Insights

How to Choose the Right Mystery Shopping Software Provider

Mystery shopper programs are an excellent way to measure various parameters like frontline staff performance, monitor ongoing projects, track deadlines, recognize stellar customer service provider and uncover potential service issues. To efficiently manage the mystery shopping operations and tackle the problems related auditing operations an organization should have a mystery shopping software provider. The following are some helpful criteria a retail marketing agency should look for in a mystery shopping software while choosing a right mystery shopping software provider:

  • Reporting capabilities: Great report are nice, but all the pretty data means nothing if that is not good data. One should not get fooled by fancy reporting, what really counts is data integrity and a provider that not only collects that data correctly, but can show how to apply it to achieve the improvements one is going for. Actionable reports are cumulative representation of the responses and proofs collected during an audit. Through the reports the clients will gain insight about the attention items which will help them in understanding the gaps and the improvement areas. A mystery shopping software should have the capability to back the reports with customized and interactive dashboards. 
  • Implementation and support: Buying a mystery shopping software or any software one should be aware of the features, support and other options which the mystery shopping software has. If the software functionality is complex, then it is must to provide adequate training to the people who will be using the system. The question of support does not only include timeframes during which one will be getting the support rather it should be what kind of support i.e. phone support or email support or ticketing support. The organization should be aware of what will be the anticipated response time in case of ticketing support and the support department of the service provider should be available when an organization need them. 
  • Question Designing Capabilities: Questionnaire designing capabilities is an important feature that a mystery shopping software must support. A mystery shopping software should provide creation of as many question types in the questionnaire creation tool as possible. By virtue of creating any type of question gives the mystery shopping provider flexibility of handling any client requirement in an easy and efficient manner. 
  • Multi-platform support: Mystery shopping software should be one which is enabled on both desktop and mobile and should contain numerous nifty features like geo tagging, offline access, audio recording etc. to help mystery shopping agencies and mystery shoppers on the field. By integrating such features like audio recording, bar code scanner within the mystery shopping software app would mean that the mystery shoppers do not need to switch to the third-party apps to use these features. On the other hand, the desktop version of the mystery shopping software should be capable to enhance the user experience. The software should have intuitive user interface which should make the usage of the system feel like joy rather than a choice.
  • Cost: Cost is integral to any business decision; it shouldn’t be the only factor, however in determining the mystery shopping software you choose for your company. Always drawing a direct correlation between a software’s price and its value can be faulty when it comes to quality. Purchasing a more expensive mystery shopping software because it has long list of features isn’t necessarily the correct move, as many of those features might not even apply to an organization’s business. Customizable and functional features of the mystery shopping software one purchase should be researched thoroughly before pulling the trigger. One should make a financially sound decision and just because one spends more money does not mean they are getting the software that works most efficiently. 

Topics: Mystery Shopping Software

Recent Case Studies