MYSTERY SHOPPING SERVICES

WHAT IS MYSTERY SHOPPING?

Mystery shopping is a service which provides businesses the opportunity to obtain independent, non-biased evaluation of their business practices, service delivery, employee behavior, etc, through an external party. Some other tags for mystery shopping include secret shopping, secret performance evaluation, service check and frontline evaluation.

Mystery shoppers perform specific tasks such as purchasing a product, asking questions, registering complaints or behaving in a certain way, and then provide detailed reports or feedback about their experiences.

Also called ‘secret shopping’, ‘research shopping’, or ‘mystery consumer research’, mystery shopping is a qualitative and quantitative tool allowing business to experience their own processes, products and services from the perspective of their customers.

Mystery shopping helps you identify gaps in expectation and take the necessary remedial action. It will raise awareness of your procedures and improve staff conduct. As a result you will see customer service levels improve which may in turn lead to increased sales as a leading mystery shopping business Nigeria.

 

WHY IS MYSTERY SHOPPING IMPORTANT?

Reputable secret shopping companies use mystery shopping programs to highlight areas in need of improvement in business performance and processes. Knowing where the problems are is the first step to fixing them and soaring past your competition.

Among other things, mystery Shopping can help:

• increase customer service performance
• improve sales levels
• improve customer satisfaction
• increase employee motivation
• protect brand equity
• improve communication

WHO WE ARE?

Business Cardinal is the leading mystery shopping service provider in major cities across Nigeria. We are well known as a mystery shopping business in Nigeria.

Whether you are new to mystery shopping or wish to refresh your existing mystery shopping program, we are here to help and guide you through the whole process. We operate throughout all market sectors

With the growing number of retail establishments, hotels and services oriented businesses and with increasing stiff competition in the operating environment in Nigeria, there exists the need for mystery shopping. Without overstating the importance of quality customer service, more and more companies should engage the services of mystery shoppers to know if their businesses are meeting the needs of their customers. Mystery Shoppers assists you in identifying what brings your customers back or what drives them away.

Our team can offer a customized mystery shopping service, tailored to your exact needs and flexible to meet all budgets. Recognized for our highly professional yet friendly approach to business, our attention to detail is paramount. Our state-of-the-art reporting is available helping you to keep your finger on the pulse of your business.

Business Cardinal genuinely care about your organization and our mystery shopping program are devised to help you improve your level of customer satisfaction, gain repeat custom and of course help you to increase your profits.

Mystery shopping can be applied in the following industries hotels, retail, education, legal, dry cleaning, automobile dealers, banks, insurance etc

HOW DOES MYSTERY SHOPPING WORK?

Business Cardinal starts by collaborating with our client to develop a program customized to meet their needs. A checklist is created that is designed to target the client’s specific areas of concern.

An anonymous evaluator, or “Mystery Shopper,” then visits, calls, or emails the location and engages the employee(s) in an interaction that would be characteristic of a regular customer. Depending on the industry and requirements, the mystery shopper may enjoy a meal and/or beverage, inquire about/purchase a retail product, or receive a personal service such as a haircut or oil change.

After the interaction, the mystery shopper will fill out an online report detailing their experience and the client will receive the final report. All data collected is stored on a secure, online database allowing clients to conduct in-depth data analysis at their convenience.

Depending on the purpose behind the shops and how the results will be used, various question types are included in a checklist to ensure the proper balance of standards, facts, and opinion. Typical areas that are evaluated include those such as: expediency of service, attitude, adherence to policies and standards, product quality, knowledge, selling skills, location condition, and comparison to competitors.

During the interaction, the anonymous shopper acts as naturally as possible to ensure the encounter mimics the typical interaction of a team member and the customer. In most cases, the team member will have no idea that the mystery shopper is anything other than a regular customer and will treat them the way they would treat any other customer they interact with.

 BUSINESS CARDINAL MYSTERY SHOPPER SERVICES

We offer a variety of services and solutions for your guest satisfaction measurement needs. These services include:

• On-site Mystery Shops
• Telephone Mystery Shops
• Web-Mystery Shopping
• Video Mystery Shopping
• Price Audits
• Compliance Audits
• Guest Satisfaction Surveys
• Qualitative Research
• Digital Comment Cards
• IVR
• Consulting Services
• Customer sales and service audits
• Competitor Intelligence Audits.
• Employee rewards and satisfaction programs.
• Website evaluations and provide solutions to gaps observed

 

But it can be difficult to understand employee performance and customer experience without the right team to help you. Sure, you may be going above and beyond to achieve the very best in service, but what does your business look like from the customer’s standpoint? That’s where Business Cardinal comes in. We stay committed to helping businesses like yours gain insights and gain a competitive advantage through Mystery Shopping.

 

OUR MYSTERY SHOPPING SERVICES APPROACH

For less complex customer-facing evaluations, Business Cardinal mystery shopping services can help you obtain consistent, objective, and actionable feedback on service delivery, sales team performance, product or service rollout, and more. Our hands-on, service-driven teams leverage leading practices from our brand inspection experience to focus on your specific needs and questions, enhance quality and consistency, deliver targeted feedback, and drive performance improvement.

• Shopper Experience 

This is our ‘classic’ Mystery Shopping service where detailed, task-oriented assessments are required. Highly trained shoppers identify gaps between intended and actual experiences, across all customer touchpoints.

• Micro Shops 

These are brief, tactical mystery shops deployed and reported with quick turnaround, with crowdsourcing as an option for mass volume, short questionnaire projects.

• Experience Evaluations 

Overt assessments, with advice on improvements required or results delivered on location.

