Mystery Shopping and Crowdsourcing Customer Feedback

Are you looking for detailed information from your customer’s perspective about your brand delivery? What about an inside view of consumer pain points to guide your training or service delivery strategy? Would you prefer detailed unique data for each location’s operation or a generalized overview of the information from each location?

If you are looking for a detailed breakdown of your customer experience and brand delivery from each of your locations, mystery shopping is probably the better fit for your organization. Crowdsourcing can, however, be an affordable and quick way to gather generalized information on your business for brief fixes. The choice depends on how complex your processes are, how quickly you need information, and the level of detail you need in your customer experience data.

Mystery shopping is an important tool in the C-Level’s performance, sales, and service management programs. The data yielded from a uniquely tailored mystery shopping program is invaluable for corporate decision-making.

Background

A mystery shopping program puts you directly at the customer’s eye level, and gathers detailed information about the execution of your brand promise at each location. Are your servers greeting customers as they come in? Does your sales team take advantage of opportunities to upsell more services or products? How long does it take to get in and out of your business? What conditions are the bathrooms usually in? Are you offering a consistent brand experience across each location? These key questions about your service delivery are always the focus of a custom mystery shopping program.

Why Choose Mystery Shopping?

SeeLevelHX Clients use and trust mystery shopping for:

1.       Competitive Intelligence

• Figure out who your competitors are, what they’re doing, when they’re doing it, and what their costs are.
• Keep an eye on your competition’s value compared to your own
• Identify competitive advantages your business can offer that competitors do not

2.       Audits & Incentives

• Find out if your audits and employee incentive programs are successful or need improvement
• Review all of your internal processes and detect any shortcomings
• Evaluate your staff performance across departments

3.       Market Intelligence

• Evaluating businesses to identify customer experiences, staff performance, and consumer insights before merging or acquiring them

4.       Pricing & Menu Strategies

• Identify how your pricing strategy compares to your competitions
• Evaluate menu offerings

5.       Online & Delivery Experience Management

• Measure your online customer experience
• Improve online order fulfillment process

6.       Customer & Employee Feedback

• Get candid feedback from your customers and staff
• Get below the surface level to identify true attitudes and feelings by opening a dialogue with customers

Crowdsourcing Customer Feedback

Crowdsourcing provides a very brief data collection from a randomized sample which is best suited for identifying areas of immediate or recent need of improvement. Crowdsourced shops have a quicker turnaround, but are sourced less strictly.

Crowdsourced shops are typically performed by any mobile user in a certain area who has downloaded the respective mobile app. They usually do not require any experience, and in most cases, allows for minimal control over customer demographics.

Crowdsourcing can allow you to

1.       Check Product Pricing

2.       Evaluate Product Availability

3.       Check Point Of Sale Conditions

4.       Get photos in real-time of your business

Conclusion

Choosing mystery shopping for your customer experience management will always put increased control over your customer demographics, data collection points, and market research efforts. Crowdsourcing customer feedback sacrifices most of this control for a quicker turnaround with less details, a good option for spot treatment for current or recent customer experience issues.