Brad Huisken

Even More On Mystery Shopping

We have spent the last few weeks talking about mystery shopping at its most basic point, simply the idea of going out and shopping your competitors on your own.  However, there are some more advance principles in mystery shopping that I would like to touch on.

One of the most common practices that businesses use, particularly larger ones, is a professional mystery shopper.  They are exactly what they sound like, shoppers hired by a competitor of yours to shop in your store and report their results.  The professional mystery shoppers will most likely have a specific set of things that they are looking for and they know how to look for them.  They will ask salespeople questions designed to gage the level of customer service and the salesperson’s product knowledge.  They may come up with objections to see how the salesperson will react.  In short, they are to the sale’s field as a scout is to a head football coach.  They know exactly what they are looking for and how to obtain it.

One way that you can have your own mystery shoppers do a better job than a professional mystery shopping service is for you to develop your own complete checklist of things you want shopped.  You know you know your industry and market better than anyone else does.  Develop the checklist looking for specific things that you want answered.  For example, did they turn over the sale; attempt to show a specific item, did they ask add-on questions and so on.

Posted by Brad Huisken on November 20, 2009 | Comments (0)