With the countless benefits that come from customer experience (CX) evaluations, looking to secret shopping companies to handle the work is a smart move. CX evaluations, also known as mystery shops or secret shops, provide businesses with valuable, objective data about the state of their daily interactions with leads and customers. These evaluations can reveal areas of outstanding success, as well as points that could use improvement. With a well-strategized CX program, businesses can stand to earn huge returns on their investments.
However, maintaining an internal CX evaluation program is time and resource consuming. Thus, many businesses, especially chains and franchises, look toward secret shopper companies to take on the heavy lifting of evaluation. This allows them peace of mind, knowing that the CX data they receive is truly objective and reliable. Then, they can take the next steps to strategize solutions and improvements based on this intelligence.
If you’re a business owner or executive looking for a profitable and worthwhile partner to bolster your CX, this blog will provide a few guidelines to help you find the best secret shopper company.
Benefits of Secret Shopping Companies
Secret shopper companies represent a powerful resource for businesses looking for CX solutions. After all, these companies make it their business to study, analyze, and strategize on customer experience as a whole—they are experts at CX. Thus, businesses in different industries can hire them to take a look at their CX and provide detailed evaluations.
A secret shopper agency will handle the following tasks typically required of a strong CX evaluation program:
- Organize and outline the client’s objectives and goals for the CX evaluation program as it develops.
- Generate scenarios for secret shoppers to simulate during evaluations.
- Coordinate and deploy shoppers to target locations for evaluation.
- Aggregate incoming data from shoppers into a cohesive report for the client.
- Work with the client to strategize potential solutions to problems, as well as ways to capitalize on ongoing successes.
This kind of CX evaluation program can yield millions of dollars of increased profits based on improved customer satisfaction over time. This is especially true for larger businesses with multiple locations and customer touchpoints that want to ensure brand compliance. Therefore, it’s vitally important to choose a secret shopper company that will be a worthwhile long-term partner to the business.
10 Tips for Evaluating Secret Shopping Companies
So how does a business go about shopping for secret shopping companies? Like with anything else, it’s important to keep a few key elements in mind while vetting various agencies. To that end, here are the top 10 ways to get the most out of a search.
1 – Understand Your Goals
While businesses typically start with the wide-reaching goal of “improving CX”, it’s usually more effective to expand on that with specificity in mind. There are secret shopper companies that specialize in different aspects of the customer experience, so having predetermined goals and objectives in mind can better guide a search.
For example, is measuring staff performance a priority? What about evaluating specific processes, like checkout, returns, or online orders? Will there be evaluations on compliance with corporate policies? What metrics are you looking to nail down?
Another aspect to consider is how hands-off a business wants to be. Should the secret shopper company handle all aspects of evaluations, or will there need to be more involvement? Will evaluations take place at multiple locations across the city, state, or country? Do they happen once a year, once a quarter, or with even more frequency?
Granted, businesses may not know the answers to all these questions at the start of the search. However, if there are already set goals in place, it’s important to start with those. This can help align secret shopper goals with overall CX strategies, even before evaluation begins.
2 – Look for Industry Expertise
Although secret shopping companies are experts in overall CX, there are companies that specialize in specific industries. For example, retail, hospitality, business-to-business (B2B), and food service all have different customer expectations and thus can be evaluated differently. A company with industry-specific knowledge can provide even more detailed data on these expectations, as well as provide information on strategies that have worked for similar businesses in the past.
Businesses looking to employ a truly incisive CX evaluation program should consider partnering with a specialist in their industry. That way, they can get more accurate and actionable insights to boost their CX.
3 – Evaluate Scope of Services
As discussed earlier, keeping goals and objectives in mind is a great way to narrow the search for secret shopper companies. Specifically, finding a company that offers a scope of service that serves those goals and objectives well will likely prove to be a better fit.
For example, hiring a secret shopping company that is capable of multichannel evaluations gives a business the opportunity to assess a variety of important touchpoints—all with one vendor. Multichannel evaluations typically encompass in-store, online, phone, and even mobile app interactions. By keeping all these evaluations under the same banner, businesses can expect the same high-quality data no matter what the evaluation objective… and without having to find another secret shopper company to fill in the gaps.
Another example of evaluating scope of services for secret shopper companies is scalability. Ideally, a good secret shopper company will accommodate their client’s growth. So a company that has the ability to grow alongside the businesses they evaluate will be a more beneficial long-term partner.
In short, it’s necessary for a business to seek out a secret shopper company with offerings that fit its needs, goals, and objectives. Otherwise, the partnership will be doomed from the start.
4 – Assess the Secret Shopping Companies’ Networks
Once a secret shopping company goes to work, they’ll deploy shoppers to begin evaluations. Thus, their network of shoppers is an important thing for businesses to consider during their search.
