Why A Good Report Is So Essential

A good report is tailored exclusively to the guidelines provided. Most should and will provide a style guide or word count beyond the questionnaire, if any. You will not only be telling the reader what happened, you will be answering a list of predetermined questions, all predicated upon what areas a company’s management has determined to require examination. A good report will do both of these.

In order to accomplish these objectives, all relevant details of your mystery shopping experience are necessary. You may have to anticipate where clarification will be required, and attempt to provide it before it is asked for to the best of your ability.

Ideally, you should know and understand the guidelines provided by your scheduler before you do the mystery shop. If you have any questions, you should ask them before. It is necessary to know and understand exactly what you are looking for before you go looking for it. This will help you write the best report possible, mostly because the necessary structure will be mentally in place.

A good report will also be submitted along with all the correct forms and items required by your mystery shopping guidelines. This may include receipts, notes, questionnaires, pictures or video. Some of the more high paying jobs require no report whatsoever because the mystery shop is recorded on video.

Who Uses My Reports and Why Are They Beneficial?

Mystery shopping helps businesses gain feedback on more than just customer service. Management can choose from a variety of Mystery shopping programs to get an inside look at operations, employee integrity, merchandising, product quality and other areas. Mystery shopping allows companies to obtain a snapshot in time by trained shopping researchers.

Business owners and managers use shopper reports to:

• Enhance employee training materials
• Improve business operations
• Improve product quality
• Compare one location to another
Mystery Shopping programs are valuable to such a wide array of business owners because:
• Most customers who have unsatisfactory experiences will not complain. They simply never return.
• Dissatisfied customers are likely to tell others about their experience, who probably will avoid doing business with the merchant.
• The use of Mystery Shopping to provide impartial feedback reduces favoritism in incentive programs.
• Shopping programs can identify where employee training and incentive programs need improvement.
Forget manager’s reports or employee assessments. The best way to ascertain the real impact of your brand is through a carefully designed mystery shop – and not just one.

Objective mystery shopper reports create a clear picture of just where the store’s promotion is or is not working.Those reports are invaluable for the company who is serious about finding out what is working and what is not.

General Rules Of Thumb For Describing Customers and/or Employees

You may think you’re a whiz at completing reports, but did you know there are specific ways to state the obvious that can help you to write an even better report? What is the best way to describe common characteristics, and what kind of language should you avoid?

Height: This can only be an estimation, as it would generally be awkward to ask, “Hey, how tall are you?” It is most effectively done relative to your own and to whatever the person may be standing on, especially since you know your own height. For example, if you’re 6’0” and someone is the same height but standing on a one inch platform, assume they’re 6’0”.

Age: This is also difficult, but can be expressed in a range such as “in their twenties” or “mid thirties”.
Hair: Color, length, or style is more distinguishable, and whenever possible, should and can be described to the greatest detail.

Quantify: What you saw and experienced in numbers, figures and within the guidelines whenever possible. For example, don’t write, “We waited a long time”. Instead, write, “We waited 5 minutes.”

An Accurate Mystery Shop Report Helps Everyone

Many corporate decisions rest upon the data you provide on your report. So it is very important to remain objective, give as much detail as you can as accurately as you can, follow all instructions exactly as given to you, and fill out every line in the report to the best of your ability.

The mystery shop report is the most important document in the mystery shop process. Through it, you will objectively report the minute-by-minute details of your experience. Retailers of every type will determine where gaps may exist in the delivery of their customer experience philosophy. They will decide which frontline staff is able to deliver, and which do not seem all that interested in getting it right.

Just imagine the restaurant greeter who is a single working Mom, struggling to afford daily living expenses for herself and her children, but working as hard as she can to do so. She knows she has to greet and seat you in 3 minutes. But you’re not really watching the clock because of that cute waiter that just strolled by. So when filling out your report, you ‘guesstimate’ your wait time, and put down 4 minutes, or maybe 5. That seems reasonable to you. But to the store manager, it is completely unacceptable, and our single Mom could potentially lose her job because you didn’t follow instructions.