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                     REFERENCING AND CITATION

FOR REFERENCE LIST USE:


Djordjic, M. (2011). Specificities of Mystery Shopping in Retail Financial Services.

Quarterly Marketing Journal, 42(1), pp. 53-69.


FOR IN-TEXT CITATIONS USE:


Djordjic (2011) or (Djordjic, 2011)
UDK 658.6, Pregledni rad




                                                Članci/Papers
                                                Specificities of Mystery Shopping
                                                in Retail Financial Services*

                                                Marko Đorđić


ABSTRACT:  The purpose of this                  introdUction
article is to investigate methodological 
specificities of mystery shopping in retail     The term mystery shopping was coined in 1940s by the WilMark Compa-
financial services, as well as a set new        ny which was the first one to offer mystery shopping services (Michelson,
non-methodology related challenges in           n.d.). Even thought financial institutions have been conducting mystery
management of mystery shopping stud-            shopping since then (Newhouse, 2004) it was not until 1970s when the
ies, introduced with recent innovations in      major employment of mystery shopping started in banking. It evolved
mystery shopping. The article also reveals      from a tool intended to monitor and enhance performance, and develop
methodological recommendations on how           sales culture, into a predictor of customer satisfaction, after the intro-
to enhance the overall quality of mystery       duction of innovative concept of service quality in 1980s (Leeds, 1995).
shopping studies in light of current inter-
                                                Today mystery shopping is an industry worth $1.5 billion USD globally
national standards and code of conduct 
                                                (Michelson, n.d.) and a part of everyday business practice of small and
in mystery shopping. Exposed recommen-
dations indicate that quality of mystery        large companies.
shopping in retail financial services can           Mystery shopping in general has been a subject of a numerous pub-
be enhanced by: (a) conducting mystery          lications about customer service, service, quality and so forth (Limbrick
shopping on continual basis, (b) mystery        1997; Newhouse, 2004; Stucker, 2005). When it comes to mystery shop-
shopping in entire network of branch            ping implementation in financial services – primarily in banking – ma-
offices, (c) integrating all components         jority of previous scholarship dates back from mid 1990s (Dorman, 1994;
of service delivery into research subject,      Hoffman, 1993; Holliday 1994; Hotchkiss, 1995; Leeds 1992, 1995; Mor-
and (d) continuous application of quality       ral, 1994; Stoval, 1993; Tepper 1994).
control instruments prior, throughout, and          Even though mystery shopping in financial services was the subject
afterwards the study. Findings are mainly       of extensive scientific exploration, further research is needed in order to
applicable in mystery shopping in retail 
                                                extend present knowledge base is with exploration of specificities of mys-
financial services, as well as to an extent, 
                                                tery shopping in retail financial services. Also, further research is needed
in mystery shopping in other retail and 
corporate services.                             especially having in mind (a) the advancements in research methodology
                                                which have occurred since 1990s, (b) revised and updated international
Keywords:  mystery shopping, retail             standards and code of conduct in mystery shopping, and (c) new chal-
financial services, research methodology,       lenges which have emerged in research management.
service marketing, research management.
                                                    Therefore, primary objective of this methodological article is to inves-
                                                tigate methodological specificities of mystery shopping in retail financial
                                                services, and expose methodological recommendations that can enhance
                                                the overall quality of mystery shopping. These methodological recom-
                                                mendations refer to the mystery shopping’s: (a) purpose and objective,
                                                (b) geographic and observational embracement, (c) frequency, (d) sam-

                                                * The article is partially based on previously conducted study Kvantitativna marketing
                                                  istraživanja u bankarskom poslovanju [Quantitative Marketing Research in Banking]
                                                  (Unpublished master’s thesis) by M. Djordjic, 2009, University of Belgrade, Depar-
                                                  tment for Organizational Sciences, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia.



