Does the use of Mystery Shoppers contribute to the improvement of quality control within service industry?

Does the use of Mystery Shoppers contribute to the improvement of quality control within service industry?

Introduction

The concept of Mystery shopping was first introduced in United States of America in year 1960 and since then it has been incorporated by numerous countries of the globe with the prime objective of improving the standard of their service industry (Baraitser et al, 2008). Despite of that, for several individual the idea of “Mystery shops” creates a mental image, which is similar to the style of iconic Sherlock Holmes; waiting at the back of a pillar anxiously waiting for criminal to make a mistake.

Companies that have incorporated the idea of Mystery shop tends to appoint employees having the potential of understanding and revealing the nature of their customer business. Primary objectives of these companies is to make it certain that there mystery shoppers have accepted the working atmosphere of their customers, for example, these people should act in exactly the similar manner as their customer behave as their primary responsibility is to assess the behavior and practices of their clients in accordance with the specified rules and regulations.

In modern era, assessing the quality of customer service by means of mystery shopping techniques is becoming a widespread strategy used by every industry in which there is a slight interaction or communication with customers, for example, general stores, hospitals, petrol stations, restaurants and others. According to (Beddoe, 2007) technique of mystery shopping could prove to highly valuable technique for enhancing the quality of customer service provided it is implemented and used in appropriate manner. The researcher during his extensive study has identified four crucial element of successful utilization of mystery shopping. Firstly, mystery shopping endow management with a "picture" of a particular instant in time in context with the nature and quality of service given to the customer. In order to be effectual and accurate, management must conduct maximum mystery shops in a year, as it will not be able to assess the quality of service with two or one mystery shops during the period (Douglas & Douglas, 2006). Moreover, it helps management in setting specific standards for employee's behavior towards customers and instructs companies to provide extensive training to their employees regarding new standards so that they can act in accordance with new principle on continual bases.

Secondly, companies must conduct mystery shops at various occasions during the year, irrespective of knowing that fact that it is a holiday or busy weak as your loyal consumers tends to expect similar level of service quality anytime they plan to shop. Thirdly, strong monitoring of management is an integral part of successful incorporation of mystery shop as it is the responsibility of the management to give timely and appropriate performance report to its employees and forming an innovative strategy to accomplish customer satisfaction.

Lastly, it is the responsibility of management to recognize and appraise excellent performance of its employees as it encourages them ...