When we’re first approached by prospective new clients, we often hear that they’ve already tried conducting feedback surveys in the hopes of understanding their customers’ viewpoint. This is actually great since it demonstrates the natural interest we should show for the quality of the customer experience, especially as we hope to offer the best products and services possible. After all, quality begets loyalty, which in turn begets long-term profitability through repeat-patronage and referrals.
But one of the first questions we’re asked is how does a mystery shop differ from a feedback survey? Why incur the extra expense of conducting a mystery-shopping program when it seems like both have similar goals?
The Extremes
Let’s first consider what incentivizes most people to actually leave feedback: uniquely great or poor experiences. Either someone was pleasantly surprised or deeply disappointed. While you absolutely want to hear about those extremes, these are genuinely statistical outliers that can skew your view of how well your business is doing. In truth, most customers’ experiences lie somewhere in between, but without those middle-of-the-road reviews, you can’t be sure if that average lies closer to the good, the bad, or the ambivalent.
The Details
We think feedback surveys are great—in fact, we offer them as a service if you believe it’s the right fit for you—but we must also recognize the limited patience the average customer has for filling them out, even when a prize is offered. This is why most feedback surveys are brief, and why the longer ones typically go unfinished. You know how that works: you’re filling out the first page of a survey only to find out that it’s only page 1 of 20. Ugh, I don’t have time for this, you think before you promptly close the webpage.
In order for feedback surveys to be useful, you need volume, which means you have to err on the side of brevity over detail.
The Complete Picture
In order to get the full view of your customer experience with the kind of in-depth data you need to make decisions, you need to use mystery shops. Unlike feedback surveys, you’ll find the entire range of experiences measured, not just the extremes. And just as importantly, you’ll also be able to dive deep on everything that matters, not just the stuff that a casual survey could cover, like merchandising, standards compliance, and much more.
Mystery shoppers represent the best of two worlds: they’re average customers, and they’re incentivized to leave feedback without it needing to be the statistical outlier of a singularly great or poor experience.
Which Should I Use?
Even though mystery shops offer considerably more utility, that’s not to say that feedback surveys aren’t still worth your time. For example, if your restaurant is running a new special for the summer, you can always ask your customers to rank it with a few basic questions about quality and value. (Mystery shoppers can do this, too, of course.) It’s just a matter of incentivizing them to leave that review with something like a drawing or a future discount. In other words, for a quick bit of research on a narrow topic, a feedback survey would work well.
But for a comprehensive, holistic view of what it’s like to be the person on the other side of the counter holding the money, mystery shops are your best bet.
Truth be told, we have many clients who use both. They want the full, in-depth mystery shops to use for employee training, especially regarding customer service, and they also want the surveys for as large of a pool of opinions about a specific product or service.
So, which is right for you? One? The other? Both? —We’re here to help you design the best customer-service and product-quality measuring program for your business: nothing more and nothing less. Let’s chat today and find out what fits best!
