Uncover "mysterious customers" real life: unannounced visits to the investigation

Looking around, but not spending, often "find it" but not pay

Zhongshan frequent "mystery customer"

"It is 16:40, I came to Yihua Department Store's Ajisen Ramen, the store code is ... I'm going to visit now." Press the recording button, brightly aligned with the phone read. He took care of his clothes, took a deep breath and calmly stepped into the shop. As usual, no waiter noticed anything special about him.

In fact, he was critically observing every detail in the shop and had already scored the restaurant in his mind. Bright is a college student who attends classes every day and does community work. On the holidays, he transformed himself into a confident customer with a confident look.

Hiring “mysterious customers” to evaluate corporate services has been popular in Europe for several decades. Statistics show that in 2007, more than 8.1 million stores in the United States conducted mystery customer testing. In Zhongshan, only multinational giants such as McDonald's and domestic large enterprises recognized this monitoring method at the beginning. In the past two years, even local companies in Zhongshan began to employ “mysterious customers”.

"Lies are always prone to flaws."

The boy born in 1992 was a freshman student at Sun Yat-Sen University of Electronic Science and Technology. In October last year, Bright first contacted the concept of “mysterious customer”. "Interesting, novel, and a strong sense of substitution..." All sorts of reasons drove him into this line. His “mysterious customer” career began with investigating the Da Senlin pharmacy.

In addition to the labor costs, this type of test has a reimbursement quota of 5 yuan. Based on this, he also left a bundle of band-aids and cold medicines. There are many things that need to be observed. Before entering the store, he needs to pay attention to whether or not the light box is open at night and there are no stains on it. After entering the store, he should also pay attention to whether the store is tidy and whether the clerk takes the initiative to provide help. When other customers are present, the clerk will not go to the side and ignore him. .

During this period, he also took photographs to see if the shop price tag and goods were in place. He wants to observe the clerk's personal image and uniform dress. Sometimes, he also randomly throws a question "wrongful" clerk to observe the service attitude and response of the employee. When checking out, Li Ming often deliberately does not take the initiative to present the membership card and see if the cashier will actively ask if there is any membership card.

"Mystery shoppers" also have their own weapons. Recording pens and cameras are minimal equipment. All recordings must be uninterrupted. It takes only a few minutes to enter the store to make an unannounced interview. If it is too long, it will take an hour. If the record is not recorded, if it is not recorded well, the questionnaire is not filled out, etc., perhaps the “mysterious customer” will be busy one day. Now.

"Some of them can go back to make up, but some projects must be guaranteed to succeed once." Bright said. One of his friends went to a 4S shop for inspection. During the test drive, he accidentally turned off the recording. When he returned home, he found that the recording was only 50 minutes. The low recording length of the test drive project was 1 and a half hours. To prevent exposure, this friend can only find someone to test drive again.

When performing the task, there is no lack of experience to be seen. “In general, the staff of a chain store will not scuttle you on the basis of superior supervision. At most you will back up your outline. He will back his outline.” Li Ming stated that self-financing department stores are not polite if they hold The investigation proves that it can pass through the borders, but if it does not, there will be some trouble. Once he sneaked at the camera and forgot to turn off the flash, he was found by the owner and couldn't get proof of the investigation. After that, he was driven out by the owner.

"Liesing is always prone to flaws." In light of this summary, it requires him to try to play as an ordinary consumer. He cannot rigidly ask questions that cannot be asked in the logic of normal consumer behavior. "So to some degree, Mystery shopper is an 'actor' who plays multiple roles at the same time."

Find business people to play a commercial role

In fact, the work of "mysterious customers" is only one part of a large and comprehensive inspection system. This group is responsible for the collection of data. After scoring according to the scoring system, researchers will make analysis reports and propose solutions. In the early design, there are also very detailed operations.

The expectation of becoming a “mysterious customer” is that of students, housewives, and white-collar workers, and most of them are part-time. According to Guo Xiaoqun, the person in charge of the Beijing office of Hai Nai Dai Chuang Consulting Co., Ltd., some of them are to subsidize life, while others are interested in passing time. Companies conducting mystery customer surveys involve a wide range of fields, and consulting companies must also search for matching people based on the brand's different temperaments.

According to the part-time mystery shopper of Zhongshan Ruibiao Market Research Co., Ltd., college students are generally suitable for operating relatively simple McDonald's, pharmacies, travel agencies, and street surveys. For testing 4S shops, consulting firms tend to send driver's licenses or knowledge. People, such as car coaches and so on. "In addition, local people will be given priority, and they have certain advantages in terms of self-confidence," said Wang Xiaozhou, who is responsible for project implementation. At present, the company employs more than 500 "mysterious customers."

