Mystery Shopping: A Marvelous Tool in the Hands of Organized Retailers

Abstract

Customer engagement is a key to the success of organized retail. Now-a-days, retailers engage their customers by luring them with various facilities. It is through customer engagement that they are able to provide a long lasting experience to customers. This provides a competitive advantage and becomes the ultimate reason for customer attraction. It is the in-store experience of customer that adds on to the frequency of their visit. Experience though once gained has a long effect, but it needs to be replicated to give an everlasting effect. Feedback received from customer is not only a prime source of information but also an effective tool to manage customer relation in a manner where it would fulfill expectations of customer and organization as well. Often the large size of operation becomes a challenge for the organized retailer in maintaining close relationship with each customer. Notwithstanding various technological involvements in the working environment of retailers, they still lag behind in getting feedback of customer experience in the store. Feedback given to them is generally in a hurry or mostly vague. Absence of feedback is slowly and gradually creating a lacuna between organized retailers and customers. The concept of mystery shopping has evolved in order to cope with this challenge. This paper is conceptual in nature and hovers around mystery shopping. The objective is to explain in detail its relevance and significance for organized retailers. Application of mystery shopping might prove to be a significant tool in the hands of organized retailers as it provides first-hand information which helps to bridge the communication gap between the organized retailer and customer.