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.
I was just completing a report for a new banking client and noticed two measurements heading in opposite directions. Their mystery shopping scores were low, but their customer satisfaction from exit surveys was high.
So what’s going on?
This highlights the problem with reliance on one measurement. The customers are woo’d by the nice branch, and super polite staff who are expert and reiterating what the client asked for.
They also get a nice farewell. But here’s the problem. The staff are not doing the things that make the sale.
Two critical aspects of a home loan are to:
1) determine the customer’s needs (so they staff don’t go into boring sales spiels), and
2) follow-up after the sale (a big driver of making a sale) Both scored poorly.
The branch is polite and presents a professional environment. So the customer walks out thinking the service was “nice” but buys nothing. This is common, and it’s dangerous if you just listen to customers.