Anyone can do "mystery shoppers", but not everyone is suitable. Guo Xiaoqun said that before the project launches, there are detailed implementation standards. She believes that the basic conditions for satisfying mystery customers are: agile response, high efficiency, clear oral expression, proper time management, and a certain understanding of the products of the project implemented. Each project has different requirements for customers. For consulting companies, it is necessary to find the right people for this industry.

Each mystery check item needs to subdivide the time, business type, etc. Guo Xiaoqun told reporters a practical example. The company had conducted mystery inspections on 108 branches of a bank in Shenzhen, targeting private businesses, corporate businesses, VIP businesses, and recruiting such ordinary adult consumers, corporate accountants, or administrative personnel. , and different types of people such as bank VIP customers to work part-time, at different times to visit the working conditions of bank employees. "People who want to find business play a commercial role."

Looks like a simple job, it is not easy to complete. Guo Xiaoqun said that many people are nervous at first. “Some people don’t have anything to do with their deposits, but when they perform a mission, the lobby manager asks them, and their faces “brush” into red. So some people joke that how they behave like a thief?” In this way, a lot of new mystery shoppers put up the company's pigeons after doing a single business.

Widespread but also missed

The advantages and disadvantages of the “mysterious customer” are also obvious. The advantage is that it can control the quality of various service items in the window industry; the respondents did not have the consciousness to be investigated, so the accuracy and authenticity of the situation reflected are high. The disadvantage is that the investigator's psychological state, comprehensive quality, and understanding of the assessment indicators often have some differences, which may have a negative impact on the assessment results; the investigation can not record at the same time, it is inevitable that there are omissions; can not observe the internal factors, sometimes It takes a long time to observe. In this way, when there is insufficient experience or the organization process is not tight, it will lead to biased assessment results and lack of fairness and accuracy.

Now Ming Ming has also become a "mysterious customer" with some experience. He enjoyed the business of six brands without hesitation, sometimes running 300 department stores within a few days for a single task. He is widely involved and he does not shy away from the "missing" experience.

To perform the tasks of a brand beverage company, he wants to simulate the purchase process and understand the product shelves and sales. A department store door, bright and routine recording "report" time and place, but quickly found after entering the store: was seen through. Brightly looking around but not buying goods, he has been asking questions like the "out of stock" and other training outlines. The owner is annoyed. "Why, don't buy it!"

In the past six months, it is not the experience of adventurousness that makes people feel more profound, but the importance of service to a company. “The data collected by mystery customers is a very accurate source of information for enterprises.” For this reason, “counterfeiting” is a taboo in this industry, and when writing survey questionnaires, it also requires truthfulness and fairness. , and cannot have personal emotions.

Brightly entered the "mysterious customer" industry, this profession has risen in Zhongshan for several years. But around 2003, only KFC, McDonald's and other large multinational companies recognized the role of mystery customers in service improvement. Over time, this evaluation system has also begun to be adopted by large domestic companies. According to reports, starting in 2005, the Zhongshan Power Supply Bureau began to hire people from the community and separately conducted unannounced visits to services within the townships.

In 2006, due to the market space of the industry, 4 students in the university registered their investment in Ruibiao Market Research Co., Ltd. Wang Xiaozhou told reporters that at the beginning, most of the company’s undertakings were outsourcing orders entrusted by companies in Beijing and Guangzhou. In recent years, they have become mainly local companies in Zhongshan. On the Internet, information on recruiting “mysterious customers” abounds, but Guo Xiaoqun’s feeling is that currently Zhongshan still lacks large and more regulated consultancy companies to perform mystery customer projects.

"Actually, there have been various forms of inspections such as private visits and inspections since ancient times," said Yan Ruishi, chairman of Zhongshan Three-Line Management Consulting Co., Ltd., "But the previous testing standards are often very simple, perhaps only 10 items. The specialization of the assessment has been continuously refined to the present standard. For example, there are more than 400 items of testing for gas station projects."

Yan Ruishi told reporters that it is easy to adopt the "mystery customer" evaluation system is the banking industry, communications industry, 4S shop, chain economy hotel, beauty industry, gas stations and other services to win the industry. In recent years, even government departments have introduced mysterious customers. The year before last, the company undertook business operations such as industry and commerce, taxation, etc. to help detect the quality of government services.

At present, information on the online recruitment of “mysterious customers” can be found in search, but there is a lot of confusion between them, and the reward varies greatly. But how much credibility does it have? Mystery Customer Testing Association's evaluation of the Chinese market is: "Until today, China's mysterious shopping test has not yet formed an independent and standardized industry."

