1. Which store/brand/company offers the best customer service in your country? Who has a reputation for poor service?
2. Is there an established mystery shopping industry in your country? Does it have a positive image?
3. Is being a mystery shopper something that you would consider doing? What aspects of the job appeal to you?
4. What character traits should a successful mystery shopper have? What kind of wardrobe do they need?
5. Who benefits most from these visits - companies or customers? Or is it win-win?
6. Which government agencies can benefit from the use of mystery shoppers? Can you think of any examples?
Read article here: Mystery Shopper Reading
7. Do you think the article gives an accurate portrayal of life as a mystery shopper? Is it really all free lunches and meeting interesting people?
8. Fifty thousand mystery shopping trips are carried out each month in the UK - does this figure surprise you?
9. Is it reasonable to use the information from a mystery shopper to determine staff bonuses?
10. "If it looks too good to be true, it probably is." How can a budding mystery shopper decide on which opportunities are real or fake?
11. Mystery shopping agencies often ask their mystery shoppers to adopt either an 'experienced shopper' profile, or an 'inexperienced shopper profile'. What do these descriptions mean? How would they be manifested in the following situations: a housewife seeking car advice at a garage, someone from the provinces seeking financial advice at a bank?
12. Could a mystery shopper be used in your line of work? What areas could they provide useful feedback on?
13. Do you think technology will remove the need for mystery shoppers in the future?
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Situation
You are a supervisor at a popular mystery shopping agency. Your new client is a bank that wants to check the quality of advice from its customer advisors. Brief your mystery shopper (your teacher) on what he should do and say.
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Discuss quotes
"A man without a smiling face must not open a shop."
- Chinese proverb
"Thank your customer for complaining and mean it. Most will never bother to complain. They'll just walk away."
- Marylin Suttle
"When the customer comes first, the customer will last."
- Robert Half
"Solve it. Solve it quickly, solve it right or wrong. If you solve it wrong, it will come back and slap you in the face, and then you can solve it right. Lying dead in the water and doing nothing is a comfortable alternative because it is without risk, but it is an absolutely fatal way to manage a business."
- Thomas Watson
Student Handout PDF: Mystery Shopper
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