The Mystery Shopper Service Market: Trends of the Year. Mystery shopper - an effective marketing research tool New marketing technologies mystery shopper

According to the scenario of the visit, all the customers, after trying on several pairs of shoes and a detailed consultation, said that they were not ready to purchase the goods now.

In 4 consultations, the sellers only politely said goodbye. But six consultants asked the customers what confuses them, or what exactly they want to think about. This helps to work out hidden doubts and often lead to a purchase. And even if not, the buyer is always pleased that his opinion is important and they want to help him. Unfortunately, this is a simple but important action. retailers do infrequently. Therefore, we regard 60% of attention to the customer as a good, although not ideal result: a lot of work is required to achieve it.

In 9 visits, the customers were invited to come again. These simple words show the visitor that the attitude towards him has not changed: they wanted to help him in his choice, and not “say goodbye to money”. Such an insignificant “trifle” is one of the steps to create a loyal attitude to the network.

MOSCOW vs. Kazan

Despite the small sample, interesting results were obtained on geographical division. For all 4 visits to Kazan, the objective assessment was 100%. at the same time, Mystery Shoppers do not know the rating system, they only answer questions. But in Moscow, only one consultation was flawless, the rest had some shortcomings. And subjective assessments were also distributed - in Kazan they are higher. Except, perhaps, satisfaction with the price, Kazan citizens liked it less.

Of course, 10 visits does not give a representativeness, but we dare to assume that the human factor plays a significant role in the network(at the store manager level and above). And in Kazan, Ekonika has strong leaders who have done an excellent job.

SUBJECTIVE ASSESSMENTS

Mystery shoppers were asked to rate several factors at the end of their visit on a scale of 1 to 10, and here are the results:

Rice. 4. Answer to the question "How satisfied are you with ...?", score on a 10-point scale

The highest marks were received by the design of the salon and the presented goods. The latter means, among other things, that the sellers managed to convey the advantages of the collections they sell. The quality of service, assortment and salon as a whole are also highly appreciated.

But the received 6.8 points of satisfaction with the price can hardly be regarded as a high mark. This does not mean that Ekonika urgently needs to reduce prices, by no means. But it's worth thinking how to justify the offered price to buyers. And not only at the level marketing communications(this is not a front-line job), but also by doing in-store presentations. Perhaps you should think about price justification scripts (“expensive dressing is used”, “ handmade”, etc.) or converting the durability of models into customer costs (“it is operated 2 times longer than cheap analogues, but costs only 30% more”). It is also possible that the company should think about price differentiation depending on the income of the region. However, this requires research of a different scale and direction.

Question “How likely is it that you will recommend your friends to contact this salon?”(used to evaluate NPS) received 8.7 points on a 10-point scale: 7 promoters (9-10 points), one neutral(7-8 points) and two critics (6 points or lower). Thus, in general, the customer experience in Econika is positive.

IN CUSTODY

Recently, at one event, I was asked: customer service in which Russian retail chains I could call close to ideal. Now I can definitely say that Ekonika is one of these networks. First of all, it captivates with its thoughtful approach: the company works as a single whole in all directions - both in the trading concept, and in the formation of collections and in the approach to the client, and, as far as I can tell, in internal communications. It is not surprising that such A complex approach combined with control gives a wonderful effect.

Don't stop there. That being said, there is still room for improvement in customer service. It is necessary to consolidate and develop success. We need strong partners, for example, in the same Mystery shopping, who will not only select buyers suitable for their profile, but also ensure a clear collection of data exactly according to the company's criteria (and Econika's service standards are not simple).

The method of collecting information, called mystery shopping, has recently become more and more popular. The main secret of the growth of its use lies in the fact that it makes it possible to significantly increase the objectivity of research. After all, the seller who is going to be checked does not know who is in front of him, - regular customer or secret.

As it has already become clear, this method is used to evaluate the activities of retail outlets, the behavior of employees - sellers, cashiers, even security guards and technical staff, as well as evaluate their level of qualification, loyalty to the company and the ability to evaluate their friendliness towards customers. In addition, sociological research and surveys in Samara are also conducted using this method.

