Companies can realize unanticipated rewards when they change their approach to how shoppers gather the information or add mystery shop sections. As the examples below illustrate, the rewards may include improved safety measures and even the discovery of website pitfalls, to name two.

For an automotive client, adding non customer service questions to the mystery shopper survey resulted in valuable data and potential savings in safety-related areas for the company. The company consulted with other departments to gain ideas on areas that mystery shoppers should assess at their locations. In response, Confero added several safety-related questions to the survey. Following the visits with the added survey questions, management was able to quickly view mystery shop results through a secure web-based reporting system, including the information about safety procedures. The results: fast data on safety deficiencies at certain locations as well as decreased number of accidents, due to the increased accountability that the mystery shop program created. You can view other stories on our Automotive Mystery Shopping and Customer Experience Research Case Studies page.

In another example, a financial services company desired a telephone mystery shopping study to assess the competition and compare approaches to their own employees' selling styles. The shops assessed employee practices for placing customers on hold, as well as their sales and service approaches. At the onset, Confero's team researched the client's website. Confero's Client Services Manager wanted to learn how potential customers would find contact and location information about the company online. When researching the locations on the company's website, we learned that there were significant deficiencies in the company's online location search feature. In fact, some location information was missing, meaning customers would potentially never learn about those locations online. 

Steady customer traffic is what every retail company wants in its stores, but do companies perform as well during the unexpected busy times as they do for the expected high-volume periods? 

Companies benefit from an increased number of customer visits only if associates meet customer demands during the rush. To do this, companies need to prepare an approach and strategy to adapt for larger crowds. Companies anticipate busy times, such as the holidays, by stocking up with the right items, carrying items within the appropriate price ranges and learning from past holiday trends about which items to carry and how many. As Inc.com points out, some companies prepare well for the fast-paced holiday selling time by instructing employees to be honest about possible wait times.

Extending hours is another way for retailers to cope with greater crowds, and companies in Alabama did this last month during Alabama's sales tax holiday. Other companies consider preparation beyond the in-store experience, especially those who encourage customers to visit their website if a product is not available at the store. For example, retailers ensure that their website pages load quickly, or they risk that potential customers will abandon the page and shop elsewhere. As internetretailer.com reveals, 40% of customers will leave a company's website if the page does not load within three seconds.