Some retailers hire marketing research companies to evaluate the quality of service in their stores. These companies use mystery shoppers to get the information anonymously. They assign a mystery shopper to make a particular purchase in a store or restaurant and then report on the experience. Typically, the shopper is reimbursed, and can keep the product or service.
Mystery Shopping is applicable for studying the actual process of the servicing, but also the quality of the information service or the persuading abilities of those being in touch with customers. During Mystery Shopping, in details trained interviewers - as 'clients' or 'customers' - collect information or observe the happenings during a shopping or service using a situation and after it they complete a questionnaire (outside the premises).
Application of this method can be useful for examining the operation and characteristics of customer service offices, shops or depots (speed of service, competence, waiting time, quality, cleanliness, etc.). A big advantage of this method over any other type of data collection is that the 'observed' persons are not aware of the research so the results are not subject to distortions.
