Why Every Small Business Needs a Mystery Shopping Program

Small businesses face a series of unique challenges that high-quality customer service difficult to maintain. Unlike large corporations, for example, small businesses often operate with fewer employees and resources, which can lead to inconsistencies in service—particularly when employees juggle multiple roles and responsibilities. Further, small businesses are usually more vulnerable to external pressures like economic recessions, rising supply chain costs, inflation, and more. Without the cushion of large cash or asset reserves, even a slight dip in output can really hurt a small business’s short-term outlook. And let’s not forget the Internet, which has only intensified competition for everyone. Given how easy it is to now access reviews to quickly compare product and service quality across a variety of companies, negative feedback can quickly damage a company’s reputation.

All of these reasons are why it’s so crucial that all small businesses deliver a consistent and excellent customer experience.

How Mystery Shopping Can Help

Mystery shopping programs provide tremendous and valuable insights into the customer experience from a real-world perspective. Each shopper will bring his or her own personal expectations to these evaluations, just like a company’s real customers. Their feedback can address challenges like these:

1. Identify Service Gaps: Mystery shoppers can pinpoint the specific areas where a business falls short. Whether it’s slow service, unprofessional behavior, misinformation, lack of product knowledge, or anything else, shoppers will report what they see and hear and include that information in their reports so managers have the information they need to act.
2. Ensure Consistency: Regular mystery shopping visits are a huge boon to small business leaders as they will help ensure that the level of service the company provides is consistent across all employees, shifts, and locations. Given the high turnover that many industries face in the current economic environment, this data is important for evaluating training practices.
3. Train and Motivate Employees: Speaking of training, feedback from mystery shops should be used to mentor employees and recognize outstanding performances. Not only will this practice improve service, it’ll also boost morale and employee engagement. Mystery shopping should be seen as a benefit by employees, not a tool with which to punish them.
4. Competitive Advantage: When a business delivers a consistently great customer experience, it can differentiate itself from its larger competitors. Mystery shopping helps small businesses leverage the advantage that big guys can’t: that personal, human touch. This is especially true when comparing a small business to its online counterparts, which are almost always faceless.
5. Adapting to Economic Challenges: In tough economic times, it’s critical that all businesses do what they can retain their existing customers. Scaring them off will damage a company’s reputation and make it more difficult to attract new customers to replace them. Mystery shopping helps small businesses identify and resolve issues before they drive those customers away, ensuring they remain loyal even when times are tough. Best of all, it makes acquiring new customer that much easier, permitting the kind of growth everyone seeks.

In short, one of the great truths we all have to face is that customer expectations are higher than ever, especially given how competition is simply a click or screen tap away. Small businesses can ill afford to overlook the importance of delivering an exceptional customer experience every time. That’s why it’s so important that they embrace mystery shopping programs to provide the kinds of invaluable insights needed to ensure consistency and to ultimately enhance all of their products and services. When small businesses invest in mystery shopping, they not only acquire the tools to survive but to also flourish regardless of the external pressures of competition or economy.

Let’s Do This Together

Overcoming the challenges is why we at The Brandt Group do what we do. We are a small business like yours, and we love working with other small businesses to help them achieve their long-term goals for sustainable growth. We provide mystery shopping programs that evaluate everything from your business to its competitors, targeting in-person staff, over-the-phone, or online. Moreover, we offer leadership training classes to help ensure that employees grow and remain engaged in your company culture.

If you’re ready to take your business to the next level, we want to be your partner. We’d love to hear about your business and the challenges you face, so please head over to our contact page and send us a message. Together, we’ll build a plan that will help you earn the loyalty of customers and employees alike, enhancing profits and constructing bulwarks against the challenges of economic instability and competition.

Don’t go it alone. Let’s team up and make your goals a reality!