The need for mystery shopping
The Indian retail scenario is witnessing a paradigm shift with modern retail formats slowly replacing traditional forms of retailing. This trend is visible not just in urban India but also rural areas. Competition is increasing with various Indian & International players vying for a share of wallet of the Indian shopper.

In this context, a customer’s in-store experience is becoming increasingly important for any retail marketer. High quality of services rendered in the outlet act as a differentiator, enhance loyalty, generate positive word-of-mouth and save costs for the retailer!

Mystery shopping is now being used by many organizations to evaluate their in-store service standards and conformity to processes. Trained shoppers anonymously evaluate infrastructure, processes, service delivery, customer service, operations, employee integrity, merchandising & product quality. The shoppers independently audit processes & staff, giving constructive actionable input for improvement of service delivery.

Objectives of any mystery audit program

1. To check conformance to the guidelines for service delivery laid-out by the retailer leading to the following:
1. Identifying high & low conformance units
2. Specifying service delivery improvement areas
3. Benchmarking against service delivery by competition
4. Creating a baseline for future monitoring
   
   
2. To measure the effectiveness of training imparted to employees
   
   
3. To recognize good employees based on findings of the audits
   
   
4. To measure the extent of brand advocacy by multi-brand outlets
   
   
5. To audit prices through a pre-designed negotiation process and determine Market Operating Prices

Mystery Shopper Insights (MSI)

Mystery Shopper Insights (MSI), a specialist team at IMRB International, has experience with nearly 30 regular mystery shopping programs conducted across diverse sectors. By way of mystery shopping, we help managers in both tactical and strategic decision-making as also in improving the quality of services provided at the outlet.

We are a team of 40 researchers across Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore who design and manage mystery shopping studies. In addition, we have an excellent pool of trained mystery shoppers with experience of working across various product categories.

An indicative list of MSI clients