 

• Consultative collaboration

Our account teams work with clients throughout the process, from the initial consultation to questions about scoring, standards interpretation, and follow-up action.

• Experienced shoppers

Secret shoppers are handpicked from an extensive database to match the specific requirements of your program.

• Quality data

Special secret shopper instructions, training, and multiple layers of quality control improve the consistency and accuracy of our data.

• Customized scoring

Customized scoring delivers targeted feedback on the points of service that drive meaningful connections with your customers

We address the business questions across your organization, including:

• Operations:

How do frontline sales staff perform relative to brand or operational standards?

 

• Market Research/Insight:

What best practices can be learnt from the competition?

• Human Resources:

How effectively are frontline sales staff following new training programmes?

• Marketing/Sales:

How effective was a new product launch? What about promotional offers?

• Regulatory/Compliance:

Do staff know and follow legal requirements?

• Supply chain management:

How effective is the channel strategy? Which partners are promoting your brand versus the competition’s?

HOW WE SELECT, SCREEN AND TRAIN OUR MYSTERY SHOPPERS?

• Selection of Shoppers

Business Cardinal takes great care in selecting and screening our shoppers to ensure that they match your customer profile. We keep records of all of our mystery shoppers and have them sign confidentiality, quality and integrity agreements for every job, every time.

We have mystery shoppers to match any kind of requirement, for any business or industry. Our skilled and experienced shoppers can perform basic and straight-out observational reporting while maintaining a scenario, or review specific facets of your operations.

We send frequent travelers to assess flight services or duty-free stores, businessmen to assess hotels or private banking branches, high-end consumers to assess luxury brands or automotive branches, or families to assess entertainment parks, retail outlets and restaurants. The diversity of our clients means that we maintain and manage a very large pool of qualified and dedicated shoppers.

• Mystery Shopper Training

Each client and program are different. As a result, so is our training for shoppers. As a minimum, all our mystery shoppers must do the following:

1. Study a detailed briefing manual that has been developed specifically for your program.
2. Pass an online ‘comprehension’ test, which is tailored to your program.
3. Attend a face-to-face training at one of our offices or attend a one-on-one phone and web briefing.

We make sure our shoppers know you before they start working with you. Not only must they be familiar with the survey and the scenario, but also with your company and the program’s objectives.

• Debriefing Sessions

Our trained specialists will assess your retail performance and provide you with constructive and actionable feedback through their mystery reports. Maintaining neutrality, they consciously and critically observe your front line, backed by their extensive consumer experience in relevant industries.

A debriefing by our specialists is essentially a focused session for you to ask them more in-depth questions about your brand, your retail performance or even plans for the future. Guided by our senior managers, the session provides you with further insights from a group of professional consumers and observers.

WHY YOU SHOULD HIRE US?

Business Cardinal is a full-service insight and feedback firm that provides Mystery Shopping and Customer Experience Auditing Services to businesses in Nigeria and beyond.

We help you better understand your customers and guide you through organizational strategies. You should hire us because:

• At our disposal we have cutting edge technology to generate real-time reports and charts.
• The best and most qualified mystery shoppers in your area.
• Demographic specific mystery and secret shoppers are available to suit your program needs.
• An expert team of staff ready to analyze reports and create solutions and opportunities to increase your sales.
• We have the best and most qualified mystery shoppers.
• Our mystery shopping programs are customized to fit your requirements and budget.
• We have an expert team of staff ready to analyze your reports and develop solutions to increase your sales.
• We give personalized attention to all clients; your complete satisfaction is important to us (we even have a Happiness Promise)
• We have extensive experience conducting mystery shopping programs to effectively improve service performance and customer experience.
• We are one of the largest mystery shopping companies in Nigeria.
• We offer additional products and services that work with your Mystery/Secret Shopping Program to afford you a 360° view of your customer’s experience.
• Our reporting portal aggregates your insight and feedback data into meaningful and actionable data to ensure a strong ROI.
• Develop a customized and measurable mystery shopping and audit programs aimed at helping your company isolate the areas in need of improvement.
• Deliver actionable insights and solid reporting to allow you to deal with any problem areas swiftly and efficiently.
• Help you strategize on the best tactics to propel your company forward into the future

 

INDUSTRY EXPERTISE

Business Cardinal’s mystery shopping services span almost every major industry in the Nigeria as well as many niche and international markets and industries such as FMCG, Automobile, Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, Medical Devices, Telecom, Banking & Finance, Travel & tourism industry, Consumer Goods and Appliances, Fashion Beauty and Apparel, Luxury Segment, Media, wireless, restaurants, hotels, travel, apartments, time shares, banks & financial, convenience stores, car wash, manufacturing, home furnishings and flooring, health centers, pet services, theme parks, software, parking facilities, manufacturing and general retail, Technology and e-commerce and Home & Garden.

Since our founding, Business Cardinal has honed its skills as a global mystery shopping company. After more than 15 years we have multiple offices around the world with global reach and local roots in Nigeria. We chose to specialize in mystery shopping and mystery audits because we believe it’s important to focus on meeting our clients’ needs.

We draw from an arsenal of more than 600,000 mystery shoppers, intercept interviewers, compliance auditors and panelists, providing coverage in all cities in Nigeria and beyond.

We have helped scores of brands improve their frontlines across a variety of industries, and always, at the core, we let our passion for great customer service drive us to help our clients achieve their goals. We take on mystery shopping assignments that other companies shy away from. We are committed to investing the resources to be effective where others have failed. A lot of companies say they provide high-touch service.

If you would love to engage us for this service, please call us on 08023200801 or request us to send you a proposal by email to hello@businesscardinal.com or complete our customer enquiry form for more details.