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Attracting more customers means more business. Businesses will generate a higher profit when customers return and make repeat purchases. How does a business find out the inconveniences that make customers think twice before visiting a brick-and-mortar shop? Well, it needs proper mapping and evaluation of a customer’s journey in a shop.
Companies conduct a mystery shopping program to understand a customer’s journey better. It is a marvellous marketing tool that enables a company to locate the inconveniences and replace them with better solutions. In this program, a mystery shopper is appointed to visit a service point and find out the inconveniences. This program adds exceptional benefits to the business operations conducted in a brick-and-mortar shop.
Benefits of mystery shopping
We have already found the answer to ‘what is mystery shopping?’ let us find out the benefits that a business can integrate into its mode of operations related to customer service and enhance the customer experience.
1. Recognising the blind spots of customer service
Many times it happens that a business thinks that the customer service it provides is flawless. It is the customers who can only realise when they seek the business’ services. Thus, these blind spots need to be identified and eradicated from the services offered.
Mystery shopping allows a business to locate the blind spots that cause inconvenience to the shoppers. The appointed mystery shoppers will find out those spots with their hands-on experience by walking through an entire journey of a customer. After a mystery audit of the data generated, the spots will be revealed.
2. Increasing efficiency by checking staff performance
It also happens that even if all the resources are procured on time, customers are not repeating their buying decisions. Mystery shopping allows the hirer to measure the efficiency of the staff on the floor. From their behaviour to service and product knowledge, assistance to following protocols, everything is counted when the efficiency of the workforce is measured.
Mystery shopping allows finding out which sections of the service team need revamping to escalate the efficiency of the services offered to customers. When customers find more convenience, they will turn out to be brand loyal and will make buying decisions repeatedly.
3. Feedback from customers’ perspective
A 3rd-eye view of the entire customer service offered by a business can be availed of by hiring a mystery shopping company. The team of mystery shoppers will be the sense organs of this company. It will evaluate what a customer sees, listens to, feels and thinks. Hence, getting proper feedback about the service type and quality will be easier through mystery shopping without involving real-time customers.
4. Testing SOPs and functionality
Another benefit of hiring a mystery shopping company is to test the SOPs followed by the service staff, as well as, the functionality of internal procedures. It helps to measure the standards properly and implement better strategies.
Verdict
These are the four prime benefits of mystery shopping among many. A company must hire a professional and experienced mystery shopping service provider to add these benefits to its daily operations.