                                                                                                                                  53
pling, (e) research embracement, (e) shop scenario          practice without further development of its theoreti-
and inscription, and (f) data acquisition and qual-         cal foundation.
ity control. Methodological recommendations are                 Because of this, providers of mystery shopping ser-
revealed in light of current international standards        vices invested a significant amount of effort in order
and code of conduct for mystery shopping, and ag-           to compensate for the missing knowledge, and fill
gregate existing theoretical knowledge, with author’s       the void between inadequately developed theoreti-
professional experience in managing mystery shop-           cal foundations and growing employment of mystery
ping studies for retail financial service providers. The    shopping in practice. These efforts resulted in intro-
article also examines a set of new non-methodological       duction of internationally recognized standards and
challenges which have emerged in mystery shopping           guidelines for conducting mystery shopping, which
management, as well as some fundamental issues of           today make the methodological foundation of mys-
mystery shopping methodology.                               tery shopping. Therefore, today there certainly is no
    Even though the article addresses the issues of con-    discrepancy between theory and practice of mystery
ducting mystery shopping in retail financial services,      shopping.
majority of the recommendations can be employed                 Even though the initial objective of international
to an extent, when conducting mystery shopping in           standards was to codify existing knowledge, and ex-
other retail services, and in corporate (i.e., business     periential learning about mystery shopping—thus
to business – B2B) services. However, it is important       providing a firm basis for further theoretical devel-
to note that mystery shopping in retail and corporate       opment—standardization surpassed initial objec-
services do not share the same methodological frame-        tives and led to creation of strict code of conduct for
work, and therefore conducting mystery shopping             mystery shopping. International standards of mystery
research in corporate services is not feasible solely re-   shopping are developed and enforced by associations
lying on methodological recommendations presented           such as Mystery Shopping Providers Association
in this article.                                            (MSPA), European Society for Opinion and Market
    Practical implications of the article may be particu-   Research (ESOMAR), and British Market Research
larly interesting to marketing professionals (market-       Society (MRS). Member companies of these asso-
ing managers and research consultants), because it          ciations are obliged to conduct mystery shopping in
provides recommendations on how to deal with chal-          compliance with the international standards and code
lenges that emerge on everyday basis when conduct-          of conduct, because declination from these regula-
ing mystery shopping research in retail financial ser-      tions can result in sanctions.
vices. Theoretical implications may be interesting to           Despite strict standards and code of conduct there
academics and scientists who study the field of mar-        still are some methodological issues regarding mys-
keting research or marketing in financial services.         tery shopping which need to be addressed before en-
                                                            gaging in further discussion.

1.   ethodological foUndations 
   m                                                        Marketing Research or Not?
   of mystery shoPPing                                      One of the issues trailing mystery shopping since the
Mystery shopping as marketing research has had a            day of its conception is whether the mystery shopping
bit of a rough start. Contrarily to the other types of      actually is a marketing research? This is an important
marketing research — which were firstly developed in        issue because it determines overall approach towards
theory, and then enhanced through practical exercise        mystery shopping, both in science and practice.
— mystery shopping emerged on the basis of practical           According to MSPA Europe (2003) “mystery shop-
needs without ever reaching such high level of theo-        ping is not traditional market research but is a busi-
retical development.                                        ness information tool” (p. 3). It is important to rec-
   Premature employment of mystery shopping cre-            ognize previous statement, because it represents an
ated a discrepancy between its practical implementa-        opinion of the most influential industrial association
tion and theoretical development. On one hand, the          of companies specialized in providing only mystery
theoretical basis of mystery shopping was insufficient      shopping services. The state of fact is that these com-
to provide high quality research, but on the other          panies are not genuine marketing research compa-
hand, mystery shopping could not be enhanced in             nies, and from their perspective, it might be justified




