Mystery Shopping Tip: 5 More Questions to Ask or ‘Paper Towels, Beowulf and Passion’
This week’s blog continues with five more very important questions you should ask any Video Mystery Shopping Company before you sign the dotted line and hire them to shop your sales team. You owe it to yourself, your builder and your sales team to get the very best.
6. Is there a Minimum Order? Last week I was at Costco’s, and noticed a sale on paper towels. Well, what gal can resist that, right? I was all set to buy my four rolls of paper towels when I saw that in order to get the sales price; I had to buy 25 ROLLS of PAPER TOWELS! I don’t know about you, but I do not need nor do I have the room to warehouse 25 rolls of paper towels in my house. The same is true with Video Mystery Shops; you should not be required to order a minimum amount. You should be able to purchase only what you need. We don’t require a minimum number of monthly shops. You can order 2 or 200, whatever YOU (the client) need! No commitments or contracts should ever be required.
7. Who writes the report? Some companies allow their shoppers to write the report. This is never a good idea. A video mystery shopper is simply not qualified to do this, as they cannot be objective about the process. Our shoppers do not write reports; our Shopping Review Team does so after carefully reviewing the video shop.
8. How do I interpret the Video Mystery Shop? Some Video Mystery Shopping companies offer something known as an Interactive Scorecard. I call this the Cliff Notes version of a Video shop. When I was in college; we had to read Beowulf, probably one of the most boring and hardest to read classics of all time. Several of my friends decided to read the Cliff Notes version instead of the actual book; I on the other hand decided to read the entire book. You see, by reading the book I got the WHOLE story, not just the highlights. Many parts of the overall sales presentation, such as qualifying or closing, happen throughout the visit, which is why we provide our clients with a video time code that allows them to see the whole story, based on their criteria.
9. How do you compare my shops with other new home builders? Wondering how you stack up against other home builders? Most companies will not be able to provide this information because they do not have the national reach to allow for effective comparisons. We provide you with a national industry benchmark.
10. Who is in charge? Bottom line, you need to know that whoever is running the show is qualified to do so. You want that person to have the experience, knowledge, and qualifications required to run a Video Mystery Shopping business. I always say that one of the reasons I have been in this business for 25 years is because I love everything about the new home building process. I wouldn’t trade what I do for anything! When you love what you do, the rest is icing on the cake.
I hope you have found this blog helpful in making your Video Mystery Shopping decisions. As always, please feel free to call me directly with any questions you may have about the video mystery shopping process. If you can’t tell already, it is my PASSION. And, it’s a heck of a lot more exciting than reading Beowulf!
