How Much Does Mystery Shopping Cost?

How Much Does Mystery Shopping Cost - person shopping on laptop and phone

You know that the best way to ensure your customers are receiving a great experience with your contact center is to see that experience from their perspective. But how much does mystery shopping cost? Can you afford to do it?

Perhaps the better question is can you afford not to?

The data you acquire from a strategic telephone mystery shopping program gives you invaluable insight into the strengths and weaknesses of your contact center. Those insights then allow you to innovate, improve, and set your company apart.

But back to the question of investment cost for mystery shopping…

Many variables affect your cost, mostly driven by your goals and objectives for the program.

This is because mystery shopping isn’t a commodity that can be ordered off the shelf. To achieve the results and acquire the meaningful data you’re looking for, a customized plan outlined and implemented by experienced professionals who consider your unique needs is a must.

Your Specific Needs Determine Your Mystery Shopping Cost

To begin determining what you want and need in regard to a mystery shopping program, consider these questions:

  • What and who is the target of the mystery shopping? Do you want to target specific people or mystery shop at random?
  • How many agents/reps and/or locations do you want to include in the mystery shopping?
  • How many mystery calls per month/per agent were you thinking?
  • Do you require Caller ID spoofing, or can the caller be from anywhere?
  • Do you want to record the mystery shopping calls? (You must have two-party consent to do so in some states.)
  • What kind of scenarios do you want to use within your mystery shopping?
  • What does your typical customer look like?
  • Do you need inbound and callbacks to a live number, or do you use follow-up emails?

Although we’ve been talking about telephone mystery shopping, ARC can also include email and live chat in your program if your customers use those communication channels as well.

Mystery Shopping Customization

In some cases, you’ll want to evaluate the overall customer experience through the entire order process.

Other times, you may want to concentrate on specific problem areas that have already been identified. Perhaps individual training issues that you’re seeing and want to target. Or maybe you want to focus on skills like call etiquette, active listening and problem-solving abilities. Whatever your goals and objectives, a mystery shopping plan can be tailored to provide exactly what you need. It is this level of customization, though, that dictates a custom cost as well.

Mystery Shopping Gives You a Competitive Advantage

Mystery shopping is about more than pulling back the curtain and seeing your company and order process through your customers’ eyes. It’s also about obtaining a competitive advantage.

Implementation of a mystery shopping program produces vast amounts of data. That data, in turn, provides vast insights…

Insights into how your agents and representatives are performing, but also into how your business systems are functioning and interacting as a whole. With the most meaningful data, insights into the very fabric of your company.

These insights allow you to strategically develop and truly refine your competitive advantage.

Want to Know How Much Mystery Shopping Would Cost for Your Business?

When you’re ready to explore a customized estimate of what a mystery shopping investment could be for you, we’d love to discuss your goals and needs to provide a personalized proposal specifically designed for your organization.

To get in touch, use this form to book a call or you can reach us directly at 1-800-397-3515. If you prefer email, you can connect with us at info@arcqs.com.