ICC/Decision Services discuss the many uses for Mystery Shopping-Secret Shopper programs. Often misunderstood due to poor program design and execution, mystery shopping is a powerful tool to measure the customer experience in an obective manner.

1. BEYOND CUSTOMER SERVICE
How Mystery Shopping Programs
Can Boost Your Brand & Your Bottom Line

2. The Customer’s Experience With
Your Business…Must Be Managed!
What do your customers want?
What service do you expect them to get?
What services do they actually get?

3. Important Point…
“What gets measured
gets done.”
–Tom Peters

4. Customer Expectations
Typically Include…
 Courteous and respectful treatment
 Good value for money spent
 Knowledgeable and helpful staff
 Clean, orderly premises
 Factors unique to your business

5. Measurement Tools
Used for Customer Expectations
FOCUS GROUPS COMMENT CARDS IVR/WEB SURVEYS
Comment
Cards

6. Your Expectations
of the Customer’s Experience
 Your brand promise is met
 Your service standards are met
 Service standards aligned with customer needs
 The customer’s expectations are met
 The customer will return and send others

7. Measurement Tool Used for
Measuring Your Expectations
of the Customer Experience
Mystery Shopping

8. Important Point…
“Customers must recognize
that you stand for something.”
–Howard Schultz, Starbucks

9. What A Mystery Shopping Program
Can Do For You
Enhance Your Brand
 Shopper compare promise to performance
 Know what happens when you are not there
 See your company through objective eyes

10. Case Study # 1...
National Apparel Retailer
Problems:
1. Teenage fashion apparel stores noticed inconsistent “brand experiences”
2. Music was sometimes on, sometimes not
3. Some associates dressed to code, others were not
4. Name badges were worn on some days, on other days they were not
Solution:
 Monitor brand standards or “non-negotiables” through a mystery
shopping program
Results:
Compliance Increased:
1. Music 59% to 94%
2. Dress Code from 85% to 97%
3. Name Badges from 73% to 99%

11. What a Mystery Shopping Program
Can Do For You
Improve Internal & External Marketing Initiatives
 Whether vendor funded displays set up
 Whether current month’s special was posted

12. Important Point…
“A reputation once broken may possibly be
repaired, but the world will always keep their
eyes on the spot where the crack was.”
–Joseph Hall

13. What a Mystery Shopping Program
Can Do For You
Protect your company’s reputation and avoid
legal issues
 Service to all customers, regardless of race/gender
 Competent handling of issues, questions, complaints
 Measure whether parking was well-lit,
restrooms sanitary
 Measure whether customer gets correct information

14. Case Study # 2…
Drugstore Chain
Problem
Cashiers were not carding tobacco purchasers. Attorney
General office warned them of steep fines and loss of license.
Solution
Send in mystery shoppers 21 to 24 to see if they get carded.
Stores that failed were identified and targeted for
re-training.
Result
First 6 months had a 90.8% failure rate
Second 6 months had a 52.1% failure rate
…Improvement of 38.7%

15. Important Point…
“You can’t improve
what you don’t measure.”

16. What a Mystery Shopping Program
Can Do For You
Increase Sales/Profits Via
 Suggestive Selling
 Store Credit Card Solicitation
 Store Loyalty Cards Participation

17. Case Study # 3…
National Apparel Retailer
Problem
Women’s moderate sportswear retailer was in sync with
fashion trends, yet sales showed only a moderate increase.
Solution
Designed a program to measure suggestive selling
behaviors via mystery shopper scenarios. Mystery
shopping provided statistics on frequency.
Result
Annual sales increased by $90K per store
http://www.iccds.com/test/roicalc.php

18. Important Point…
“65% of Americans received no recognition
in the workplace last year.”
–United States Department of Labor
“Recognizing All Staff Members Are Important”

19. What a Mystery Shopping Program
Can Do For You
Improve Performance and Motivate Staff
 Generates individual/collective performance data
 Clarifies expectations…can be used as
incentive/reward
 Allows targeted training to improve performance
 Reduce turnover

20. Summary
Measure your customers wants and needs through IVR/Web
Surveys, Comment Cards, Focus Groups
Measure YOUR deliverables through mystery shopping
Mystery Shopping can:
 Enhance your brand
 Protect your company’s reputation and assets
 Increase sales
 Improve internal and external marketing initiatives
 Motivate staff, improve performance and reduce turnover

21. Questions
To learn more about ICC/Decision
Services and how we can help
improve your company’s service
and performance, visit our website:
www.iccds.com
David Rich, President
drich@iccds.com
800-444-1717 x212