Customer Survey Fraud

Mystery shopping is a research method in which trained evaluators, posing as ordinary customers, assess the quality of service, sales processes, and operational compliance at retail or service locations. Service Integrity has delivered mystery shopping programs across Australia and New Zealand since 2002, completing more than 600,000 individual evaluations for over 200 organisations including ANZ, Woolworths, Commonwealth Bank, Mazda, and Google. The company holds MSPA Elite accreditation — the highest global recognition tier from the Mystery Shopping Providers Association — and directly manages offices in Sydney, Wollongong, Auckland, Shanghai, and Tokyo. Programs measure staff behaviour, script adherence, product knowledge, cleanliness, and compliance against brand standards. Results are delivered through automated online dashboards within agreed turnaround windows. Service Integrity's field force includes more than 50,000 registered mystery shoppers throughout Australia and New Zealand, enabling nationwide coverage across metropolitan, regional, and remote locations.

There is a new way to collect customer service data. And it’s a scam. Be careful.

In many countries, you can now ask a simple question when the customer swipes their credit card.

“Would you recommend us to your friends or family?” Push 1-9.

Sounds perfect and cheap.

I recently came across this in a place called the Reject Shop when looking for fermentation bottles (another story).

I was in and out of the store in 2 minutes. Hardly enough time to form an opinion, or for anything interesting to happen. But, ignoring the ridiculousness of the question. Here’s the problem.

The staff member swiped my card, and IMMEDIATELY pushed 9 as the survey question popped up on the terminal.

I was looking for it but otherwise would never have seen it pop up. Guess what number the staff member pushed? Nine. Great job team!

The same happened to me when I bought a car. The Salesperson offered to complete the manufacturer survey on my behalf, in exchange for a free tank of fuel.

Don’t be conned. There are great alternatives, except they cost a little more than ‘free’.

Don’t base important business decisions on fraudulent data.