Inspection Form: The Prime Factor of Mystery Shopping

This digital era has presented us with many remarkable ways to measure customer experience and satisfaction. In fact, there are ways to discover the pain points experienced by customers while making a buying decision at a business point.

One of the best methods of conducting a survey and mapping the customer experience’s journey is mystery shopping. A digital inspection platform is used to do so by hiring mystery shoppers. They pretend to be customers and complete the journey. They wield an inspection form crafted by considering the specific factors that a company wants to measure.

Features of Inspection Software

The inspection form is generated on inspection software developed by a service provider. The company hires this service provider to conduct a survey on customer experience. Here is the list of features that an inspection form generally has.

1. Inclusion of factors

A set of factors is included in the form to aid the mystery shoppers in paying attention to certain points. These factors can be anything ranging from parking facilities to valet service and assortment of products to their display features.

These factors actually vary from industry to industry. For instance, if we are looking for the customer experience in a restaurant then the factors considered are:

·       Food safety

·       Hygiene

·       Food preparation and presentation

·       Sanitation

·       Inventory

·       Health compliance

·       Fire safety, etc

Based on the factors included, a data model is prepared by the software used. The input data is then used to measure the experience and provide actionable analytics to the company.

2. Checklist

The inspection checklists format in the form must be easier to understand and use. Consider this an example. A mystery shopper might not get ample time for measuring every factor and giving a score. This is why the checklist is kept plain and simple for better inclusion of points and measurements.

3. Digitally accessible

Another important feature of this software is to offer a digital format that can be accessed with any portable smart device such as a smartphone, a tablet, or a laptop. It aids mystery shoppers to work discretely without concern over the disclosure of their true identity.

4. Customizable mystery shopping platform

The platform can be customized very quickly so that new factors that were unknown or overlooked can be added faster to make the survey more productive. Service providers often create ready-to-use inspection forms that can be easily customized by companies without having software knowledge.

5. Team Alignment

Another hurdle of mystery audit can be omitted when all the mystery shoppers are aligned to a target objective. It is done by using a streamlined software platform that enables a company to spot issues and industry trends at the same time.

Mystery shopping makes better service

There is no doubt that an inspection form becomes the core of this survey conducted. Experts suggest hiring the right service provider who has experience in the industry your business is operating. Convert the data generated into actionable insights and make significant changes.