Who can become a mystery shopper?

In principle, the profession of "mystery shopper" does not exist. For a while, anyone can try himself in this role. The main thing is that it fits the target group for which this outlet is designed. No one will send a middle-aged man to a lingerie store, although sometimes the task may be to check the staff for actions in unusual situation. In the same way, no one will make a mystery shopper out of an elderly woman who has to choose a barbell in a sports store.

Typically, such ads are placed in newspapers such as "Services and work in Samara." So if you want to try yourself in this role - you have all the opportunities for this!

What else can a mystery shopper do?

This method has many advantages, and the scope of its application is wide and not limited to the assessment of sellers. When conducting marketing research and market analysis in Samara, it is very important to find out the following points:

• Service level;
• How the goods are laid out;
• How clean does the trading floor actually look and feel;
• How clearly the guards carry out their actions;

All these tasks can be solved by a mystery shopper, which, in principle, he does. As a result, company managers receive full information about how focused on customer satisfaction their employees are. Often you can order a mystery shopper in the territory of competitors and get, as they say, first-hand information about how the work is done with them. This is also important when making adequate decisions.

LLC "Best Service" is one of the most reliable partners. All work is carried out in the shortest possible time, with high quality and at a professional level.

If not for "Best Service", we would never have known about the real situation in our stores. After the checks Mystery shopper"employees began to work much better and, as a result, incomes began to grow.

LLC "Avignon"

We express gratitude for flexible approach and prompt response to changing requests.

The joint implementation of the project has helped our company significantly improve the quality of customer service and increase sales.

LLC "Fast Business Systems"

We express our gratitude for conducting research using the methods "Competitive intelligence" and "Creation of artificial demand". We were faced with the task of increasing sales not only through the online store, but also in dealer networks. To do this, it was necessary not only to analyze the work of all our competitors, but also to make people know about us.

The "Best Service" company did an excellent job and helped us win an interesting market share for us.

"Vorontsov baths"

Thanks to the "Mystery Shopper" checks, our employees began to strive to ensure that every customer was satisfied. Quantity positive feedback customers after visiting our club has increased significantly.

We are very pleased with the competent and professional staff"Best Service" company.

LLC "Fineart"

We express our gratitude to the Best Service company for the successful implementation of projects using the Competitive Intelligence and Mystery Shopper methods. We faced a difficult task - to analyze the market and the pricing policy of our competitors.

LLC "Sport Club "Fitness Maximum"

We were faced with the task of identifying shortcomings in the observance of the standards of communication technique by our managers, the implementation functional duties sports club staff.

We are very satisfied with the quality of the tasks performed and recommend "Best Service" as a reliable partner that meets the highest quality standards of the services provided.

Urban Group

The Urban Group company expresses its respect and gratitude to the Best Service LLC for the high-quality and fruitful work of the Mystery Shopper. Thanks to constant monitoring of the quality of services, our company improves service standards and improves the quality of customer service. It should be noted the high professionalism and competence of the employees of "Best Service" LLC. We look forward to further mutually beneficial cooperation.

LLC MFO "MOMENTO DENGI"

The company LLC MFO "MOMENTO DENGI" expresses its gratitude to the specialists of LLC "Best-Service" for the quality work done in the field of researching service offices using the "Mystery Shopper" method. The study helped to identify gaps in the work of not only sales professionals, but entire departments directly involved in the life and development of the company. Thanks to the analytical reports of your specialists, it became clear from what parameters work on errors should be built.

LLC Company "Big Bear"

Thanks a lot for the great work! Thanks to feedback according to guest checks, we were able to timely assess the situation with the service in supermarkets. We not only saw weak areas, but also received an action plan to correct the situation. This helped us a lot with extremely tough competition in our city: new stores are constantly opening in various price categories. Simultaneously with the launch of the "Mystery Guest" program, we ordered a marketing research on our customers. We were not only provided with a questionnaire free of charge, but also provided with a report with recommendations. We managed to get a portrait of our average customer and work on his preferences. All these were our test projects in supermarkets, which were successful. Now we continue to carry out assessments as a secret guest, but already for prevention. In addition to this, we plan to carry out checks in our stores, but in the "shop by the house" format.

