A Mystery Shopping

With the recession easing and with a renewed emphasis everywhere on customer care, A Mystery Shopping has now come in from the cold. A straw poll of high street names suggests that this once marginal marketing tool has moved into the mainstream. According to Jill Hillier of MSS, mystery shopping has changed dramatically in the past 10 years from a hiring and firing technique used predominantly in restaurants to a "nurturing, learning tool." Many of the companies specializing in mystery shopping come from the market research industry. Most industry experts say the most important ingredient for success remains well-trained mystery shoppers, but there seem to be some high-tech inroads.

Robert Dwek looks at the rapid growth of mystery shopping and how more and more sectors are recognizing its value. Mystery shopping used to be regarded as corporate spying. It was seen as an underhand activity, probably prompted by management accountants advising clients to axe hundreds or thousands of jobs. It was, in short, an excuse for firing people.

With the recession easing - and with a renewed emphasis everywhere on customer care - mystery shopping has now come in from the cold. Obviously, due to its intrinsic secrecy, it is hard to gauge exactly how many companies are using mystery shopping, but a straw poll of high street names suggests that this once marginal marketing tool has moved into the mainstream. And this is despite the average annual cost of L1100,000 - L200,000, which makes mystery shopping worth an estimated L440m a year in the UK.

According to Jill Hillier, client services director of Research International subsidiary MSS, mystery shopping has changed dramatically in the past ten years from a hiring and firing technique used predominantly in restaurants (and mainly in the US) to a nurturing, learning tool. Many, but not all, the companies specializing in mystery shopping come from the market research industry.

John Kelly, a spokesman for the Association of Market Survey Organizations, which represents many of the bigger research companies, agrees with Hillier "Clients and researchers are starting to use it much more as a considered tool. Traditionally, it was confined to banks and fast food outlets or petrol stations, but now it's used almost anywhere that a service is delivered."

"We've only been doing it a short time," says Pret a Manger chairman and founder Julian Metcalfe, "but it has great potential. It's a good idea to have people looking at your operation from a customer perspective. It's common sense."

But the head of the sandwich chain also calls it "very expensive" and a "major commitment". Only a good company will have the nerve to do mystery shopping, he believes. "You have to react whether the report is good or bad. You have to stand up and be counted, day after day."

Ideally, Metcalfe would like to use mystery shopping in every outlet, every day, but says only companies "110% committed to excellent customer service" are using the technique.

As for which strategy to adopt, he adds: "If it doesn't work first time, you must be prepared to change it and keep changing it if necessary. In the end, it will work."

Mystery Shopping |