In practice, however, it is considerably more complicated. A mystery shopping program requires careful planning and management to be effective. Some companies design and conduct mystery shopping studies inhouse, although most use an outside research firm to handle all or part of the project. Whether they are conducted inhouse or outsourced, mystery shopping programs will usually include the following 10 components. Review service and sales standards.
Mystery shopping is a type of service audit.
It tells managers how well employees are meeting the company s standards of knowledge, professionalism, courtesy, efficiency, etc. In many cases, however, companies set standards without ever consulting customers about what is important to them. When mystery shopping is used to measure inappropriate standards, it simply perpetuates the company s service problems. For this reason, mystery shopping programs usually begin with a review of standards. This means talking to customers by conducting focus groups or surveys, by including customers in the design process or by consulting with service experts who have conducted customer research.