5 Must-Have Features for a Mystery Shop Program
Mystery shopping can be a great way to measure and improve employee performance at your property. But if your mystery shopping program doesn’t offer you all the transparency and customization features available now, you’re not getting your money’s worth. To get the most out of the mystery shop experience, make sure you choose a program that offers all of these features:
- Guaranteed Shop Timeframe
Mystery shop programs can be slow to perform the shop–and worse, they can keep you in the dark about when you can expect it. Choose a mystery shop program that clearly states and guarantees the timeframe in which the shop will occur. - Status Transparency
At any point in the mystery shop process, you should be able to quickly and easily view the status of your requested shop (“ordered,” “scheduled,” “report being compiled,” “report delivered,” etc.). A good mystery shop program allows you to order shops, track their progress, view the completed shop and see any auto-assigned courses based on the employee score—all in one centralized location. - Custom Testing Capability
Not all properties have the same expectations and priorities for employee performance. Your mystery shop should test for the specific experience you want your guests to have. You should be able to customize testing points and questions to reflect that experience. This capability has the further benefit of making it harder for employees to anticipate and “perform to” the test, leading to more accurate scoring. - Score Adjustment Flexibility
Again, because expectations and priorities for employee performance differ among properties, scoring should adjust with those differences. Choose a mystery shop program that is open to adjusting scores when an evaluation point does not align with your priorities, for instance when an employee loses points for following a guideline you specifically require. - Training Integration
For any mystery shop program to improve employee performance, it must be integrated into a training program designed to remedy the specific weaknesses identified during testing. When a mystery shop has been completed, employees should be automatically enrolled in the appropriate training and development courses, with no effort required on your part.
Grace Hill’s integrated mystery shopping program offers an honest, in-depth look at how your people and teams are performing and provides the exact training needed to improve performance – from essential compliance to enhanced professional skills. To see the program in action, request a demo.
