One of the best ways to sizzle your competition is improve your own business. Moreover, the best way to find out how your company is running is the use of a Mystery Shopper / Diner / Auditor. You have a control system over your accounting. Why not have control systems over the most important aspect of your business - the perceptions of your customers?

• Expand your overall customer base?
• Build on your reputation and elevate the quality of your establishment?
• Increase the frequency of repeat business?
• Improve or expand your customer average sale?
• Identify and assess new areas of sales and service opportunity?
• Get a realistic picture of actual guest perception at your property
• Reduce the chances of a bad review in the media?
• The report will also observe on employee morale, efficiency, policy violations and other factors you specify. Inspection reports are tailored to YOUR needs and specifications.

The Mystery Shopper exercise has been proven world-over to be extremely effective and consistently brings out the intrinsic value of your product, creating that extra edge over the others.

Kaiz Hospitality Services is accredited by the Mystery Shopping Providers Association - Asia Pacific

Mystery Shopping in simple terms means - using trained shoppers to anonymously evaluate customer service, operations, employee integrity, merchandising, and product quality.

Other names used to describe Mystery Shopping are:

• Secret Shopping
• Mystery Customers
• Spotters
• Anonymous Audits
• Virtual Customers
• Employee Evaluations
• Performance Audits
• Telephone Checks.

Why use Mystery Shopping ?

When location, pricing, and product assortment are no longer the unique selling proposition by themselves, service is often the ONLY key to success or failure

It costs 10 times more to get a new customer than to keep an existing one.

One unhappy customer will tell 5 other people of their bad experience with service

Why customers leave:

• 69% poor customer service
• 13% poor product quality
• 9% competitive reasons
• 5% other
• 3% move away
• 1% die

"What gets measured, gets done" Tom Peters.

What Are The Benefits of a Mystery Shopping Program?

• Monitors and measures service performance
• Improves customer retention
• Makes employees aware of what is important in serving customers
• Reinforces positive employee/management actions with incentive-based reward systems
• Provides feedback from front line operations
• Monitors facility conditions - asset protection
• Ensures product/service delivery quality.
• Supports promotional programs
• Audits pricing & merchandising compliance
• Allows for competitive analyses
• Compliments marketing research data
• Identifies training needs and sales opportunities
• Educational tool for training & development
• Ensures positive customer relationships on the front line
• Enforces employee integrity.

Some History about Mystery Shopping:

Initially, mystery shopping was a technique used by private investigators to prevent employee theft primarily at banks and retail stores. In the 1940's, a mystery Shopping firm coined the term "mystery shopping" and began using the method for evaluating customer service.

In the 1970's and 80's, Mystery Shopping gained extensive publicity, in the 90's, fueled by the internet, the mystery shopping industry experienced rapid growth and acceptance. And today with video shopping and digital shopping the industry has been completely revolutionized.

Worldwide growth of industry

• Nearing US $1.5 Billion (worldwide
• More focused on improving customer service than on policing bad employees
• Clients becoming more sophisticated in use of mystery shopping
• Faster reporting from field to client using the internet
• More diverse and specialized services
• Wide-ranging impact - with shoppers, clients, and providers

Who uses Mystery Shopping ?

Any business/organization that needs to monitor it's operations, facilities, product delivery, and service performance

• Retailers
• Banks
• Manufacturers
• Call Centers
• Hospitals
• Franchise operations
• Hotels
• Restaurants
• Movie Theatres
• Family Entertainment centers
• Mall and Multiplexes
• Fitness/health centers
• Freight/courier services
• And many more.

How are Mystery Shops conducted ? Who provides these services ?

• In person/on-site shops
• Telephone shops
• Secret video/audio recording
• Full narrative shops (qualitative)
• Checklist shops (quantitative)
• For more details on mystery shop send me a private message

Advantages for companies ?

• Measure customer perspective
• Encourage teamwork
• Increased productivity
• Reward star performance
• Verify internal controls
• Warn of impending disaster

What's in it for the shopper's ?

Positives for being Mystery Shopper

• Get free goods
• You get paid to do something you already do
• You get to work when you want (i.e., flexible schedule within reason)
• You get to see the results of the feedback you provide
• Can have a positive impact on customer service for everybody

Negatives of being Mystery Shopper

• A good amount of time to be spent
• A good amount of required reading
• Zero tolerance for errors
• Store occasionally will try to discredit your score (despite its accuracy)
• Actual work is not all fun and games; takes effort and responsibility

To sum it up : An article taken from Choices Magazine after a visit to The High Street Central Mystery Shopping Club.

"Wanted: Shop-aholic nosey parker with excellent observational skills, a good ear and flexible attitude to part-time work. Anyone can apply. Work available in all areas. Must be prepared to eat free meals, enjoy shopping discounts and visit pubs - and be paid for it."