The Role of Mystery Shopping in Enhancing Brand Perception
Most of the time, the reason behind sales drops or unsatisfied customers may not be due to pricing, stock levels, or marketing.
It’s more about experience, how your customers feel or are treated the moment they walk into your store, contact an online rep or return damaged goods.
Unpleasant experiences can stem from factors like long waiting times in a queue without any explanation, poor user experience, and staff who are dismissive in their approach or attitude. Even something as simple as not smiling can convey to customers that the staffs are not ready to help or are unhappy with their jobs.
These moments may seem insignificant to staffs or management, but to customers, they shape perception. And perception is your brand.
“Brand is just a perception, and perception will match reality over time.” — Elon Musk
How customers perceive your brand over time is solely how your brand is formed.
At Webhaptic Intelligence, our Retail mystery shopping service is used as a tool to reveal gaps in service quality or compliance by hiring undercover shoppers to evaluate real customer experiences.
Our trained mystery shoppers will take on the role and activities of any regular customers or guests, while observing how well your business delivers on its promises.
According to McKinsey report, Operational insights from mystery shopping can yield up to 30 % increase in profitability.
In Nigeria, our mystery shopping initiatives, particularly in partnership with leading institutions in the financial services sector, have delivered award-winning results.
SEE ALSO: Nationwide Mystery Shopping for a Leading Bank in Nigeria
Retail Mystery Shopping Processes
Mystery shopping is widely used in industries such as retail, hospitality, banking, and healthcare to improve operational efficiency, enhance customer satisfaction, and maintain competitive standards.
Our Core Processes
Once a project has been commissioned and objectives have been clearly defined, our team proceeds with recruiting mystery shoppers who match your typical customer or guest profile.
Each evaluator/shopper is carefully selected and thoroughly briefed with detailed instructions and guidelines to ensure they understand their role and follow the required steps during execution.
Our internal process is handled by seasoned mystery shopping professionals and includes four key steps:
1. Grid Filling – Grid filling in mystery shopping is the process of recording and scoring specific aspects of a customer interaction using a structured evaluation form.
2. Videography – Compiling and editing videos gotten from the field, which involves adding written captions to mystery shopping videos to highlight key spoken interactions and observations for easier review and analysis.
3. Instrument Reviewing: Examining the completed evaluation form to ensure accuracy, consistency, and alignment with the mystery shopping objectives.
4. Actionable Reporting –We clearly record notable strengths, weaknesses of the customer experience based on observed behaviours and evaluation scores. Our reports are practical and detailed, highlighting service gaps and recommendations for improvement as the case may be.
To find out more about our mystery shopper services or to obtain a quote for mystery shopping services in Nigeria, send an email to info@webhaptic.com