Mystery Investigations

Objectively evaluate what your customers really experience

Mystery shopping reveals how your service is delivered in real life. Unlike satisfaction surveys, which capture what customers say they experience, mystery shopping is based on observable situations: a visit, a phone call, an email, a chat or a digital journey.
This method is particularly suitable for retail chains, franchises, service providers and multi-site organisations that want to objectively measure service quality, brand standards and operational performance.

When should you opt for mystery shopping?

Mystery shopping is suitable when you want to measure factual and observable elements, such as:

  • Compliance with internal guidelines or brand standards ;
  • Quality of customer greeting, advice and service ;
  • Application of commercial procedures ;
  • Consistency of the customer experience across branches or channels ;
  • Performance of shops, teams or commercial networks.

You measure objective indicators, including:

  • Waiting times ;
  • How products or services are presented ;
  • Whether sales pitches are used correctly ;
  • Whether internal procedures and standards are followed.

Methodology and types

Incidence works with a network of over 300 independent interviewers, trained in mystery shopping.

We conduct various types of visits:

  • Mystery visits to shops or retail outlets ;
  • Mystery calls ;
  • Mystery emails ;
  • Web audits of digital journeys, such as forms, chats or e-commerce processes.

Each programme is tailored to your objectives and internal guidelines.

A mystery shopping programme can be used

  • as a one-off exercise to investigate a specific issue ;
  • or run on a recurring basis – for example monthly – as part of continuous quality monitoring..

Evaluation forms are developed around your internal standards and validated in advance, ensuring that we measure only indicators that are relevant, observable and useful for managing your network.

A concrete case

A retail chain wanted to check whether commercial guidelines were being applied consistently across its network.

A structured mystery shopping programme was rolled out over several months. The audits assessed, among other things:

  • Quality of the welcome ;
  • Customer needs analysis ;
  • Product presentation ;
  • Correct use of sales pitches.

The results were centralised on a secure online platform. Regional managers gained access to their teams’ performance and were able to identify specific areas for improvement.

Based on the findings, a coaching programme was introduced and instructions across the network were harmonised.

Strategic added value

Mystery shopping helps you to:

  • Measure operational performance objectively ;
  • Compare shops, branches, teams or channels ;
  • Monitor changes in service quality ;
  • Identify training and coaching needs.

Manage a network based on measurable indicators. It is a powerful audit and operational management tool for multi-site organisations.

For more services

Desk research

Analyse existing sources to gain a clearer understanding of a market, sector or competitive landscape.

Data analysis and modeling

Analyse and model data to identify explanatory factors, segments and correlations.

Quantitative research:

Measure behaviour, attitudes or satisfaction and objectively identify trends, differences and proportions – the how much and how often.

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