Mystery Shopper Program
Know What Your Customers Really Think, Feel and Want
Nowadays, in order to stay in business, you need to continually keep an eye on the needs of your customers. You also need to constantly mould and modify your existing products or services to suit the changes in their tastes, needs and wants. And it doesn’t end there; you need to introduce new and better products or services from time to time if you are to always stay on top of things.
But to do all of the above-mentioned things, and to do them right, you need to regularly monitor the opinions of your customers about your products or services. You further need to know how your customers perceive your customer service. You need to know what your customers expect from you in terms of customer service and also whether you are delivering customer service good enough to meet their expectations or not. You need a mystery shopper program to help you in knowing all this.
Why is a mystery shopper program necessary for you?
Most of your customers have busy lives and tough work schedules. It’s impracticable to expect regular feedback from them that allows you to know what they think about your products or services, or how they perceive your customer service. And in a world where nothing is free, you can’t expect your customers to spend a substantial amount of time in writing evaluation reports on your products or services or customer service. That’s why most companies and businesses in Australia use mystery shopper programs to collect such information. In mystery shopper programs, customers get paid to try products and services and then give feedback to the manufacturers or providers of such products and services. Thus, mystery shopper programs are an excellent market research tool that allows companies and businesses to collect vital information regarding the experiences of customers with their products or services or customer service on one hand, and on the other hand enables consumers of products and services to get paid for their evaluation of various products and services. It’s a win-win situation for everyone.
How can a mystery shopper program help in customer satisfaction?
As mentioned earlier, mystery shopper programs enable you to get customer feedback about your products or services, as well as the customer service you provide. This feedback helps you in determining whether your customers are satisfied with your products or services or not—and if not, why not? This enables you to identify the flaws in your products or services that are responsible for the dissatisfaction of your customers. And in situations where your customers are somewhat satisfied with your products or services, the feedback that you receive through the implementation of a mystery shopper program enables you to determine what improvements you can make to your products or services that will raise your customers’ satisfaction levels.
How can a mystery shopper program facilitate improvement and innovation?
A mystery shopper program will enable you to collect information regarding the changes your customers want in your products or services, as well as your customer service. Knowing what your customers don’t like about your products or services and what they would like you to change in your products or services is crucial if you want to retain them as customers. You obviously don’t want them to go looking for other manufacturers or providers making products or providing services similar to yours. Because in today’s highly competitive business world it is entirely possible for your customers to find exactly what they want in a product or service elsewhere. So you constantly need to pay heed to what your customers think should change in your products or services. Such opinions are also important when it comes to introducing new products or services.
Knowing what your customers would like to be different in your products or services enables you to design, produce and market new products and services that are different from yet similar to your existing products or services. For instance, if you manufactured a certain kind of soft drink and some of your customers thought that it was too rich in calories and that it would be great if they could have a couple of cans of your soft drink and not have to worry about the resultant increase in their caloric intake, you could come up with a diet version of your existing soft drink. This will give your customers more options to choose from and enable you to retain them by keeping them happy and satisfied.
True, implementing a mystery shopper program will increase your business costs, but there is no denying that mystery shopper programs are a great way of getting your customers engaged.