PartsDirect

We thank the BestService company for the high-quality and prompt execution of the Mystery Shopper service. The generated reports are very detailed and clear, allowing you to identify and fix the problem in the shortest possible time. Special thanks to Olga Bukova for an individual approach, creative thinking and maximum efficiency. This is the fastest service in Moscow!

Despite the fashionable translation of a foreign term - mystery shopping - this technology is not new for domestic trade. Many people remember the so-called test purchases from Soviet times, which is essentially the function of a mystery shopper. Only if control purchases were mainly carried out by special control and audit departments. government agencies, now the “mystery shopper” is a very effective marketing tool that has justified itself more than once both in terms of costs and time. Marketing technologies do not stand still today Mystery shopper is one of the marketing methods of control, adapted to modern business requirements and has long ceased to be a tool exclusively for state regulatory bodies. Like any marketing tool, control purchases must be used competently, with clearly defined goals.

Goals and objectives of the mystery shopper

If auditors from government agencies carried out test purchases solely for the purpose of identifying violations in retail or in the service sector, entrepreneurs who initiate mystery shopping do not always do so in order to punish negligent sellers. In most cases, with the help of mystery shopping, the effectiveness of marketing activities is studied and new solutions are searched for to optimize business processes. Naturally, the list of tasks of a mystery shopper may also include identifying violations in the work of sellers, but what decision will be made - dismissal or adjustment of staff behavior - it depends on the manager or business owner.

Popularity of mystery shopping marketing tool on Russian market is constantly growing, which is understandable. Today's market has become highly competitive, the consumer in almost all cases has the freedom to choose between several offers, which means that it is the quality of service that becomes the decisive factor in making a purchase. This technique is very popular in the network business, where it is very important to control that everything outlets networks adhered to uniform standards.

In what areas is a mystery shopper needed?

Mystery shopping can provide a lot of useful data in three areas of market research. First of all, mystery shopping is an excellent source of information for the development, implementation and control of internal customer service standards. Also, a mystery shopper is an excellent tool to motivate and prevent dishonesty and fraud on the part of staff.

In addition to the audit function, secret buying is often used to study the work of competitors. With the help of a mystery shopper, data is collected about pricing policy, methods of motivating consumers and recruiting additional services in competing companies. This information can then be used to optimize the work of your own company, to improve the quality of customer service. After all, the goal of any company is to achieve the greatest loyalty from customers.

The mystery shopping method is also popular in benchmark marketing. In this case, the mystery shopper makes purchases from companies that operate in related areas of the market and are leaders in their industry. This is done in order to adopt technologies of success in order to increase the level of their own competitiveness.

Scope of using the mystery shopping tool

Undoubtedly, this marketing tool provides ample opportunities for obtaining various information, but, like any tool in marketing, it should not be abused. Sometimes business owners, with the help of a mystery shopper, want to find out maximum amount heterogeneous information. This intention is quite understandable, but one should not expect that a large amount of information will be of high quality at the same time.

In some specific areas of service, a mystery shopper must be a professional in this area in order to adequately assess the quality of service, while some information can be obtained simply by talking with customers. Therefore, the business owner must clearly define what data he wants to know, and then choose the best tool for obtaining them.

Mystery shopper as a staff unit

About whether a company should be created staff unit secret shopper or delegate its functions to outsourcing remains open. Many companies successfully use both the first and second options. In this case, the decision on whether to hire a full-time employee or provide an opportunity to do so specialized company, must be taken individually for each company, based on considerations of expediency. If a company cannot afford to allocate own resources per full-time mystery shopper, or the marketing staff does not have the necessary professional skills in this area, it is better to rely on outsourcing. The main thing is that the activity of the mystery shopper should not be initiated for the sake of the process itself.

Thus, before making a decision on secret purchases, the company's management must clearly define for itself the purpose for which they will be made, and what it wants to see as a result of these checks. Any marketing techniques, including Mystery shopper, will be effective if the company's management is aware of what questions need to be answered with their help.

