Mystery shopping

Mystery Shopping

Get detailed operational data

We'll help you reveal the truth about your customer service and sales processes. The truth may be hidden by too much or too little information.

Customers are lost in the gaps where staff don't follow processes, creating stress and self-doubt among management.

Nobody should be frustrated that things are missed when they’re not looking
We've worked with Australia's biggest companies and largest global brands to help them track their compliance
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Guided compliance
Although internal audits are a self-managed process, we promise to guide you so you stay on track. We’ll help with design, fieldwork management, automated reporting, and your action plans.
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Precise outcomes

Our internal audit program will allow you to throw away the broad brush so you only use resources fixing things that are broken.

You’ll know exactly where your compliance gaps lie so you can reduce failures that could damage your brand reputation, identify inefficiencies, or simply ensure each site is ready to trade.

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Bad information makes for bad decisions
Nobody should have to find their way in the dark while dancing between the needs of customers, staff, and management. Lean on our 20 years of experience serving over 100 Australian organisations, and some of the world’s biggest companies.
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A compliance approach
Sales and service ultimately come down to staff and processes doing the right things. We'll bring our 20 years of experience to help you understand where those don't follow your strategy and procedures.
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Stop the leakage
We'll design your program to zero in on the places where your sales and service are leaking customers so you can precisely plug the holes. Get targetted with your network management and stop the leaks.
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The 3-step autopilot plan

3 Step Plan

Step 1. Discovery

Your bespoke program will be developed by using the best practice from around the world.

Step 2. Transparency

We’ll then reveal the truth about your operations with our experienced shoppers and team.

Step 3. Optimisation

You’ll be able to make optimal decisions based on solid data. You’re done with the guess work!

Get an instant quote by booking a short phone consultation and see if we are a good fit.

To get an instant quote using our Online Price Calculator, click here.

How does mystery shopping reveal the truth?

Customer feedback is essential, yet it is strategically limited.

Customers often don’t tell you the truth, and they may give unreliable superficial information tainted by poor memory or emotion. They also don’t know what is profitable to you.

Customers could be walking out with a smile on their face but empty-handed. Furthermore, many manufacturers are one step removed from the customer because they sell through retail partners.

It’s almost impossible to receive compliance feedback from customers. Untrained customers can’t give accurate feedback and probably don’t care to tell you.

When did you start Mystery Shopping?

We’ve been conducting mystery shops in over 20 different industries and 200 clients since 2003.

Our client rollcall includes Woolworths, ANZ, NAB, Commonwealth, Mazda, Lamborghini, Bob Jane, Google, Apple, Mastercard, Visa, Exxon, Caltex, Quest apartments and over 200 other companies.

We’ll bring all that experience to your program and allow you to compare with world best practices.

How do you recruit Shoppers?

We’ve amassed deep mystery shopper relationships throughout the country. We still depend on shopper recommendations but also advertise online.

Anyone can register to be a shopper, but getting through the hoops to start work is a different matter. We match mystery shoppers to the client work. Not all clients will see all jobs. Furthermore, shoppers are selected based on their previous history. New shoppers go through additional screening processes. Despite all that, the essential attribute of a good shopper is reliability.

How do you screen shoppers?

If a good shopper is a reliable shopper, how can we find reliable shoppers? The best way to find reliable shoppers is to track their history of work with us. We conduct an additional layer of briefings for new mystery shoppers to determine whether they will be reliable shoppers. For example, whether they are prepared for our 1st shop briefing.

How do you know the shoppers really went to the store?

We deploy a series of security measures to ensure the shop took place. Shoppers are only paid directly to a bank account. They must scan a receipt of purchase and provide a date-stamped photo of the front of the store (or phone call log). We deploy a Photo DNA check which ensures no part of any uploaded photo has ever been uploaded on the internet ever before. We also run IP checks to ensure the shopper’s computer belongs to the person who says they are the shopper.

Can I have my own questionnaire, and can it be changed?

Each questionnaire is designed based on the client’s own sales processes and workflows.

Yes, we allow clients to change the questionnaire as their business changes or as questions become redundant.

How is the reporting delivered?

You will receive the reporting through our Web Portal. It provides multi-layer security logins to cater for different levels in the organisation.

We can also deliver data directly through API or simple excel files.

See a short video of our reporting system here.

What is HSB University?

We train our staff and can train shoppers using webinars and other online tools. Our newest online tool is a new learning initiative called HSB University. HSBU is unique in Australia and developed through our global mystery shopping arm to ensure consistent base knowledge.

What’s the difference between Mystery Shopping and Market Research?

Mystery shopping provides deep, actionable operational compliance data. However, market research provides more subjective consumer insights. They’re very different but work very well together.

A mystery shop tends to have lass data points, but the data is deep. Market research provides data from more people, but it is shallow compared to mystery shopping.

Mystery Shopping will tell you what happened, whereas market research will tell you how the customer felt.

Can I get best practice comparisons?

Yes, you can get best practice comparisons with other organisations in your industry and different parts of the world.

Do you have global reach?

Yes, we service all of Asia directly from Australia and service the rest of the world through our sister companies. These companies belong to the same global trading group called HS Brands, through which we also deploy our university HSBU.

What else can I measure?

We provide a dashboard of dashboards. You can combine all your compliance and customer service data in one place. We can combine:

  1. Mystery Shopping
  2. Consumer surveys
  3. Net Promoter Score
  4. Social Media Monitor
  5. Internal operational audits, and
  6. External operational audits.

How can I fix store issues?

It’s hard to stay on top of the data at head office level. We can deploy a workflow process called Kaizen Action plans to keep track of store remediation.

You can set tolerances for any questionnaire or individual question so that a negative result can immediately send an Action Plan to the store for them to initiate and report back, all in the same system. You can then track who have fixed problems, and rest assured that they won’t repeat the same problems.

How secure and confidential is our data?

All our mystery shoppers and staff have signed confidentiality agreements. Your data stays with us. We are happy to provide a confidentiality agreement, or we can sign yours.

See our separate data security outline here.