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Mystery shoppers are employed by service-oriented industries to evaluate customer service levels. They act as typical customers, submitting detailed notes to managers for discussion with staff. Professional mystery shopping companies provide quality control analysis, from simple sales transactions to in-depth evaluations. Becoming a mystery shopper involves registering with a legitimate agency, as fraudulent schemes exist. Legitimate companies do not charge an application fee or ask for personal financial information.
Many service-oriented industries, such as grocery stores, retail stores, banks, and casinos, want to evaluate their customer service levels, but find it difficult to be completely objective. Many of these companies instead employ a mystery shopper, a trained and independent service evaluator who visits the facility like a typical customer. Detailed notes of his experiences are subsequently sent to managers for close scrutiny and discussion with staff. Most companies encourage these buyers to be objective and submit both negative and positive opinions based on industry standards.
A mystery shopper can simply walk into a restaurant and order a meal, or she can be given a specific challenge to test customer service flexibility. He or she can inform a restaurant hostess that she is allergic to salt, for example. The restaurant’s response to such an unusual request could be part of the test. Buyer may also act hard to please or attempt to return goods without proper receipts. This can help managers expose holes in a security system or uncover employees who are rude to difficult customers.
Professional mystery shopping companies provide several levels of quality control analysis, from a simple sales transaction to an in-depth evaluation of premises, personnel and merchandise. Often, a part-time mystery shopper is asked to purchase a specific product, such as a hamburger from a fast food restaurant, then fill out a detailed form regarding the experience. A person may be paid an hourly wage for walking around a store or simply reimbursed for any purchases made and valued.
However, not all mystery shopper transactions involve a purchase. Sometimes the time between a shopper walking in and being acknowledged by staff is noted, or the shopper may ask a sales associate about merchandise. Managers may also want to know about the cleanliness of a particular store or any suspicious behavior from employees or customers.
Becoming a mystery shopper is often a matter of registering with a legitimate, pending assignment mystery shopping agency. Numerous fraudulent schemes have appeared in both online and print advertising, so be especially cautious when responding to any mystery shopper alerts. Legitimate companies do not charge an application fee, nor do they ask for personal financial information during the application process.
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