Mystery Shopper

A mystery shopper is someone who poses as a legitimate customer in order to provide an objective view of their shopping experience to a client. Mystery shoppers observe and evaluate such things as customer service, product knowledge, employee training, and the company's sales process. Each shop is different in that each client is looking for specific information pertaining to their business.

Your job as a mystery shopper will be to observe different aspects of your experience and "objectively" report those observations. You will be provided instructions and/or guidelines that must be followed while conducting your shop, as well as a survey form which must be reviewed before you do your assignment. Once your shop is complete, you will then fill out a detailed report that entails the different areas of the business you were asked to observe.

1. Select two business of the same type.

a) Retailer (clothing, electronics, books, etc.)

b) Restaurant (fast food, sit down dining, etc)

c) Banks

d) Auto Dealers

2. While shopping, please be sure to pay close attention to items that may impact a customer’s overall impression of the business.

3. Compile a brief, detailed report describing your findings. Be sure to include the following:

a) Identify key turnoffs by category (value, system, people), if observed

b) Comment on things that were done well

c) Comment on opportunities for improvement, if any

d) If you owned this business, what would you do to reduce any possible turn offs and improve the shopping experience.