A strong secret shopper network typically includes the following:
- Reliable, skilled evaluators who know their industry
- Strong communication and reporting protocols
- A diverse pool of shoppers who align with different target demographics
- Wide reach of locations and access points to match business locations
These aspects will enable a secret shopping company to account for a larger number of factors involved in the CX evaluation process. Having access to great staff that can handle each assignment with the same high level of integrity—while accounting for varying demographics and locations—will enable the company to provide their clients with strong, actionable data.
5 – Check Their Reporting Tools
Good data is the backbone of any successful CX evaluation program—but if the reporting looks like nonsense to the client, it’s simply not useful. Therefore, when businesses seek out secret shopper companies to partner with, it’s important to find a company with strong reporting tools.
To that end, businesses can request examples of a secret shopper company’s reports to see how they present their data. By reviewing a sample report, these businesses can determine whether a partnership with the company is worth pursuing.
Look for these elements:
- Actionable insights are demonstrated clearly, with strategy in mind.
- Data is visualized with easy-to-understand presentations.
- There is detailed yet concise feedback for the team.
Seeing examples of a company’s reporting can help businesses learn a lot about a secret shopping company—well before they decide to sign a contract.
6 – Prioritize Compliance and Confidentiality
One key area that businesses should evaluate when searching for secret shopping companies is how they prioritize compliance and confidentiality. After all, secret shopping can involve a wealth of highly sensitive—and regulated—data. Furthermore, businesses looking to hire these companies often want to evaluate their own legal compliance. Thus, a company that makes these elements a priority will be better able to deliver on their promises.
For example, let’s say a chain company wants to evaluate their adherence to age-verification laws across their various locations. If they hire a secret shopper company that can’t even keep their own intelligence appropriately confidential, then how can they expect to receive reliable data about their ID compliance? Similar scenarios can be drawn for ADA compliance, alcohol and tobacco sales, and even simple brand compliance.
Certainly, businesses will benefit more from secret shopping companies that put appropriate importance on compliance and confidentiality.
7 – Seek Flexibility and Scalability
While legal compliance is fairly rigid by necessity, it’s also important for secret shopper companies to maintain a certain amount of flexibility. For example, they should be able to evaluate various touchpoints under different scenarios as a client’s needs change.
Say a retail business has launched a new product. They now want to test their CX efforts to ensure that customers are made aware of the new product—and find it compelling enough to make a purchase. A good secret shopping company will be able to pivot with their client and provide that crucial data so they can make strategic decisions to optimize the customer journey.
As mentioned earlier, flexibility will also typically coincide with scalability. As a business improves and grows, having a secret shopper company in their corner that can grow with them will save them from having to shop for a new company later on.
8 – Consider the Cost vs. ROI of Secret Shopping Companies
Undoubtedly, a strong CX evaluation program will be worth its weight in gold. However, some secret shopper companies can be more trouble than they’re worth. That’s why it’s important to consider ROI when shopping for a CX partner.
Although it will certainly be an investment, a good secret shopping company will recoup the cost for their clients in a reasonable time frame. This boosted revenue happens through better customer retention, an increase in conversions, and the identification and resolution of costly service gaps. Furthermore, a good secret shopper company will be able to demonstrate their previous successes and reassure potential clients that they can do the same for their business.
9 – Ask for References and Case Studies
To that end, businesses looking to hire secret shopping companies should ask for references and case studies that point to the overall success of their previous CX programs. This vetting process enables businesses to see in real time how the company handles their evaluations, communications, and strategies. Reviews will also provide examples of previous interactions, demonstrating customer sentiment—whether positive or negative.
Secret shopping companies that have case studies and references at the ready when requested are more likely to provide the same kind of service for current clients.
10 – Discuss Communication Expectations
A common theme in the evaluation process is communication. Truly, strong communication is one of the most essential elements of a good partnership—B2B or otherwise. Therefore, it’s important that businesses seeking to hire secret shopping companies investigate the compatibility of communication expectations before hiring.
Here are a few important facets to discuss:
- Communication and timing expectations for the CX evaluation program itself
- Regularity of updates on findings and adjustments
- Notification of issues, errors, and major problems as they arise
A secret shopping company that meets their clients where they are, while providing appropriate and timely communications, can be a powerful resource.
Skip the Search and Partner With Us
While it’s every business’s prerogative to search for secret shopping companies on its own, there’s an easier way: get the best of everything by partnering with us at IntelliShop.
With our nationwide network of over 1 million highly-skilled secret shoppers, and insider intelligence on just about every industry, we can work with you to continually improve your CX. From multichannel touchpoints to brand and ID compliance, we are your one-stop shop for every CX need. Plus, we can even manage your online reputation to keep your business looking good from every angle.
Learn more or contact us for more information. We’d love to partner with you to support your business’s CX goals.
Secret Shopping Companies Can Be Major Business Assets
As demonstrated, secret shopping companies can provide massive benefits for businesses looking to bolster their CX. However, not all companies are the same—so keeping these key ideas in mind during a search can help businesses find the right partner.
Prioritize alignment with goals, communication, flexibility, integrity, and actionable insight during the selection process. That way, businesses can find CX success with a company that delivers on its promises… and produces profitable results.
