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What’s Up With the Shopper Tests?

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Mar 01, 2010 by Confero Inc.

One of our long-time mystery shoppers who has been conducting shops for Confero for a number of years recently asked us, “Why are there new shopper tests on several long-standing programs and why do I have to take them when I’ve been conducting these shop assignments for years?” We realized that this was a great question and several of our shoppers were probably wondering the same thing.
Here are a few reasons shopper tests have begun to pop up:

Changes to shop surveys. Recently, several of our clients have requested changes to their mystery shop surveys. In order to be sure that shoppers are aware of these changes, we have instituted a shopper test to alert shoppers of these changes and to require them to verify that they are aware of the changes.

Changes to shopper guidelines. A few of our programs have changes to the shopper guidelines. For example, one of our clients recently changed the time of their shops from 4-8pm to 3-7pm. While that may not seem too drastic, if a shopper conducted their shop at 7:30pm because they didn’t see the new guidelines, Confero would not accept or pay for the shop since it did not meet client requirements.

Specific client requirements that can’t be missed. Mystery shopping is operations research. That means that each interaction at a client’s location must be similar. We are conducting shops now that require the mystery shopper to use a very specific phrase when placing their initial order at a restaurant. If the shopper uses another phrase, the client will not accept the report. A shopper test helps us confirm that shoppers know the wording our client requires.

We hope this clears up some questions surrounding shopper testing. Hopefully, by using these short shopper tests when something about a program changes, we will be helping shoppers recognize changes and avoid making costly mistakes.

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