54      Marko Đorđić
to observe mystery shopping as a business informa-            Mystery Shopping as
tion tool, rather than as a marketing research.               Observational Research
   On the other hand ESOMAR (2005) provides very
strict definition of mystery shopping in relation to its      In primary marketing research original data can be
belonging to the diverse spectrum of marketing re-            acquired trough (a) observation, (b) survey, (c) ex-
search.                                                       periment, and (d) qualitative methods (Easwaran &
                                                              Singh, 2006, p. 95). Since data in mystery shopping is
  “In cases where any personal data collected are             acquired through observation and not through survey
  to be treated as fully confidential and are not to          – which is a more common method of data acquisi-
  be used for any purpose other than scientific               tion – it is important to recognize that mystery shop-
  research the study falls under the definition of            ping is an observational research. This type of research
  market research and can be described as mys-                allows direct observation of phenomenon in its natu-
  tery shopping research.                                     ral setting. To be more specific, mystery shopping is
  If the personal data collected are not to be treat-         a form of covert observational research. Furthermore,
  ed as fully confidential and may also be used               ESOMAR (2005) emphasizes that “key characteristic
  for purposes other than scientific research—for             of a mystery shopping studies is that the data subjects
  example in connection with the staff training,              are normally not aware at the time they are participat-
  reinforcement of sales efforts or the operation             ing in a study” (p. 2).
  of bonus system—then the study does not fall                    One of the ways to classify observational research
  exclusively under the definition of market re-              is as (a) structured or (b) unstructured (Brink, Van der
  search and must not be described as the mystery             Valt, & Van Rensburg, 1996/2006, p. 143). While the
  shopping research but as the mystery shopping               data acquired through unstructured observational
  project.” (p. 4)                                            research tends to deliver descriptive information pri-
    According to ESOMAR’s definition key qualifiers           marily used in qualitative analysis, structured obser-
that determine when mystery shopping abandons                 vational research tends to acquire quantitative data.
boundaries of marketing research are (a) confidential-           “Structured observations entail specifying in ad-
ity of personal data and (b) purpose of mystery shop-            vance precisely the behaviors or events that are
ping. How does this apply to the business practice?              to be observed and how they will be recorded,
    Well, it is hard to find a mystery shopping study            and preparing forms for record-keeping such
that would be exclusively used for scientific purposes           as checklists, categorization systems and rating
outside scientific or academic institutions. In busi-            scales. Structured observation is the method
ness practice mystery shopping is used in customer               most commonly used in quantitative studies,
relationship management (CRM), quality manage-                   where the researcher or trained observer simply
ment (QM), personnel training, business intelligence,            observes and records certain aspects of the sub-
and so forth. However, this type of deployment does              ject’s behavior.” (Brink et al., 1996/2006, p. 143)
not necessarily lead to disclosure of personal data.
Therefore, until there is no disclosure of personal data         In practice of retail financial services it is much
mystery shopping in business environment still can            more common to conduct mystery shopping as struc-
be categorized as marketing research. On occasions            tured observational research. Qualitative data is of no
when it is necessary to disclose personal data it should      value for research orderers because it does not deliver
be considered as a mystery shopping project.                  findings which can be deployed in CRM, QM, person-
    The distinction introduced by ESOMAR is very              nel training, and so forth. Marketing research indus-
valuable both in scientific discussion, as well as in         try is very responsive to this requirement and research
practical employment. It clearly defines boundaries,          providers are constantly innovating mystery shopping
which should be kept in mind when engaging in mys-            methodology towards making it more robust, reliable,
tery shopping. This article predominantly examines            and quantitative, thus drifting away from its qualita-
methodology of mystery shopping research. However,            tive counterpart.
the majority of recommendations can be successfully              However, it is important to have in mind that even
applied to the mystery shopping projects as well.             when conducting mystery shopping as structured ob-
                                                              servational research it still is not typical quantitative
                                                              research. Observational research requires different
                                                              methodological platform especially in terms of sam-



                                                           Specificities of Mystery Shopping in Retail Financial Services      55
pling method, data analysis, data interpretation, and        firstly observed and then recorded in detailed and
so forth. Friedrichs and Ludtke (as cited by Wilson,         objective manner1.
1998b) indicate potential advantages which observa-
tional research offers over survey research.
1. Reported behavior can differ from real behavior.       2. research methodology
   Statements gathered through interviewing can be
   different than the factual behavior of the inter-      Methodology of mystery shopping studies relies
   viewed person.                                         heavily on international standards and strict code of
2. Sometimes, facts can be brought to light only by       conduct. While from the outside it resembles other
   examining them in their natural setting, because       marketing research methodologies, closer review
   these facts emerge only when interviewee is not        will reveal some crucial differences between mystery
   aware of the interview.                                shopping and other types of marketing research.

