I don’t know about you, but I find these figures shocking. Over 2000 people walked out of the store without buying simply because they couldn’t find a sales associate? What would happen if half your sales dried up tomorrow because your sales associates were nowhere in sight? Really, every single one of these reasons for not purchasing is easily solved by changing the way your frontline staff interacts with your customers (with the exception of items being out of stock).

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When is the last time you looked at your store through the eyes of your customers? I’m not talking about whether the displays look nice, or the entrance is clean. Sure, those things are important. But I’m talking about how your store ‘feels’ to your customers when they walk in, when they shop, and when they step up to the register. Surely you have been exposed in your own daily life to rude, incompetent or nonexistent customer service. Were you left feeling frustrated, angry, perhaps even invisible? Do you think your own customers have ever felt that way?

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The MSPA (Mystery Shopping Providers Association) commissioned a study in 2005 to quantify the mystery shopping market. The study conservatively estimated the U.S mystery shopping industry at $600 million and growing (The MSPA now estimates the number to be closer to 800 million), with mystery shopping companies growing at an estimated 11.1% between 2004 and 2005

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Mystery shopping provides a cost-effective and often self-funding assessment and feedback required to maintain high standards of customer service. Good mystery shopping programs use myriad methods to provide businesses with the critical data on customer experiences to accurately measure key benchmarks like customer service, store appearance, product placement, and loss prevention. Mystery shoppers gather this data by peering into the heart of your business through the eyes of the customer, systematically working their way through the business’s front-line operations using pre-set criteria to make meticulous evaluations that assess the overall customer experience.

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Today’s retailers are faced with the daunting task of providing an ever-satisfying customer experience. Faster than you can say “Can I help you?” retailers are being bought out or are going under as these demands continue to grow. Many retailers are discovering that the missing piece to their success is employee training, blending tried-and-true formulas with today’s newest technology to create training standards that strike a balance between product knowledge and soft skills training, empowering employees to build relationships and connect with customers. Why is this important?

• Empowered associates can meet the needs of the customers that arise

• Empowered employees do a better job of finding solutions that work

• Empowered employees own their jobs in a way that the average employee does not

Mystery shopping, implemented properly and used over an appropriate period of time, can be the lynchpin of a strong training program.

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No doubt you’ve had the experience of traveling along the highway with a rumbling stomach when, all of a sudden, there’s a billboard advertising a juicy, mouthwatering, cheesy hamburger, available within seconds at the fast food joint only one short exit away. Agreeing with your stomach that it sure looks good, you speed up a bit to get there faster, dreaming of splashing it all down with a cold drink.

But as you get ready to devour your meal-in-a-box, reality hits. This burger looks nothing like the picture. In fact, it looks more like a two-year-old slapped it together from pieces of other burgers. You, my friend, have just experienced one of the underlying themes shoppers complain about most often: a disconnect between a brand’s image and the actual customer experience.

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Numerous studies show CEO’S are insisting on more accountability from their marketing departments. It’s not that things aren’t getting measured; but there’s much room for improving the quality of these measurements. According to VisionEdge Marketing’s 6th annual Marketing Performance Survey, of 136 executives and marketing professionals surveyed, only 17% said their CEO would reward marketing with an A.

The question then becomes what to measure and what metrics are best. For most companies, marketing metrics focused around business outcomes seems to make the most sense. So how does this apply to mystery shopping? Mystery shopping uses a specific set of metrics to gather data directly from observation of customers and store personnel and IVR web surveys that zero in on the customer’s needs and wants and identifies where store personnel may be missing the mark or doing very well in meeting company policies and objectives. Compared to many of the largest companies’ convoluted marketing strategies, mystery shopping may seem to some like an oversimplified way to gather and report on important data. Actually, its relative simplicity and the targeted data it can provide is the beauty of the entire program.

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The demand for mystery shopping is huge. Hotel giants like Marriott, huge retail chains like Target, and even airlines are utilizing Mystery Shopping to realize maximum profits.

