Watching the Tape

When most business owners think about mystery shopping, they picture an average consumer entering a store to evaluate the customer experience. This includes everything from the impressions they form when approaching the store’s exterior to how the employees treat them once they’re inside. Additionally, they’ll usually have feedback regarding store…
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Caveat Emptor – Let the Buyer Beware

As the proverb instructs us, buyers should always be vigilant when making purchases, even going so far as to say that it’s a buyer’s responsibility to evaluate a product before agreeing to part with his money. You’d be right to think this principle is a bit unfair; after all, sellers…
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Creating Your Company Culture

The late Peter Drucker—regarded by many as the founder of modern business management—used to say that, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” In other words, the collective expression of values is more important than plans of action. As The Management Centre explains, Drucker “didn’t mean that strategy was unimportant—rather that a…
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Encouraging Positive Reviews

We’ve long stressed the importance of maintaining your business’s reputation, as public opinion is slow to change and so crucial to your ongoing success. There are many factors that can influence that reputation, but one major concern is the reality that negative customer experiences are far more likely to result…
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Mystery Shopping During a Pandemic

Whether you’re a longtime mystery shopper, a dabbler, or a first-timer, you’ve probably wondered how this process works in light of the coronavirus pandemic. After all, restricted occupancy, social distancing, and facial coverings are sure to make any customer experience awkward and your task as an evaluator challenging—to say the…
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Are You Losing Customers to Bad Customer Service?

The customer experience is the most crucial aspect of your business, beating out even your products and service offerings in the hierarchy of whether customers choose to shop with you or with a competitor. This was confirmed again by Shep Hyken, who recently put out a “special report on customer…
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Is Now Really a Good Time to Mystery Shop?

Unless you’ve just returned from a sabbatical in the Alaskan interior, you’ve probably noticed that these are unusually intense times we’re living in: the headline of every newspaper and the highlight of every cable news segment is singularly focused on just how perilous it is to even go outside. Hyperbole…
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Mystery Shopping for Survival

Earlier this year, back before the start of the lockdowns and the social distancing, we posted an article about the importance of Mystery Shopping for Compliance. In it, we described how critical it is for businesses to ensure their employees are obeying the laws governing the sale of age-restricted products…
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Mystery Shopping Under Lockdown

Amid social-distancing recommendations, stay-at-home pleas, and shelter-in-place orders, businesses everywhere are trying to find ways to remain open—even if in a limited capacity—to serve their communities and keep their staff members employed. Restaurants are closing their dining rooms but switching to pick-up and delivery, retailers are shuttering their showrooms but…
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