It is not uncommon for a customer to have a bad experience in a store, but it is uncommon for them to actually complain about it. As a matter of fact, most customer sill simply leave which creates quite the challenge for you in the end. If you have a good mystery shopping program in place you can find out what works, what doesn’t, and what you need to improve overall.
As I have said many times before there are myths surrounding the mystery shopping tactic, and oftentimes these myths will put people off. These myths will include a number of reasons why mystery shopping is not beneficial, though they are just that myths.
If you’re not making sure of mystery shopping companies, you are losing out on what could be your best advantage in any industry.
Take the last meal you had at a restaurant as an example. You more than likely remember what you ate, who you ate with, and of course who you took with you. In addition to that you probably remember whether or not you had a good server as well as every possible detail regarding the service. If the customer service was bad, you’re going to remember it because people tend to remember bad customer service experiences over the good ones.
If you are looking closely, then you will remember bad customer service in even more detail. There are little things that you might forget about, for instance the time that the server took to seat you. Food delivery such as appetizers will be taken into account along with the temperature of your plate. How exactly would you measure whether your experience was good or bad?
In most cases a customer will not be able to provide the answers to these questions, and you have to consider that they shouldn’t be required to.
You will need to base your experience on the past experience with the brand you’re using as well as whether or not your expectations were exceeded. If you had a better than expected experience, then you clearly had a good time.
Let’s think about the differences between a mystery shopper’s assessment and the assessment of the average customer. A mystery shopper is going to have a list of expectations based on the brand, but an average customer will not notice the small things. It is these small things that will provide you an accurate picture of whether or not the business is actually functioning.
This of course is extremely important. The customer needs to know that they can count on the same level of quality every time they visit, and if they can, then what’s to stop them from coming back? This is absolutely true with every business out there, and a company that understands this will certainly draw customers.
This blog is about customer service and customer experience management. Customer experience will be raised or lowered depending on what is done and how the right plans are executed.