it’s time to put that data into action. For example, when there is a positive experience, business executives would do well to recognize outstanding employees or training staff. The encouragement from a glowing mystery shop can motivate team members to strive for continued success.
On the other hand, if the shopper makes note of some friction in the website, like some inconsistent pricing information, then executives can send this information to their web developers and work to resolve the issue.
Also, there’s always a chance that the mystery shopper suggests implementing a new initiative to capitalize on a missed opportunity. For example, they might advise the business to add an automated email blast to remind customers that it’s time to renew their membership. This is a powerful strategy for recapturing hot leads, providing value to customers, and keeping them engaged. Businesses can use these suggestions to spur their organization on to greater success.
7 – Repeat the Process
Of course, the best mystery shopping program doesn’t stop at one shop. The most beneficial results come from an ongoing process of evaluation, analysis, implementation, and improvement. Not only does this allow businesses to build on their successes, but it also fosters a company-wide culture of continual improvement that can keep them growing for years to come.
Ask any company how does mystery shopping work for them, and they’ll say that it’s one of the best investments they’ve ever made in terms of customer experience. That’s because they’re always striving to make improvements—and with the help of mystery shopping, they know it’s working.
In-House, Independent, or Outsourced: What’s the Difference?
Now that we’ve explored how mystery shopping works, the next big question is how to get a mystery shopping program started. There are three main approaches for implementing CX evaluations—internally, independently, and outsourced.
So how does mystery shopping work with these different approaches?
In-House: The Do-It-Yourself Approach
For many businesses just getting started with mystery shopping, they think this is the ideal approach. The entire CX evaluation department—including managers, data-crunchers, and shoppers—functions within the organization itself. This does offer a number of benefits, including the fact that everything is under one roof. However, it can be very resource-heavy, may include some inherent bias that skews results, and takes a while to get going.
Independent: The Middle Ground
One alternative to an entirely in-house CX evaluation program is to create some managerial structure within the company, and then hire independent contractors as mystery shoppers. This represents a kind of middle ground between internal and third-party approaches. Therefore, it takes some benefits—and drawbacks—from each. Independent shoppers may be slightly less biased and require fewer resources, but it also takes more effort to find skilled, qualified candidates and keep the program running.
Outsourced: Your Partner in CX
The best approach to mystery shopping for many businesses is partnering with an agency like IntelliShop. These agencies are truly experts in the field of customer experience. They know what patterns to look for and what practices work best across different industries. And, perhaps most importantly, they have the resources to manage their client’s entire CX evaluation program while passing on some savings—yielding incredible ROI.
Want to get more answers on how does mystery shopping work for you? If you’re interested in taking this approach with your business, contact us. We’ll show you the value we can bring to your company in actual dollars—so you can elevate your business to the next level of success.
Mystery Shopping: The Key to Optimizing CX
As demonstrated, it’s important for business executives to be able to answer the question “How does mystery shopping work?” But the real question is, “How doesn’t mystery shopping work?”
This practice is a powerful tool for evaluating and enhancing CX across a wide range of industries and applications. By simulating real customer interactions, shoppers give business executives unbiased, actionable insights that can drive meaningful operational improvements.
Whether managed in-house, through independent contractors, or via a trusted agency like IntelliShop, a well-executed mystery shopping program can deliver significant value… both in terms of customer satisfaction and long-term business growth.
For a deep dive into setting up a mystery shopping program, check out our Ultimate Guide to Mystery Shopping.
