The Benefits of Mystery Shopping and How It Can Revolutionize Your Brand

Marketing programs are implemented to get more customers in the door, right? Wrong. Brands should be building relationships with guests in order to get them to return. A store, restaurant or service can attract the whole town, but with bad service or negative word of mouth results, just getting more bodies through the door won’t work. Hiring mystery shoppers is a great way to ensure your brand representatives are doing their part to keep guests coming back.

Have you heard of America’s leading home staging franchise, Showhomes? What’s one of the big reasons Showhomes has grown exponentially across the U.S. and has been wildly successful? They send mystery shoppers to each of their locations throughout the year.

Showhomes understands the importance of holding each and every franchisee and employee to the brand’s high standards.

When Showhomes first started doing mystery shops about eight years ago, they were horrified to find out that less than half of the franchisees were even answering the phone live, and about 30 percent never responded at all. Because the brand started their mystery shopping program, they have been able to implement a call center and an online chat system that communicates 24/7 with customers – and their numbers have gone up dramatically since.

“We don’t have brick and mortar locations, so doing mystery shops is a bit different than traditional retail businesses,” said Matt Kelton, Chief Operating Officer of Showhomes. “Referrals are key to our business, so we clearly make customer service a major part of our core values and systems.”

Kelton is right – word of mouth is the number one way to gain new customers, and mystery shops can ensure franchisees, managers and employees are maintaining brand standards in order to bring back returning customers who will also bring in referrals.

For Showhomes, mystery shop results have allowed the brand to implement new marketing and customer service strategies, but the company’s leadership team has taken mystery shopping scores to the next level in order to incentivize their franchisees even further.

“Each year we give out a number of major awards to local Showhomes owners at our annual conference, and a major qualifier is having a passing mystery shop score,” Kelton said. “We have made it a part of our culture, measured it and tracked it, which has been critical to getting results.”

To succeed in a staggering economy, and as competitors come and go, franchise companies need to consistently provide clear expectations and demand high standards of well-trained employees. Implementing a mystery shopping program is a great way to do just that.