Mystery Shopping in Mumbai How Brands Measure Customer Experience

Mumbai is the financial hub of India. Wikipedia's overview of the city's economy states that it has the Largest urban economy in the country. It also houses the headquarters of Reserve Bank of India, leading banks, luxurious malls, high profile restaurants and the expanding real estate sector. Higher expectations and multiple options from the customers here. If a brand doesn't provide consistent service, it quickly loses them.

Hence, mystery shopping Mumbai is becoming a norm for gauging the level of service. This article describes how they function, the sectors that are using them, and how to develop a viable program.

Why Mumbai Needs Mystery Shopping

The service quality is challenging to monitor in Mumbai's market due to the following factors:

• High competition: Many times, brands have multiple competitors in the same street or mall.
• Diverse customers: Customers speak Marathi, Hindi, English and other languages, which the service teams need to be able to communicate with.
• Fast pace: Frontline staff are stretched thin and dealing with increased pressures as a result of peak hour crowds, long commutes and tight schedules.
• Many locations: The service of outlets can vary considerably from place to place in South Mumbai, its suburbs, Navi Mumbai and Thane.

A head office cannot be located in each branch. To solve this problem, there are Mystery shopping sites that send trained evaluators who are lovers of shopping as they experience the situation as normal customers and they report their observations. It is one of the few ways that demonstrates service, as it's experienced by the customer.

What Is Mystery Shopping?

Mystery shopping is a research technique which involves sending a trained business researcher (or mystery shopper) out to a business or to call it, using a scenario and predetermined set of tasks. They evaluate the greeting, knowledge of products, sales approach, cleanliness, billing, policy compliance, and more, and provide a report in a structured format.

In fact, if you're new to this method, you should read this how mystery shopping works in India guide.

Mystery Shopping Customer Experience: What Brands Measure

A good mystery shopping customer experience program is based on observable behaviour and clear standards. Typical areas include:

• Welcome and attention: Did the customer get a prompt and courteous welcome?
• Staff knowledge: Was the employee able to accurately describe products, prices and offers?
• Sales process: Was the need identified and appropriate options offered by staff?
• Store or branch environment: Is cleanliness, display, signage and queue management good?
• Billing and closing: Was the transaction accurate, quick and courteous?
• Compliance: Were scripts, uniforms, safety rules adhered to, and brand rules followed?

Customer Experience Measurement: Going Beyond Surveys

A number of brands are dependent on feedback forms and ratings. They are helpful, but require customer memory and it depends on the customers' mood. The vast majority of customers who are dissatisfied with your service do not complain. They simply leave.

Mystery shopping provides an objective measure to customer experience. Documents exactly what happened, when and by whom. This can assist in management in understanding the root cause of low satisfaction, rather than just that it exists.

Customer Experience Metrics Tracked in Mumbai Programs

Visit reports are transformed into clear numbers thanks to reliable customer experience metrics. Common ones include:

Monitor by outlet, region and time to determine strong and weak outlets. For a full list, see top KPIs to track in a mystery shopping program. The above figures can be consolidated into a mystery shopping dashboard.

Sectors Using Mystery Shopping in Mumbai

Banking and insurance: Mumbai is the financial hub of the country with a lot of branches and salesmen. Audits review the process of opening accounts, the product explanation and adherence to guidelines governing how customers are handled.

Retail and malls: Brands benchmark their service against other stores and locations.Brands benchmark their service against other stores and locations. The retail mystery visit checks staff behaviour, stock and display.

Restaurants and cafés: Waiting time, hygiene, order accuracy and staff attitude are evaluated.

Hotels: Hotel mystery audits encompass check in, room quality, food and meal and checkout.

Real estate: Home buyers try visits to test sales approach and follow-up. Read customer service and mystery shopping for real estate.

Call centres: Mystery calls evaluate tone, accuracy and resolution. Call centres: see mystery visits.

How to Build an Effective Mumbai Program

1. Set clear goals. Decide if you need to enhance your service, to boost your sales or to test your compliance.
2. Design realistic scenarios. Be sure to use scenarios that your customers actually encounter, such as a product inquiry, a complaint or a billing problem.
3. Select suitable shoppers. Select shoppers that fit your customer profile and are bilingual. The key is verification, like in mystery shopper recruitment and verification.
4. Ensure data quality. Rely on evidence, quality checks and trained reviewers for consistent results. The Mystery Shopping Professionals Association ethical guidelines are helpful to consult.
5. Plan visit frequency. Match the number of visits to the size/importance of the outlet.
6. Act on findings. Provide scores to managers, conduct training and re-audit to ensure improvement.
7. Measure return. Compare outcomes to sales and retention/complaint information.

Choosing a Mystery Shopping Partner

Check for an agency that has a trained shopper network all over Mumbai, regular reporting formats, quality control and clear communication. Before shortlisting mystery audit company in india, check out the guide to mystery shopper agencies and mystery shopping cost in India.

Brands, which are functioning in multiple cities can also take a cue from other cities like the mystery shopping in Delhi NCR, Bangalore, and Chennai.

Also Read: Mystery Shopping for Luxury Brands

Conclusion

In as competitive a market as Mumbai, good service is an advantage to the business. Mystery shopping provides brands with real world proof about how customers are being treated, fair evidence for staff evaluation, and provides staff teams with confidence in their ability to improve. It can be used in conjunction with surveys and sales data to create a reliable customer experience measurement and enhancement system.

Looking to assess your outlets in Mumbai? To plan a mystery shopping program for your brand contact Ctrl Service, or to learn more about our mystery shopper services.