Here is a list of just some of the popular companies that, at one time or another, used Mystery Shoppers to improve operations and provide a more excellent customer experience:

• Taco Bell
• Godiva
• Red Lobster
• K-Mart
• Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC)
• McDonalds
• Hilton Hotels
• Marriott Hotels
• NIKE
• Disney parks
• Target
• Burger King
• Banana Republic

Mystery Shoppers help businesses continuously seek new and creative ways to offer products or services with value, knowledge and heart. Those who can successfully translate their customer’s wants and needs to useable data that improves the corporate bottom line will ultimately turn their customers into their best sales force.

More and more promotional dollars are being channeled towards non-traditional media. How do you make sure its money well spent?

If you’re among the growing number of marketers shifting ad dollars away from traditional media into the flashier world of experiential marketing (promotions, special events, new media and more), you might want to implement some kind of strategic assessment to make sure those dollars are pulling their weight.

Unlike television and print media, the effectiveness of which can be quantified with through relatively simple metrics, assessing the success of alternative media and promotional events is best evaluated through a strategically deployed mystery shopping program.

1. You get to experience the customer’s point of view.
Forget manager’s reports or employee assessments. The best way to ascertain the real impact of your brand is through a carefully designed mystery shop. And not just one. Objective mystery shopper reportage from staggered or repeat visits to the same store, series of stores or event(s) will create a crystal clear picture of just where your promo is working – and where it’s not.

2. You find out what’s going right.
It seems counter-intuitive to talk about measuring experience, but that’s precisely why it’s worth working with an accredited mystery shopping organization. They’ll help you establish a measurable set of evaluation criteria along with specific questions designed to create as accurate an assessment as possible. If you’re shopping a store, for example, trained mystery shoppers can monitor every aspect of the experience, from merchandising and signage to temperature, background music, even the length of time it takes to be greeted by a sales rep.

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Is cost keeping you from collecting information that leads to higher conversions? Information programs can cost much less than you’d expect– in some cases, as little as $35 per store.

Consider the following two cases:

Case 1. A national retailer recently increased its budget for an audit of its customer experience, moving from quarterly to monthly measurements because it was able to see definitive ROI from the insights it gained. Spending just $35 per store per month on its mystery shopping program turned out to be “peanuts” when information gathered allowed associate performance and sales to be improved.

$420 a year per store to increase sales turned out to be a bargain. Compare the costs of new fixtures or carpeting. What payback do they offer in comparison? Consider the cost of the 82% of your customers who walk out without making a purchase.>
Unfortunately, too many CFOs look at expenditures from a direct-cost basis without considering the net cost. They fail to see that dollars spent to improve the customer experience drive their top and bottom lines. Expenditures on improving the customer experience are investment dollars, not expense dollars.

Case 2. Another national retailer is stepping up to the plate, even in these uncertain times, by implementing customer and employee feedback systems. The retailer’s objective is to improve their shoppers’ experiences by listening to reactions from actual customers and sales associates. The retailer has commissioned an IVR-driven customer satisfaction program and a web-based employee feedback program. The cost for both of these feedback systems is less than $800 per location annually.

Combining all programs from these two retailers (mystery shopping, customer satisfaction, and employee feedback) totals about $1,200 a year per store, and gives the retailer a 360° business view, providing dramatic payback potential in the toughest retail economic climate in 15 years.

The message couldn’t be clearer. Reductions in programs and information systems leave today’s retailers vulnerable to competition and prevent an understanding of the more demanding mindset of customers. What’s needed is an aggressive commitment to continued information programs, along with complementary data services to fortify retailers for the long haul. Cutting auditing and feedback programs to shore up the bottom line will ultimately have the opposite effect. Partnering with an organization that assists you in communicating the information and in building action plans to foster system-wide improvements, as well as asking the right questions, will deliver the best experience for your customers.

Even in today’s marketplace, customers still have money, but they will become more selective – and will spend that money with retailers who offer them the better experience, no matter what.