The primary objective of mystery research is to collect factual, structured information about real customer experiences. Many aspects of a company’s performance are difficult to assess through surveys, publicly available information, or company statements alone. Mystery research allows us to observe what customers actually experience when interacting with a company.
Mystery research uses mystery shoppers who act as regular customers. They may visit stores, make online purchases, contact customer service hotlines, send enquiries by email, purchase and return products, request quotations, or submit complaints. These interactions follow predefined scenarios designed specifically for the research project.
Mystery research is particularly valuable when investigating aspects of customer experience that cannot easily be observed or measured through other research methods. It frequently focuses on human performance—for example, the quality of customer service or advice—but can also be used to collect information such as prices, offers, product availability, and other competitive data.
Detailed Insights Through Mystery Shopping
To the company being evaluated, mystery shoppers should be indistinguishable from ordinary customers. There is, however, one important difference: mystery shoppers are trained and instructed to observe, remember, and systematically document specific aspects of their experience.
Unlike participants in conventional customer surveys, mystery shoppers know in advance which aspects of an interaction they need to observe. They follow a structured questionnaire and document their experience shortly after the interaction. This can provide highly detailed and comparable information about specific aspects of a company’s performance.
Our mystery shoppers are well trained, open-minded consumers and freelancers
Standardised Scenarios Enable Meaningful Comparisons
In standard mystery shopping assignments, shoppers follow predefined guidelines to ensure that individual observations are as consistent and comparable as possible.
When evaluating the quality of customer advice, for example, mystery shoppers may ask about the same topics and provide the same relevant background information. This creates comparable situations across different stores, service centres, websites, or providers.
The results of multiple mystery shopping assignments can then be aggregated and analysed to compare and rank companies according to their performance.
We primarily use mystery research to:
- Evaluate product and service range and availability
- Investigate service performance
- Assess the quality of customer advice
- Collect offers and pricing information
Well Positioned to Conduct Mystery Research
Consumer Guidance Group has extensive resources for conducting mystery research studies. We have access to our own pool of approximately 100,000 mystery shoppers across Europe. Depending on the requirements of a study, shoppers can be selected according to factors such as location and socio-economic characteristics.
Our proprietary research software supports the management of mystery shopping projects, from the coordination of individual assignments to the collection and evaluation of results. Combined with standardised research procedures and our network of mystery shoppers, this enables us to conduct even large-scale studies efficiently and generate detailed, actionable results.