Secretshoppers, how can they help a business?

Want to know what is actually happening in your workplace? A secretshopper will be your potential client working ‘undercover’ on your company’s behalf.

Secretshopping companies employ an active network of mystery shoppers experienced in this type of covert, intelligence gathering, throughout the country.

Each secretshopper who runs a mission for a company is highly trained, and completely briefed, for that mission.

The briefing may be conducted individually, or for larger operations, by group meeting. For security reasons, briefings are never carried out via the Internet or telephone.

In other words, by always working in person, the company can be sure that the secretshopper is not a mystery collaborator for your business enemies.

The company’s operation analysts then make a series of observations, for example by visiting one of the shopping malls of a distribution network.

 
Depending on the needs of the client, the mystery shopping can be done in the form of a physical, on site, recognisance visit, but this action may also be carried out via a series of telephone calls, an e-mail enquiry or complaint, or still used but not very common now with a traditional enquiry or complaint letter.

The advantage of all this covert analysis and staff effectiveness measurement is that it is done in "real time", without any opportunity for staff to prepare and present the location at its best.

Rather the secretshopper will make a snap visit and covertly analyze a set series of criteria and make observations as to such things as cleanliness, courtesy, product knowledge, efficiency, honesty and so forth. 

A secretshopper expedition should give you an idea of the situation objectively and concisely, as opposed to an internal report with its obvious ingrown biases.

There are separate phases:

Customer Satisfaction Surveys: measurement of customer satisfaction.
The customer portfolio is one of the most important assets of any business. It is therefore essential to be familiar with the customers' perception of your company.

The proper process of communication has the following advantages:
A frank discussion with your client, carried out by the secretshopper company’s staff.

Now, the operations input data can be evaluated and if required a confidential daily or weekly report can be sent by secure email.

This can be very helpful as you are very quickly informed about the attitude of each client vis-à-vis your company and products or services.

Also, and this is probably more important, it exposes your organization’s dealings on a day to day basis with customers and their level of satisfaction, which leads to an awareness of your employees’ strengths and weaknesses.

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