One of the services that The Brandt Group offers is something called competitive mystery shopping. Often when our prospective clients reach out to us for the first time, they’re delighted by this idea. To the business owners and managers who find themselves unaware of what this means, this blog is for you.
Simply stated, competitive mystery shopping is when we send the same mystery shopper to two different but similar business locations: one is yours, the other is a competitor. Sports bar versus sports bar. Car dealership versus car dealership. No matter the industry is, there are always going to be other players in your space.
So why would you be interested in evaluating your competitor’s customer service, sales skills, and active promotions? After all, you’ve come to us to improve those factors for your own business—why worry about those other guys, right?
Truth be told, you don’t mystery shop your competitors to help them—you do it to help yourself. There’s a lot to learn from the other companies operating in your industry that will help you measure how well your business is doing comparatively. Your competitors will be doing a variety of things differently, some better and some worse, and receiving that information will help guide your own decision-making.
When we send mystery shoppers to compare two different businesses, we do not inform them who our client is, that way we do not influence their opinions inadvertently. We give them identical copies of the survey to complete, and each survey has a question at the very bottom asking which of the two businesses did they prefer over the other and why. From the eyes of an average person, you receive detailed information about how both locations function, as well as a big-picture view on the impressions he or she takes away. This is way more useful than looking at the other company’s ads online.
Standard, on-site mystery shopping without the competitive component could be thought of as self-scouting. It’s hugely important and every business should do it to ensure maximum internal efficiency. But each business should also budget at least occasional competitive shops to get a snapshot of how the performance compares. Sometimes the results will tell you that your employees are doing a far better job and that your merchandising and product options completely outclass the guys down the street. In those cases, keep up the good work. But other times, the opposite might be true, so now you will have evidence for what changes are needed.
Whether you’re just getting started with our mystery-shopping services, or you’ve been using them for years, competitive mystery shopping is an option we can add at any time. To learn more, check out our overview here. And when you’re ready to get started, head to our Contact page to get in touch with us.
