Optimizing Your Mystery Shopper Program
It’s not unusual for most businesses to participate in some sort of mystery shopper program. Depending on the company’s size, the program might be developed at corporate headquarters by marketing personnel and then distributed to training teams and operations leaders for implementation. Employees see the end goal of these programs as the achievement of personal and store-level rewards and celebrations.
Yet, a well-developed mystery shopper program can be one of your most effective tools to direct the performance of your convenience store teams towards meeting employee needs and increasing loyalty, return visits, and overall sales. Here are three steps to make your mystery shopper program successful:
It’s not good enough to know what customers want today–you need to forecast what they will want tomorrow.
Your mystery shopper program measures employee and store performance against consumer demands. Yet employee demands are constantly evolving. If
you develop a program based on what consumers want today, by the time it is rolled out and you’re at the point of analyzing results to address training needs or performance concerns, consumers’ needs may have changed. To be successful in retail, you need to stay one step ahead and always plan for the future.
If you have a marketing department, push them to analyze consumer behavior, economic outlook, and purchasing trends to forecast trends that will impact your business in the next 12 to 24 months. If you’re a small shop, you can do this by talking with your customers, networking with other small business leaders in your area, reading industry magazines, and reviewing your store’s sales data.
Create standards that align with where consumer needs are trending so your store will be at the forefront of serving those needs as they evolve. For example, the COVID pandemic brought sudden and unanticipated changes to convenience stores. Within a short time, stores altered day-to-day procedures to meet consumers’ heightened needs for cleanliness: implementing new cleaning procedures, setting expectations for wearing face masks, constructing barriers between employees and customers, reconfiguring self-serve selections, and implementing contactless payments and parking lot pickup. While no one anticipates consumers will require all of these changes permanently, stores should be focusing on which items consumers will feel should be in place for the long-term.
Consumers make assumptions about the quality of your business by what they can see.
It’s not enough to do the things your consumers think are important; they need to be able to see that you’re doing them. Once you’ve determined what consumers feel is essential, you need to identify ways to make your behaviors and choices visible.
For example, if cleanliness is a priority, create employee procedures where cleaning is performed in front of consumers. The act of sanitizing the keypad and counter between each customer does more than just keep those areas clean; it shows customers you are placing their health and safety as one of your priorities. If your customers feel locally grown food choices are important, do more than just provide products from local farmers–post visually appealing posters of the farmers you purchase from and information about your locally grown values.
View the program as a cycle, not a point-in-time test.
- Edwards Deming said, “You can expect what you inspect.” Good mystery shopper programs are instrumental in helping owners and managers direct the performance of their teams to delight customers and achieve greater business results. Realistically, a mystery shopper program needs to be considered in two phases:
- Create the baseline. During this initial phase, managers and staff understand performance expectations and discover where changes will need to be made. Mystery shopper scores and feedback aren’t used to penalize performance but instead are analyzed to develop training programs and incentive plans to lead to new behaviors and achieve desired standards.
- Measure against the finish line. After employees are trained and new procedures are fully implemented, these mystery shopper program results measure whether employees perform up to expectations. During this phase, rewards and accountability are appropriate.
A successful program may spend 25% of the time in the baseline and 75% in the finish line phase. Behind the scenes, business owners should always be looking for changing trends and altering the program or planning for the next iteration. It’s possible certain portions of a mystery shopping program could address new baseline elements while other parts are measuring more permanent standards; however, it’s vital to handle each piece differently to use the survey as a tool for performance improvement effectively.
Are you looking for ways to get better results with your business?
If you’re looking for ways to supercharge your convenience store and fueling station, the GP Energy team is ready to help. Our experienced and consultative team members know what’s essential for consumers and have insight into what our industry will look like in the future. We can help you discover ways to improve your business to create long-term success–whether adding new products and functionality or simply adjusting operational procedures and implementing new marketing strategies. Contact us today, and let’s get your business on the fast track to success!