Even at the present stage of development of consumer service, one can easily encounter a situation where, having visited a store or cafe, one has to wait quite a long time before sellers or waiters pay due attention to you. Staff may be busy talking mobile phone or among themselves, and simply absent from their workplace. The habit of being rude to a client, which has remained since Soviet times, also flourishes among many workers, so you can easily get a whole “portion” of rudeness on a demand to serve. Of course, in the case of such disrespect, the buyer, in the vast majority of cases, will turn around and leave, and, as a result, part of the direct profit will be lost, one can only speculate about the size of the lost consumer confidence.

Already, the management of many firms and companies has realized the fact that the service is becoming one of the most important components of commercial success. To keep it at an acceptable level, regular monitoring is necessary, and the easiest way to control it is to use Mystery Shoppers. Using the hired "eyes and ears", the management without unnecessary problems is able to organize monitoring of the diligence of the working team, to determine whether the hired employees meet modern requirements for providing consumer service.

Who is a Mystery Shopper?

Mystery shopping is a marketing technology that can hardly be called an innovation for the domestic market. Even in Soviet times, supervisory authorities carried out test purchases, however, if in those days such inspections were only a way to disclose violations in the field of trade or in the provision of services, then in the framework of modern reality, this technology is used as one of the most effective means determining marketing feasibility and finding ways to optimize commercial activities. The punishment of rude and negligent sellers and other service personnel is only one of the results of the work done.

Mystery shopper and his activities

A mystery shopper is able to provide the employer with a huge amount of useful data that can be easily used as part of the optimization. personnel policy and overall service improvement. With the help of the information obtained, it is possible to implement or improve internal customer service regulations, to identify fraudulent actions on the part of employees. Among other things, the Mystery Shopper becomes an effective tool in the process of studying competitors. All the information received becomes a kind of impetus for taking measures to improve the quality of service

Secret purchase. Application area

The use of secret purchases opens up considerable prospects, however, at the same time, such leverage marketing effectiveness no need to abuse. In an attempt to find out a lot of heterogeneous information through the Mystery Shopper, the research customer may lose its quality, respectively, its reliability. In addition, it is necessary to take into account the fact that in order to study some areas of activity, it is necessary to involve a person of a high professional level, because otherwise it will hardly be possible to obtain adequate information. On the contrary, in many areas of business, you can get information about the quality of service in simple communication with customers. Because of this, before ordering marketing research, the business owner should determine as clearly as possible what information he needs and how he will use it in the future.

Mystery shopper training

It is unlikely that it will be possible to achieve during the "secret purchase" necessary information, if before its implementation it is not made detailed briefing future buyer. Poor preparation or incorrectly set tasks will distort or reduce the usefulness of the result. Among the most common tasks in Mystery Shopper research are:

Identification of the level of professionalism of the staff;
- Checking awareness regarding the list of services, assortment;
- Determining the level of honesty

Mystery shopper salary

If we talk about the price of labor, then the salary of a Mystery Shopper is piecework and depends on many factors: the level of complexity of the task, the qualifications of the buyer, etc. For example, for checking retail grocery store you can get up to 1000 rubles. If the check does not involve communication with the seller, then up to 300 rubles can be demanded for it. Checking a restaurant, if you are given money for dinner, generally involves only food as payment. Checking a car service can take up to 2000 rubles, because for its implementation it is necessary, first of all, to have a car. By agreeing to the revision of the hotel, you can earn up to 7,000 rubles. Checking out a high-end clothing and cosmetics store will most likely help you get hold of the appropriate gift certificates by customer.

Fraud

It may seem that the work of a mystery shopper suits everyone, but the customers of the research treat the selection of mystery shoppers with the utmost responsibility. Indeed, within the framework of the control visit, it is necessary not only to make a number of observations, but to carry out a real analysis, evaluate the style of work, and much more. The main thing is not to forget about the responsibility lying on you, because incorrect or false information in the report can cost another person a job. That is why they try to recruit objective, honest and responsible people into the ranks of Mystery Shoppers.