5 ways to motivate teams using mystery shopping

5 Ways To Motivate Teams Using Mystery Shopping

Running a business is like running a car – you need to keep all the parts and engine finely tuned and well oiled, so it runs efficiently. Good leadership needs to include clear goals, incentives and motivation to ensure you’re all working on the same page and towards continuous growth. Here’s how you can motivate your teams using mystery shopping programmes.

Mystery shopping is a great business tool, not only for assessing how you are performing, but even more importantly, for driving performance improvement amongst your teams. Just by running a mystery shopping programme, you’ll notice an immediate improvement in performance (and so will your customers!) As well as this, an added benefit of mystery shopping is that you can gain an understanding of how you are performing now, and compare this to your goals and objectives or run a benchmarking programme against competitors.

A carefully designed programme can tell you where you are succeeding, where you could improve, and how you can get there. For teams, often you’ll find that when they are expecting a mystery shopper, they’ll automatically push themselves to be the best they can be, and for that, these programmes are amazing!

1.) Explain Expectations

They say you should never assume anything, and in management this is true. Make sure your team knows what you expect from them. Discuss when the programme will start, what the results will be used for, and what it will include. Always ask for your team’s input on the programme and listen to their feedback, as they might bring things to light which you weren’t aware of. If you’d like an MSL team member to help co-ordinate an introductory meeting, just let us know. 

Don’t forget to communicate procedures and/or conduct training on any new criteria that the mystery shopping programme will assess. 

2.) Tell Them It’s Their Time To Shine

Mystery shopping products and services gives the team the opportunity to shine. To demonstrate their skills and experience. Explain to them that mystery shopping will highlight great customer experiences that might have otherwise gone unnoticed. If you are using video or audio mystery shopping, let them know that great examples of customer experience shown will be used to demonstrate best practice to others and that their skills will be widely recognised. 

3.) Incentivise 

Where appropriate, make mystery shopping a competitive challenge amongst your teams for better engagement (and therefore results). Explain that there will be an online leaderboard where scores per division will be visible. Run an incentive programme based on consistently good mystery shopping results if you can!

A good manager will recognise where excellence is being shown and reward it. A great manager will also see where teams need improvement and support them through training and advice.

4.) Discuss Assessments

When the results start coming in, make sure team leaders are checking in with anyone who has been assessed as part of a mystery shop. For example, if an audio mystery shop has recorded a specific team member’s service and delivery, touch base with them at an appropriate time to discuss their individual result and where to progress from there on. This could take place during reviews, in weekly or monthly meetings, but often a quick phone call is the best way to provide teams with a way to give feedback or ask questions on their experience of the programme.

For advice on discussing these results, have a read of our article on Talking To Teams About Their Results’ .

5.) Publish Results

All results can be viewed in one place using our online software, MSL Online. This allows you to track and analyse all of your data, compare reports and view all of the supporting evidence part of your mystery shops, e.g., photos and audio recordings.

Once the programme has completed, our team of Data Analysts can create bespoke reports for you that can be used in a variety of ways. For example:

  • A presentation of your mystery shopping results for the next monthly meeting.
  • An end of year written summary for shareholders.
  • A simple results summary providing you with actions to take.

Ensuring that your teams have access to their results through email notifications and portal access is a great way of increasing their levels of engagement and motivation. Certificates, posters and letters of commendation are all ways in which you can highlight achievements, and this is something our teams can help with. 

Teams can often become disengaged or lacking in confidence to let themselves shine. Other times it can be tough to keep positive momentum going (or started in some cases). If that resonates with you, take a look at Sophie’s, our Managing Director, business coaching website, ‘The Honest Manager’. A great place for all managers – both new and experienced.

If you’d like to discuss how a mystery shopping programme can help your business, or are an existing client and would like more advice on supporting your teams, contact our client team on 01409 255025,
enquiries@mystery-passengers.com

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