The mystery shopper technique was developed in the 1940's by companies that wanted to know what the customer experience was in their stores. It was started by banks to ensure the tellers were being honest and ethical when dealing with any of the customers. Since then it has evolved to become a popular way of collecting data from consumers and help improve the quality of customer service. Now instead of just making sure employees are representing the company in a good light, they use mystery shoppers to share their experiences shopping in the store. For example, what caught their eye, how they felt about the set up, how the prices are displayed, how many employees were present at the store. As we know in the eye of the market researcher, the customer is an always changing topic. To answer difficult questions like this, the best way is to send a mystery shopper in with these questions in mind and to report back their feelings. The reason they are a mystery shoppers is because if the store knew they were coming in, it would skew the results and feelings of the shopper. When the employees don't know they will act like they normally do. This is a great way to keep control over the experiment.
I really like this kind of technique because the mystery shopper is a consumer so they are giving genuine insights as to what their experiences are and how they think the company can improve. Like social media, this is market research's form of communicating with the consumers/public.
All around us companies are collecting data about our spending habits, eating habits, and behaviors. This information is then stored in databases in each company. This process is called data mining. Analysts can pick certain things to follow and soon they will identify trends in their customers. For example, they can track how many times ice cream cones are purchased in a store. They organize the data which they then make conclusions about. So with the ice cream, they may notice that more ice cream is sold during the months of July and August. After gaining this knowledge marketers can create campaigns either during this time or in the “low season” to boost sales. There are so many different trackers that companies may follow. The master in data mining would be none other than Wal-Mart. The internet has less than half of the data the Wal-Mart databases hold!
Wal-Mart tracks all purchases, they have the purchases connected to credit cards when applicable, and with cameras they track how people move about the stores as well as they have ways to obtain information about the customers themselves. Being one of the few places people can go to cash their checks without a bank account. The customers cashing checks must submit their social security number, a driver’s license number and a home address. Additionally, Wal-Mart sees the companies they are working for, the amount of money they cash each week (or month) which gives them even more data about their customers. Wal-Mart made the realization that there was an enormous increase in Strawberry Pop-Tart sales right before a hurricane.
Data mining is a fantastic tool to understanding the customer in your store as well as what types of customers shop at your store.
