Market research is a very important aspect of the feedback cycle when it comes to any business, but more so in the retail industry or healthcare industry.
There are various aspects to market research including measurement of quality of service and compliance with regulations.
Mystery shopping is a method used by companies to crowdsource the work to a degree having volunteers or dedicated agents go to various retail establishments and go through the general process of making a purchase while making notes of various aspects of the procedure behind the functioning of the establishment.
It’s essentially a surprise quality audit, without alerting the staff of an audit.
Generally mystery shopping agents are given instructions beforehand, to make observations on a number of different aspects of the decor, branding, customer service etc of the store that they have to conduct a quality audit of. They may be asked to take pictures of various aspects of the store, ie whether a particular brand is displayed with proper lighting, whether the store cleanliness levels are met etc.
In addition to getting directions to locations to where the audits have to be performed, data can be recorded and catalogued much more efficiently by using a mobile app like ReachOut Execute. It can have questions in any particular order, asking for the time taken to greet the agent, the cleanliness of the staff, the speed of checkout, the sales arguments used by the staff etc.
All this information can be entered into the app directly, which will be stored locally on the device till the entire audit is completed and then automatically synchronized to the backend server. This makes it easier for the agent to conduct the audit as well as avoid missing to catalogue any aspects of the audit.
This information can be instantly and automatically transferred to the backend where the data is to be analysed for potentially required remedial measures and measurement of degrees of compliance.
On the management side, it would make the assignment of each audit simpler, as a manager could first assign the audits to the specified agents with specific instructions that they have to go through before starting their audit. The manager could create the list of questions with requirements for photographs etc and map the questions to show up based on the answers that the agent provides. The information once automatically synchronised can be used to generate a report or even analyse and compare the data graphically. The data can be archived after its immediate purpose is complete for future reference without cluttering active workspace.
The fact that the data does not leave the company servers at any pint of time and thus privacy and data ownership are maintained within the company ensures that sensitive information remains secure.
For all this and more, an audit management tool such as ReachOut Execute can help streamline auditing tasks while increasing efficiency and accountability.
For a free demonstration on how exactly ReachOut can help your business, go to: https://www.reachoutsuite.com/contact-us/
Ashmitha aspires to enhance the efficiency of service technicians. With a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities within field service management, Ashmitha frequently shares her knowledge through industry blogs, articles and workshops.
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