A Mystery Shopper Program For Consumers


by Self-Storage-Owner - Date: 2008-08-31 - Word Count: 554 Share This!

A mystery shopper program is an educative module used to train freshly appointed recruits about their job responsibilities when they are sent by firms to retail outlets to evaluate their frontline performance. As consumer satisfaction is a vital component of the frontline performance of any business, many times the firms do not appoint any special agents for evaluation of consumer satisfaction. They appeal to the consumers to take part in the evaluation process.

The consumers observe how they are being treated by the frontline executives and if all their needs are being taken care of. They give a feedback to the firm. Through a mystery shopper program a firms gets firsthand information of the standard of its consumer satisfaction measures. It studies this thoroughly and then devises ways to overcome the lacunae and better the standard of consumer satisfaction. Many times it is seen that there are very grave issues requiring immediate attention. For example, some sales persons might be behaving badly with some consumers and refusing to take care of their requirements due to personal biases.

Even though many firms employ agents to give them feedback regarding their frontline operations, the consumers are in the best position to give an honest feedback. The consumers take part in the mystery shopper program on a voluntary basis. Some firms even give attractive incentives to the consumers who help them out in the evaluation process. The advantage of taking consumer feedback directly from the consumer himself is that the consumer is the person who knows best what he wants from a store and how his requirement is being taken care of. Secondly the consumers are from diverse socio-economic backgrounds and their preferences and likings are different. Hence by engaging them in the evaluation process the management of a firm can get sample representations from diverse sectors of the consumer world.

An agent specifically appointed by a firm in giving feedback on frontline operations can provide information through a mystery shopper program but his information will be limited and he will have to interview various types of consumers. Instead of that taking feedback directly from the consumers is time saving and cost effective. By taking part in such activities the consumers will also feel that they are not being neglected by the business houses and that their opinion is valued. They feel they are a part of the business house and it is their responsibility to help the firm improve its performance. In this way the firm succeeds in winning the loyalty of its consumers who would love to remain with it for a long time.

The process for registering in a mystery shopper program is made very simple these days. The firms conducting these activities upload online forms which the consumers have to fill in. Usually details like the name of a consumer, his occupation, his monthly income, the products he purchases from the firm and from other firms and his contact information are taken. The firms take the information and get back to the consumers who register with them via electronic mails or through normal post. They might even contact their consumers to know the timings at which they will be taking part. Some firms give the consumers taking part in the program training on what they have to assess and how to go about it.

Related Tags: home based business, internet business, mystery shopping, mystery shopper, customer service, secret shopping, secret shopper, quality assurance, stay home mom

The original article is located at Quality Assurance

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