The mystery is something which is very intriguing and that is the reason why people love to solve a mystery; in the case of marketing also companies have this mystery that whether their employees are giving good services to its customers or not and to solve this mystery companies especially those operating in service sector appoint mystery shoppers. Mystery shoppers are those independent people who visit the company’s location as customers and observe the working of the employees and then give their feedback about the working of the employees on various parameters to the company. In order to get a better idea about this term, one should look at some of the advantages and disadvantages of mystery shoppers –
Advantages of Mystery Shoppers
Improvement in Customer Service
The first and foremost advantage of mystery shoppers is that they help in improving the customer service because since mystery shoppers are professionals they spot all things whether big or small related to customer service which the company is not able to see and the company can rectify all their mistakes and improve the customer service which in turn will help in building the brand image of the company in the long run as there is no substitute for good customer service when it comes to the retail sector.
Alert Employees
When we were small and went to school and the teacher was not there in the class we never bothered to study and created havoc in the class but with the advent of cameras, students study and remain silent in the class even in the absence of a teacher in the class. In the same way, when employees of the company know that company has taken the services of mystery shoppers they will always be on their toes and try to give the best possible services to the customers of the company. In simple words, mystery shoppers are like an invisible camera that helps the company in keeping a check on their employees and ensuring that employees do not give disservice to the customers of the company.
Identification of Inefficient Workers
Mystery shoppers help the company in identifying the employees who are habitual offenders when it comes to customer service and as the old saying goes one bad fish contaminates the whole lake in the same way one bad employee can spoil the effort of all other employees and make a dent on brand image of the company.
Disadvantages of Mystery Shoppers
Expensive
The biggest problem with taking the service of mystery shoppers is that it involves a cost in the form of fees and reimbursement of shopping done by them which not all companies can afford to pay thus limiting its use to large and mid-sized companies. Besides this is not a one-time expense rather companies will have to do it on regular basis in order to get the desired result which in turn makes it an unaffordable affair for small companies.
Employees Dissatisfaction
Another problem with mystery shoppers is that once employees get a whiff that the company has hired mystery shoppers then employee feels as if the company does not trust them which in turn leads to dissatisfaction in the minds of the employees as their fate lies not with the company or themselves rather in the hands of mystery shoppers which in a way can be demotivating for the employees of the company.
Biasness
Mystery shoppers are not god they can be manipulated and be biased towards some employees which in turn makes the whole point of the company hiring an independent agency for checking customer service of its employees worthless. In simple words, this whole exercise will be worth it only if mystery shoppers are unbiased and honest while giving their feedback about employees to the company.
As one can see from the above that mystery shopper has pros as well as cons and that is the reason why any company thinking of appointing mystery shoppers should carefully read above points and then only should take the decision regarding taking services of mystery shoppers.