Confero Blog

Customer Satisfaction Research vs. Mystery Shopping: A Dialogue Revisited

by Elaine Buxton

In our current economy, customer retention is at the forefront of good business strategy. Well-run companies know that keeping customers coming back, even in this difficult economic climate, will ensure success down the road. With so many businesses focusing on customer service strategy and so many approaches to customer experience measurement out there, I am often asked which measurement method works best.

Customer satisfaction research methods include web surveys , phone surveys , Interactive Voice Response (IVR) surveys and the like. Mystery shopping involves sending someone to pose as a customer, interact with people at the site, and then report on their observations. Mystery shopper observations are directed by the program set up and requirements.

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Telephone Mystery Shopping Questions

by Elaine Buxton


Many companies that are considering the implementation of a telephone mystery shopping program ask us for sample mystery shopper survey questions.

Of course, firms need to customize questions to match their own specific customer service guidelines. Taking a look at some basic telephone survey questions can be a good starting point for the company to move toward a program that fulfills its unique requirements without having to reinvent the wheel.

Here are some sample telephone mystery shop questions to use as a starting point:

Mystery shopper questions about basic telephone etiquette:

  • Did the employee answer the phone within 2-3 rings?
  • Did the employee thank you for calling?
  • Did the employee answer in a friendly voice?
  • Did the employee supply his/her name and name of the location?
  • If you were placed on hold, were you asked to hold?
  • When the person you were transferred to answered your call, were you thanked for holding?
  • Did the employee confirm your request?
  • Were you provided with information relevant to the product or service you asked about?

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Listening to Employee Telephone Calls: How Do Multiple Employees Approach the Same Customer Inquiry?

by Elaine Buxton

Listening to employee phone calls allows you to imagine yourself as the customer and hear firsthand how your employees interact. Many times managers of front line employees would like to listen to employee conversations but don’t always have the capability to do so. Other times, managers have monitoring capabilities but must listen for hours to hear how multiple employees approach the same inquiry.

One way to gain this capability is to consider audio recorded telephone mystery shops , which offer the following potential advantages:

  • Listen and evaluate employee and customer comments in their own voices, for a realistic idea of what your customer’s experience , sounds like.
  • Recognize inconsistent telephone approaches among employees in order to move toward more uniform customer service delivery.
  • Identify areas where employees may have missed a sales opportunity.
  • Recognize employees for meeting/exceeding company expectations in customer service via the phone.
  • Pinpoint areas where employees may have used a more effective approach to resolve a customer issue.
  • Train other employees by reviewing a “perfect” phone shop, in order to show them a strong example of excellent phone interaction with a customer.

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Mystery Shopping Call Scenarios for Banks

by Elaine Buxton

Considering telephone mystery shopping call scenarios for your bank ? A good starting point is to think about the client interactions that are most critical to the achievement of your bank’s sales and service goals.

For example, if your goal is to become the bank of choice for those relocating into the area, include a phone shop where the shopper calls a branch, tells the employee that he/she is new to the area and is considering several local banks before making a decision. Then measure the interaction based on the employee’s friendliness, knowledge and willingness to “close” the sale.

If your goal is to capture more business from CD “rate-shoppers”, include a measurement to determine if your employees go a step further when providing the client with basic CD information. For example, mystery shoppers listen to see if the employee simply quotes a CD rate or if the employee asks the client additional clarifying questions before quoting a rate. They also listen to see if the employee invites them to come into the branch to open the CD.

You might also be wondering about how well your front- line employees handle complaints via the phone.

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