Quality control
Story Behind "Mystery Shopping"

Need to know "Mystery Shopping"

Story Behind "Mystery Shopping"

Hints, tips & info "Mystery Shopping"

Do you remember ever taking a road trip across the nation or even across a single state? One thing you probably noticed as you drove through each area are the unmistakable McDonald's Golden Arches. It seems no matter where you are... you can always find them! You could even be in one of the smaller towns in Indiana, and you will most probably come across a pair of those famous Golden Arches. With more than 8,000 locations in the United States alone, it's easy to see why you're going to notice a McDonald's in nearly every town, city, or suburb.

I am quite sure at some time during your travels you have stopped at a McDonald's to get something to eat at least once. Let’s face it, you know that a McDonald's will have that Quarter Pounder, cola and French fries you've been thinking about all afternoon. It's guaranteed. You also know that when you enter, it will be only a matter of a few minutes to get your meal. Also, you’ll know the atmosphere will be casual, and will give you a place to relax.

The reason that you made that final decision to stop at McDonald's is not because you were in search of something new, but simply that you knew what to expect. Wherever you may travel, whether it is a McDonald's in Iowa, Oregon, Alaska, or a small town in Oklahoma, you can count on the food, service and atmosphere to all be pretty much the same.

Just think about it. You can find a meal cooked exactly the same, in every part of the country. That is certainly not easy to come by. The only way is if the restaurant sends a representative from McDonald's Corporate Headquarters to each of these locations every single day to make sure that the cooks prepare each meal in the exact same manner. So, how does the food turn out almost exactly the same in each location?

The answer is really quite simple. Stores and restaurants that have many or even thousands of different locations rely on "Mystery Shoppers" all over the country, to check every location. By having an ordinary customer go to each store and report back to the corporate offices on the service, cleanliness and product or food quality, they can guarantee the same consistency at every store. Mystery Shoppers provide a very valuable information source for Corporate Headquarters about all of their stores. Since the "Mystery Shoppers" are working 'undercover', the salespeople at the store will treat them like normal customers. The "Mystery Shoppers" will not be treated any different than another customer. In this way, "Mystery Shoppers" can provide an unbiased assessment of their shopping experience. That report will be used by the Corporate Headquarters or management to help to improve the quality of their programs and to promote better service throughout the chain. You, as a "Mystery Shopper", will be providing this valuable information and you will get paid very well for it!

Thousands of stores use "Mystery Shoppers". The vast majority of them are either service oriented or have many locations. More often than not, "Mystery Shoppers" are used in department stores, clothing stores, electronic and video stores, fast-food establishments, banks, auto repair shops, and hardware stores. Most retailers that consider their customer service a vital asset to financial success are likely candidates for "Mystery Shoppers."

National chains and franchises consistently provide a very large market for Mystery Shopping .These big businesses have one thing in common. They have a single Corporate Headquarters which has to try to keep track of how well each of their stores are performing. You might think to yourself, how can one Corporate Headquarters possibly keep abreast of their different stores all over the country?

Well, many of them do have Regional Offices which oversee a certain geographical area, such as their east coast stores. There also might be a District Manager who will oversee all of the stores within one state. Finally, in each store there may be a store manager who oversees that one location. Last, but certainly not least, are the employees at each location.

That can certainly be a lot to keep track of! As you can plainly see, services can vary greatly from store to store. There is no system for the Corporate Headquarters to review for themselves exactly what is going on at each store. If the Corporate office wants to implement new policies of each employee saying: "Come back and see us again real soon!" to each customer, by the time the message gets relayed from headquarters to each and every store, it may be changed dramatically.

This is very similar to the popular children’s game - "telephone". Maybe you played it when you were younger. It goes something like this. A group of children sit in a circle. One of them decides to be the start person. Let's say Sally is the start person. First, Sally thinks of a phrase and whispers it (so no one else can hear her) to the person sitting on her left.

Maybe her phrase is: "I like to eat candy every day." Sounds simple enough. But, when she whispers it into Fred's ear, what he hears is: "My bike eats candy every day." So he whispers that into Mary's ear, but she doesn't quite hear the entire thing. It keeps going until the last person says it out loud. In this case, Steve was the last person and this is what he said he heard "Flying bikes eat candy if they pay.’’

It can be easy to see, if it's this difficult to relay information to the person right next to you, think how twisted a new policy might get by the time it reaches each employee at every store.

"Mystery Shoppers" help to provide a communication link between a Corporate Headquarters and all of their stores. In this way, without going to each location, Corporate can find out precisely how clean their stores are, how good the service is, and they can find out how well customers are treated. You see, big companies with several or hundreds of locations across the country rely on "Mystery Shoppers" to go and visit each of their locations.

The customers are the most important decision makers connected with the companies. Mystery Shoppers provide a communications link between store and Corporate headquarters. By describing their experiences at a store with as much detail as they can possibly remember, they give Corporate, who may be located thousands of miles away, a much clearer picture of the operation of that store. Without "Mystery Shoppers", Corporate headquarters would never get a real perspective on what goes on at each store on a daily basis. Once Corporate knows what's going wrong at one store, they can then implement systems to make sure that each of their stores are operated consistently.

The Corporate Headquarters and management of a big company have many responsibilities of their own, as you can imagine. They don't have time to think about each and every detail and cannot keep track of what's happening at each of their stores. It is very rare when an owner even has the chance to travel to any of his stores for a quick inspection.

And when he or she does, you can bet that the entire store and all of its employees are well aware of his arrival. They may spend days preparing for his inspection. They may work overtime cleaning the entire store getting it in the best condition. When the big day arrives and the owner walks through the front door, every employee will surely be on his or her best behavior.

There are problems with this type of inspection. If the owner is the only one who gets the royal treatment and all the employees know that he's coming, what happens when you or I, the average "Joe", walk through the door. Do we get the same treatment? Not likely. Are the employees on their worst behavior? Probably not. Is the store a mess? Unlikely. As you can see there's an tremendous need for "Mystery Shoppers". They report on how a normal customer gets treated, in an everyday situation.

Mystery Shoppers are not hired to spy on employees or stores. They do not inspect every detail, look for things to correct or try to catch someone. They don't really look for anything that is correct either. They take into account procedures and events as they are and later on they write a brief summation of what happened during their shopping trip.

After the owner of the store reads these summaries, he will finally know what is REALLY going on at each of his stores. He will gain an insight to how the average "Joe" customer feels when they shop and also how they are treated. "Mystery Shoppers" play a very important part in the success of stores. Without them, thousands of owners would be in the dark and maybe losing money faster than they could ever dream. Without the help of Mystery Shoppers, they might lose millions of dollars each year. "Mystery Shoppers" are a vital, contributing factor in today's retail stores.

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