Solutions / Custom Services / Mystery Shopping
Mystery Shopping
Service standards are easy to document and hard to verify. Observation by a trained shopper is the only method that captures what actually happens.
Observed, not reportedService standards verified by experience rather than by self-assessment.
Across every channelIn-store, telephone and digital interactions measured against the same framework.
Built for coachingResults reported with narrative detail, so they support improvement rather than only ranking.
In simple terms
You tell us the standards you expect. We send trained shoppers through a realistic scenario and report what actually happened, location by location.
What Mystery Shopping is. Mystery shopping programmes deploy trained shoppers against a scenario and scorecard you approve, measuring service delivery, compliance and competitor experience across locations or channels.
What makes this different. Fieldwork quality is decided long before anyone answers a question: in the screener, the instrument design and the quality control. That is where most of our effort goes, and it is why the findings hold up.
What the service covers
These are the areas we work across, such as the ones below. We combine them in the proportion your question needs, and we tell you which ones your question does not need.
Scenario design
Realistic scenarios and a scorecard built around behaviours that are observable and that actually matter.
Shopper recruitment
Shoppers matched to your customer profile, briefed and calibrated so scoring is consistent between them.
Multi-channel coverage
In-store, telephone and digital interactions measured against the same standards framework.
Reporting
Results by location and behaviour with verbatim narrative, built to support coaching rather than only ranking.
Questions this answers
If something like this is on your agenda, the engagement is already half scoped.
- Are our service standards actually being followed?
- What does the experience feel like at our worst location?
- How does our experience compare with the competitor next door?
- Are staff making compliance-relevant statements correctly?
- Where in the interaction do we lose the customer?
How you can use this
A few of the situations where this service does real work.
Standards that may not be followed
Training is in place and outcomes vary by location.
Benchmarking against competitors
You want to know how your experience compares.
Verifying compliance statements
Staff make statements that carry regulatory weight.
Improving a weak location
One site underperforms and the cause is unclear.
What changes for your business
The practical difference between running on this and running on what you have now, such as the following.
You get evidence where none was published
Primary research reaches the questions no dataset answers, which is most of the questions that actually matter.
The data is clean enough to rely on
Screening, quality control and documented exclusion rules mean findings survive scrutiny rather than collapsing under it.
You get topline fast
Headline findings arrive within days of fieldwork closing, so decisions do not wait on the full report.
Respondents tell you the truth
Independent fieldwork changes what people are willing to say, particularly about what is going wrong.
You can run it again
Instrument, screener and methodology are handed over, so tracking the same question over time costs a fraction of the first wave.
You test before you commit
Concepts, prices and propositions get checked with real respondents while changing them is still cheap.
Who this is for
Roles that commission this work most often include those below. Each asks a different question and gets a different cut of the same evidence.
Research and insight teams
We need fieldwork we cannot run in-house.
Specialist capacity to your standards, with instrument, dataset and methodology handed over for reuse.
Product and marketing leadership
What do our customers actually think, rather than what we assume?
Evidence from real respondents, with verbatims, so findings can be acted on rather than debated.
Strategy and commercial leadership
Is there enough here to justify the investment?
Primary evidence on demand, pricing and competitive position where no published data exists.
Operations and quality leadership
Is what we designed actually happening in practice?
Independent observation and measurement, reported by location and behaviour so it supports coaching.
Investors and diligence teams
Can we verify this independently before we commit?
Primary market and customer evidence gathered to a defined protocol, with full quality control.
Typical clients
How we work
The third step is the one that makes the output usable, and it is the one most work of this kind skips.
Understand the decision
We start from what the findings have to support, because that decides sample, method and the precision you actually need to buy.
Design and field properly
Screener, instrument and protocol built and piloted before full fieldwork, with quality control running throughout rather than checked at the end.
Read it for your position
Findings are interpreted against your market position and the decision in front of you, not reported as a neutral data dump.
Deliver so it can be reused
Dataset, verbatims, instrument and methodology handed over, so the next wave costs a fraction of the first.
What you receive
Full dataset with respondent metadata and quality flags
Topline findings within days of fieldwork close
Analytical report with verbatimscross-tabs and implications
Instrumentscreener and methodology note for reuse
Access to Phi, our AI research platformincluded
Every engagement comes with access to Phi. Ask questions of your own findings in plain language, pull the evidence behind any number, and keep querying long after the work is delivered. Your team gets the working intelligence, not just the document.
Open PhiWays to start
Tell us the decision and the date it has to be made by. We will recommend the smallest engagement that gets you there.
Pilot wave
A small first wave to validate approach, screener and instrument.
Full fieldwork
Complete fieldwork to target quota, with analysis and reporting.
Tracking programme
The same instrument repeated on a set cycle, reported as change over time.
Common questions
Is this legal and ethical?
Yes, when scoped properly. We follow industry codes, avoid entrapment scenarios, and do not record where recording is not permitted.
Can you shop competitors?
Yes, within the same ethical boundaries: a genuine customer interaction, no misrepresentation beyond ordinary shopper anonymity.
Who owns the work?
You do. It is exclusive to you, it is not resold, and working files are handed over unlocked.
Will you sign an NDA?
Yes, before the first conversation if you prefer.
Tell us the decision you are facing
Send us the question, the context and your timeline. You get back a recommended first step, what evidence it needs, and what it costs. Not a capability deck.