When a company sets high standards on a daily basis they are set to do the right things. In fact setting high standards also has your employees working the right amount to birth results which can make you an industry leader. The retail industry is a cut-throat market where thousands of brands are using similar tactics to rule the market. The only chance a retail store/retail brand has at the moment is working extensively on providing a good customer experience. However, there are two major issues that retail stores have with regards to that. One, training retail employees perfectly and then dumping them onto management that does not care for high standards and therefore, lowering standards in front of customers. Second, and the most common issue is retail brands wanting ‘more customers’. Do you want more customers or do you want your customers to return to you? Wanting more customers without actually putting efforts into customer experience (CX) and customer experience management (CXM) will have a whole neighbourhood bad-mouthing you for the lack of CX. The only thing that can save you from these profit-reducing and brand image-destroying issues is using secret shoppers on a regular basis. Secret shoppers/Mystery shoppers can draw out any possible issues in your system or individual stores/branches/franchise to retain your image in the industry, have your customers coming back to you, increase revenue and recognise underlying problems in your brand.

Now, what are the 10 benefits of mystery shopping in retail stores?

1. Monitored and measured service performance: it is incredibly important for you as a company to monitor and measure your service performance which is how well you are able to help and assist your customer through their buyer journey. From the moment a customer notices your brand till they make a purchase and services after the sale too must be monitored to check if you are truly able to provide customer satisfaction at every level.
2. Improves customer retention: as we mentioned before and would like to remind you again, it is much cheaper to retain customers than get new ones. New customers will walk up to you if you maintain your standards and keep the existing customers happy! The mystery shopping customer experience finds out the loopholes in your system that can be worked on and eventually used to retain customers.
3. Makes employees aware of what is important in serving customers: mystery shoppers in retail stores will look at every detail and use the data to report it further. How your employees interact with the customers, and how independent and fast they are, how they promote or upsell your products can all be made note of and worked on. You as an employer can then find customer experience strategies to make the process more streamlined by creating ground rules and guidelines that all your stores must adhere to. That way irrespective of where the store is located, there is a certain amount of consistency that customers experience.
4. Monitors facility conditions: it goes without saying that having multiple branches or franchises can lead to discrepancies in how each store functions. The geographical location in itself is such a major factor in how the store functions and what it provides to the customers. The Facility condition/facility condition index is the industry standard metric in the retail industry that works as your objective benchmark conducted and met by a facility condition assessment that can be done through mystery shopping.
5. Ensures product/service delivery quality: when you look at numbers all day long you seem to ignore what is happening on the ground. Mystery shoppers are trained to scrutinize every tiny detail of their order. Since they are completely undercover, you are to get the purest of results. Due to the frequency and ability of mystery shoppers any coincidences may be eliminated as well. The condition of the products which are sold and the customer service provided after the sale are all taken note of by mystery shoppers. Hence, mystery shopping in the retail industry can give you a crystal clear picture of what pace and standards your company is following on the ground.
6. Allows for competitive analyses between locations: like we have spoken about earlier in this blog when you are a large brand and have many branches and franchises it is more likely that discrepancies occur. Through the mystery shopping research method you can find out what is working for which branch and implement that technique onto other branches which may not be functioning equally well.
7. Identifies training needs and sales opportunities: what if you are missing out on something that may be the underlying cause of a potential downfall? Mystery shopping can reduce any such possibilities by recognizing problems within your retail brand and providing you with real-time facts that can help you with better decision-making. For example, a mystery shopper can uncover the fact that your retail store is unable to upsell a new product because your employee isn’t trained well enough or the reason why your new product isn’t being picked up by customers is that it is barely visible in your store so it needs to be brought out in the front near the billing line.
8. Ensures positive customer relationships on the front line: a positive customer relationship is nothing but a strong, long-term, mutually beneficial relationship between the customer and the organization which is created by the frontline employee in this case. A frontline employee’s performance, behaviour, sensitivity and acknowledgement powers can help you build a positive customer relationship that helps you maintain your standards as a retail store with a good customer experience. Mystery shopping in retail stores can surely help you find out if you are doing well with your customer relationships.
9. Enforces employee integrity and knowledge: Are your retail store employees dependable? Are they strong and can they make a sound judgment? The only way you can find out answers to what is happening in your stores without bias is through a mystery shopping program.
10. Supports promotional campaigns: have the campaigns you’ve been running in your retail store actually been paying off? Mystery shopping in retail stores has the mystery shoppers actually notice if your promotional activities are working for the target customer. What if your boards aren’t clearly visible or the shelves are arranged too low? With these small details, you will be able to uncover what is not working out for you. The mystery shopping program helps you find out why your promotional campaigns are not working so you can redesign and re-strategize in a fashion that may work out instead of aiming in the dark!

These are just some ways in which the mystery shopping program in the retail industry set up by customer experience companies can help you better your results, increase sales and retain customers. Since the customer is king it is time for you to start treating them with the experience they deserve. Good customer experience in the retail industry is the only way for you to stay relevant in the retail industry today. If you are not levelling up you will remain forgotten. Mystery shopping companies or customer experience companies like Sonata CX work efficiently with clients to give them the status they desire by aptly checking their customer experience or the lack thereof.