Mystery shopping has become an important process for many businesses, especially those within the retail sector. It is a fantastic way for a company owner to gain a clear (and honest) view of how employees are performing, what customers truly think about the sales process and the store layout, and what areas of the business require tweaking or even wholesale changes for the better. One area in which mystery shopping has improved drastically in recent years is video mystery shopping. Traditionally, mystery shopping would involve written or audio reports from people entering a store to purchase a specific item, or a variety of other tasks. With video mystery shopping (especially with the improved technological aspects of video cameras) you can get an even clearer vision of what is happening in your store(s).
Outsourcing your mystery shopping to a professional mystery shopping company could help you collect and collate accurate data, information, and perceptions from your customers and potential customers about your brand and the specifics of your service and products. Adding video mystery shopping to the mix could make it an even better proposal, providing you with the clarity to build customer reports and create and implement new targets and long-term strategies.
On a very basic level, it is much easier to process information in a visual way. Being told something by a customer, or reading a report, is always likely to take longer to be processed and to make clear sense, than by watching a customer interaction via a hidden video camera. It allows you to connect on a human level with both the customer and your employee, seeing what happens in complete real-time, rather than filling in the gaps and witnessing the exact tone of the conversation, not just the black and white words of what took place.
The packages of a video mystery shopping service can be tailored to work for your specific company needs. Short highlights can be put together that are punchy and accurately display the customer interaction, whether it is a wander round a retail store to look at marketing and promotional materials, a purchase at the tills, or a complaint being made. A short snippet of a video can be a great way to highlight an issue during a presentation where management are discussing potential changes to operational processes, or the creation of new targets and goals. It is much easier for management to be shown short video clips illustrating a point, than it is to expect them to read a full written report with pages and pages of data and interpretations of how a customer perceives your brand and retail environment.
All of this data is used to create an accurate report and to help you build new plans to improve processes for your employees to follow. Ultimately, the aim is to improve the customer experience, raise customer retention rates and make the sales process easier, resulting in greater company profits. Utilise the experience and know-how of a professional mystery shopping company, and they can help you maximise your potential and get to where you need to be.