Mystery Shopping vs. Field Audit

In the context of Mystery Shopping, Bob Phibbs stresses the importance of a compliance process that is done regularly, whose questions/criteria are unequivocal and whose outcome is ultimately actionable.  We could not agree more with Bob.  The benefits of compliance are overwhelming both in terms of sales impact and customer satisfaction.  However the same benefits can be achieved, we believe on an even greater scale,  if the organization’s own resources are engaged with the compliance process and given the means to do so.  Whether you call them store walks, store visits or field audits, the idea of a district manager checking compliance at store level and working with the store owner or franchisee to resolve any issues found is critical to your operations and your bottom line.

A mystery shopping program and District Manager field audits ultimately address different needs and have vastly different outcomes. A District Manager’s audit essentially amounts to “quality assurance”.   Provided the District Manager is equipped with the right tools, she will follow a compliance process that is also regular, unequivocal and actionable.  The visit is meant to be a preventive in nature, a process that ensures the organization’s operations are conducive to efficiency, safety, profitability and customer satisfaction. This is essential because, unlike “black-box” testing (mystery shopping), quality assurance can audit the process and prevent problems before they happen.  The DM isn’t strictly inspecting the outcome, she is checking that the process itself is conducive to a successful outcome.   She is checking the various steps, and parts of the operations machine, some of which may not be visible to the consumer.   Indeed, unlike typical Mystery Shopping programs, District Managers can review the front-of-the-house, the back-of-house as well as health and safety.  A positive customer experience does not happen in vacuum, it happens when all parts of the operations machine are functioning individually and together well.  Your District Managers are your strategy and performance enablers on the ground.

None of this is news to the manufacturing industry who has long relied on Quality Assurance throughout to improve the quality of manufactured goods.   The service industry should be no different.   If you want the outcome to meet your expectations, inspect and measure it throughout.

Successful retailers also realize that the District Manager role adds the most value when it is given the right mandate:  a coach, not a cop.  This is partly why compliance is, in and of itself, a virtuous process that engages the store owner/franchisee.  In other words, compliance is not just a checklist.  Compliance is an opportunity to reinforce best-practices using words, pictures and data and the District Manager’s own judgment.  You can’t and shouldn’t outsource that.

Mystery shopping adds a lot of value too, a different kind of value.  Mystery shopping is more like “black box” testing, less interested in the process, more focused on the outcome. That outcome is the customer experience, which of course is essential.  But again, you can’t expect to build a dependable vehicle by just checking it when it rolls off the assembly line, you must check it throughout.  Address problems before they happen, measure the effectiveness of your operations,  your stores’ compliance with standards and in-store merchandising initiatives.  Educating and engaging your store staff and preventing issues is a lot more time and cost-effective than running around fixing them. An ounce of prevention is after all worth a pound of cure.

All of this hinges on having the right process and the right tools.  According to the In-Store Implementation Network, 51% of retailers do not measure in-store execution at all.  The benefits of performance management are overwhelming.  In fact the same study estimates non-compliance costs the retail industry 1% of sales annually.  Retailers who do monitor performance often rely on paper, a process that is often slow, error-prone, analytics-poor not to mention expensive.   And yet solutions exist. The Compliantia service is built around operational compliance.  It implements an end-to-end closed loop workflow.  It can streamline your existing compliance process, cut your operational costs and increase your sales.

In conclusion,  it’s not a question of Mystery Shopping vs. field audits.  They function differently, have different purposes and outcomes.  Combined, they will make your organization more efficient, more profitable and more likely to deliver superior customer satisfaction.