Depth

"Mysterious customers" stressful real life

Not everyone can become a "mysterious customer." "Mystery shopper" is different from interviewers in general investigation. Having high comprehensive quality and comprehension ability, good psychological state, correct working attitude, keen observation and resolving ability are the powerful guarantees for the investigation quality. "Mystery shoppers" must always adhere to the principles of fairness, impartiality, neutrality, and confidentiality. "Mystery shoppers" is divided into two types, one is "immediate mystery shoppers", randomly selects customers who are consuming and serving, and conducts instant surveys and monitoring; the other is "long-term mystery shoppers" who have undergone relevant training. After that, long-term monitoring of companies and units with strong professional services is conducted.

In the eyes of the outside world, “mysterious customers” can make money while shopping, and they can also experience the addiction of an “agent”, which is really easy and comfortable. However, the bright feeling is that when a good "mysterious customer" not only needs to undergo systematic training, but also must abide by strict operating rules when performing tasks, "it is not easy to do it."

When he first got the content details, he was surprised that the questionnaire was designed so ingeniously: “Almost every aspect has been taken into consideration.” Because of the miscellaneous details of the tasks entrusted, the contents are numerous, and it is necessary to be familiar with the standard systems in all aspects. Super memory. He also needs to have a good understanding of each product he is doing to ensure that he can act as a qualified customer.

The Ching Ming Festival not long ago, it was not easy to live brilliantly. Received a task of investigating a product, he ran 30 department stores in one day. The company is willing to reimburse the bus fare. If not, he can only walk or ride a bicycle to save costs. Even if you visit many stores, you may not always do useful work many times. If it is seen by the shop owner or the clerk, the show has to be played and reflected in the recording, although he knows that such a survey result is invalid.

Visits to a store may not be paid, some may be as low as $6, while others may be as high as $30. For brighter reasons, an unannounced visit to a store may only take a few minutes, but it may take an hour or two to find the store, which also requires him to have a good schedule. Before making the Da Senlin pharmacy inspection task, Bright always felt that the pharmacy was in the streets and lanes. “But once we did the task, we suddenly felt like we couldn’t find it.”

Outsiders believe that when "mysterious customers" can eat and eat for free, it is really comfortable and it is a misunderstanding. Many brand companies have more than one chain store. If “mystery customers” spend every one of them, the cost of research is too high for companies. Because of this, even if the reimbursement is often limited, such as going to McDonald's, bright may only be able to buy a three-dollar candy cone, to the pharmacy may only buy a Band-Aid of less than 5 yuan.

After the mission is completed, it is also necessary to fill out the questionnaire survey report. The task is simple and it only needs to fill in dozens of questions, and some tasks may ask up to ten pages. All survey data, images and reports obtained by the “mystery shopper” will eventually be written by an expert as an informative inspection report. Only after passing the multiple review procedures can the client be submitted.

"The information collected by 'mystery shoppers' is very important to the company, so it must not be falsified." Bright reminders of the professional ethics that this profession must abide by. However, his colleagues also occasionally lazy examples, brightly stated that some people may only take a shop, take more pictures, placed in multiple survey reports on the store, "it is undoubtedly somewhat irresponsible."

"Mystery customer" has standardized walking routes

A. Business Hall with only one door: If there is only one door in the business hall, follow the principle of walking with the right hand after entering the door and observe. Observe each counter (see Figure 1).

B. Office with two doors: After entering from the right-hand door, walk on the right-hand principle and observe. After the observation is over, the door is still to be taken out from the right-hand door (Figure 2).

Glossary

"Mystery shopper", also known as "shadow shopper", is a survey conducted by a highly trained investigator who acts as a customer within a specified or specified time and evaluates or evaluates a series of questions designed in advance.

“Mystery shopper” tests appeared early in the USA banking and retail industry to prevent employee theft; in the 1940s, the term “Mystery Shopping” (mystery shopping/mystery shopper detection) officially appeared and began to use this method to evaluate customers. Services; in the 1970s and 1980s, Shop'n Chek popularized the detection of mystery customers, which opened up a vast space for development; in the 1990s, thanks to the development of the Internet, the mysterious customer inspection industry experienced The unprecedented rapid growth phase has achieved public recognition.

“Mystery shopper” generally understands the environment of service in various types of window industry, service attitude, service quality and skills of the service in various types of window industry through observing method, questionnaire method, and inquiry method, or understands the sales of goods from competitors’ shops. Type, brand, price, placement and other information.

For enterprises, the unannounced visits and supervision of “mysterious customers” can help them discover and correct defects in goods and services in a timely manner, and in turn bring invisible pressure to service personnel, prompting them to provide quality services to customers. In addition, the company systematically analyzes deep-rooted causes based on the problems discovered by “mysterious customers”, thereby improving management methods, improving management systems, and enhancing the competitiveness of enterprises.

This monitoring method has long been introduced by KFC, Rogers, Nokia, Philips and other foreign multinational companies to their domestic chain divisions. At present, this method has been widely applied to domestic markets such as telecommunications, banks, supermarkets, chain stores, and hospitals. Service industry.

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