Insights

Method, sector findings, and the parts of this industry worth being sceptical about. Written for the people who commission this work rather than for a search engine.

Industry insights 23 August 2023 3 min read

A retail mystery shopping checklist that is worth running

Most retail checklists measure the door greeting and stop. The criteria that predict a sale sit further in — approach time, the opening question, and what happens at the fitting room.

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16 articles · page 1 of 2

Industry insights 22 August 2023

What retail networks actually get from a mystery shopping programme

The first finding is rarely a low average. It is a wide spread between branches of the same brand on the same scorecard…

Industry insights 20 February 2022

Evaluating an airline journey end to end

An airline's service is a chain of handoffs between separately managed teams. Measuring one link tells you very little…

Mystery shopping 15 January 2022

What mystery shopping measures, and what it cannot

A mystery shop is a controlled observation, not an opinion survey. Understanding the difference is what separates a…

For shoppers 22 December 2021

How to recognise a mystery shopping scam

Every scam in this industry has the same shape: you are asked to handle money. No legitimate assignment ever requires…

Research methods 22 December 2021

Questionnaire design: the mistakes that cost you the answer

Leading questions, double-barrelled items, scales without a midpoint, and the question that reads neutrally in English…

Mystery shopping 2 December 2021

How a mystery shopping programme actually runs

Scoping, scorecard design, recruitment, fieldwork, quality assurance, reporting. Seven or eight weeks from a signed…

Industry insights 29 November 2021

What schools learn from shopping their own admissions process

A school's intake is decided by parents who visited three schools and chose one. Almost no school knows how its own…

Research methods 24 November 2021

Why most customer satisfaction surveys produce a number you cannot use

Fourteen agree/disagree statements produce fourteen numbers that all move together. Shorter instruments with an open…

Mystery shopping 18 November 2021

Is mystery shopping legal in Qatar and the Gulf?

Yes — a mystery shopper is a customer making a genuine transaction. What needs care is the evidence: recording…

Industry insights 12 November 2021

Hospitality: why the recovery scenario is the criterion that matters

Every stay we evaluate includes one request that cannot be met exactly as asked. What happens next separates a luxury…

Industry insights 2 November 2021

Salon and spa mystery shopping: the consultation is the product

In a salon the transaction is a haircut and the product is a consultation. Programmes that score the result rather than…

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