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A customer experiences a lot of things during his buying decision. He develops a perception regarding a business and develops a brand image. This image entirely depends on what he experienced and the level of satisfaction he received.
Understanding customer experience requires a well-defined research methodology. Many times, businesses appoint foot soldiers to ask direct questions to the customers in exchange for a gift for participation. It takes a lot of time and customers don’t really like to cooperate due to time constraints. This is where businesses hire mystery shopping services to conduct a mystery shopping program. Let us learn how this program can define customer experience in the best way possible.
Mystery Shopping: What is it?
Mystery shopping or secret shopping is an exceptional marketing tool where proficient professionals are sent to the business points to walk through the journey of a customer. They are given a questionnaire that covers predetermined factors related to customer experience. These parameters or factors are decided by the business and the hired service provider.
The shoppers will behave like real customers and gather information. Based on the reports generated, data is collected and fed to digital analytics tools. This is how actionable insights are designed by the hired service provider and an overall report to the hirer. This report consists of the pain points and hidden issues of a customer’s journey.
Mystery shopping research for customer experience
A mystery audit is then conducted based on the data provided. Various analytical tools are used by the hired service provider. To understand the impact of mystery shopping, let us consider an example of a grocery store.
The prime points that aid in customer experience management (CEM) for a grocery brand are:
1. Store staff knowledge
2. Staff behaviour and assistance
3. Store display units
4. Floor space management
5. Parking
6. Check-in and checkout convenience
7. Value addition services such as discounts, offers, customer loyalty programs, etc
There are many other service factors that need to be evaluated via a grocery mystery shopping program. Based on the focal factors, a questionnaire is designed by an experienced service provider. Similarly, a group of experienced mystery shoppers is appointed. Every shopper is designated with one or multiple locations to visit and gather experience information. All the questions in the questionnaire are answered in a measurable way.
Based on the input given by all the shoppers, a data analytics tool is used to generate a report. The generated report will have actionable insights that a CEM division of the hirer must focus on. These insights enable the hirer to make the customer experience better at the considered levels and generate more satisfaction.
Develop brand image with CEM strategy
A brand image of a business is developed exceptionally by introducing new actionable insights as shown by the mystery shopping program. Touching all the points lead to the discovery of hidden issues that a customer faces. Transforming the entire customer journey and adding satisfactory experience will automatically lift the brand image of a business.