   Therefore findings and data gained only through        Purpose and Objective
survey research may not be sufficient, and can be very
well complemented with findings from observational        The generic purpose of mystery shopping research is
research. That is exactly what mystery shopping pro-      to provide positive contribution in decision making
vides because “participant observation helps to de-       processes related to the issues of CRM, QM, sales, and
velop richer knowledge of the experiential nature of      personnel training. The objective of mystery shopping
services” (Wilson, 1998b, p. 149).                        research is to acquire objective and unbiased data in
                                                          reference with factual performance of a service deliv-
Definition of Mystery Shopping                            ery unit2 at a particular moment in time, in accordance
                                                          with the pre-defined protocols and specifications, so
ESOMAR, MSPA Europe, and MRS define mystery               that acquired data can later be used to evaluate the en-
shopping in quite similar manner without essential        forcement of corporate standards in service delivery.
differences. Examination of ESOMAR’s definition is           Various authors provide more elaborate viewpoints
sufficient for the purposes of this article.              that relate purpose and objective of mystery shopping
   “Mystery shopping studies involve the use of           to its specific deployment in practice. Leeds (1995,
   mystery shoppers who are trained and/or briefed        p. 3) indicates that mystery shopping provides feed-
   to observe, experience and measure any cus-            back on how branch office personnel treats custom-
   tomer service process by acting as a prospective       ers, and whether branch office personnel is competent
   customer and undertaking a series of pre-deter-        and courteous. Wilson (1998b, p. 153) establishes
   mined tasks to assess performance against spe-         a concatenation between expectations of managers
   cific criteria reporting back on their experiences     and customers – which are expressed through cor-
   in a comparable and consistent way.” (2005, p.2)       porate standards in service delivery – and mystery
                                                          shopping – which collects facts rather than percep-
   Previous definition reveals key features of mystery    tions, and that way objectively measures performance
shopping which set it apart from other types of mar-      in service delivery relative to these standards. Same
keting research.                                          author denotes that mystery shopping provides the
1. Unlike in other types of research, in mystery          possibility for managers to look behind the aggregate
   shopping filed force is required to go one step        data acquired through customer satisfaction surveys
   further from just acquiring data, and try to experi-   and detect decline in service delivery at specific time
   ence the service process they are engaging in.         and specific service delivery units (Wilson, 1998b, p.
2. In mystery shopping field force acts as ordinary
   customers and behaves in accordance with pre-          1 On occasions, if there are no legal constrains, it is possible to
   defined protocol, in order to evaluate performance       make an audio recording of mystery shopping, thus making the
   in service delivery, without ever disclosing their       data acquisition and recording a simultaneous process.
   true intentions or identity.                           2 Service delivery unit comprises of people, processes, and
3. Contrary to the survey research when data is             physical environment engaged in service rendering to the
   acquired and recorded simultaneously, data and           customers. Main service delivery units in retail financial ser-
                                                            vices are branch offices, even though financial services can be
   insights collected through covert observations are       rendered via telephone, Internet, or automated teller machines
                                                            (ATMs).



56      Marko Đorđić
Figure 1. Mystery
 Sopping Research
 Embracement Matrix.




Note. Mystery shopping studies can expand its geographical reach by conducting mystery shopping on multiple national
markets, or expand its observational reach by including competitor’s service delivery units into study.



157). These findings would remain inaccessible with-             Initially mystery shopping was designed to evalu-
out mystery shopping. Leeds (1995) emphasizes the             ate and monitor enforcement of standards in service
role of mystery shopping in rising corporate income           delivery of the company which ordered the research.
because it (a) helps build customer satisfaction, (c)         This type of autogenous3 mystery shopping is the ba-
strengthens the ability to retain customers, and (c)          sic way to design mystery shopping. It gives an op-
enhances product usage.                                       portunity to thoroughly examine the entire process
   According to the Wilson (1998a, p. 419) mystery            of service delivery, and discover its strong and weak
shopping studies have employment potential to                 points. Its findings can be utilized in CRM, QM, sales,
                                                              and personnel training.
• identify weak points in service delivery,
                                                                 Observational reach of mystery shopping can be
• enhance personnel’s motivation by further train-
                                                              extended to competitors branch offices as well. This
  ing and bonuses, and
                                                              gives another deployment potential to the mystery
• in case of competitive mystery shopping, to assess
                                                              shopping and turns autogenous mystery shopping
  the company’s competitiveness in service delivery.
                                                              into competitive mystery shopping. The emphasis of
                                                              competitive mystery shopping is to evaluate perfor-
Geographic and Observational Embracement
                                                              mance in service delivery of own company relative to
Embracement of mystery shopping research is deter-            the performance of direct competitors, rather than to
mined by its (a) geographical and (b) observational           evaluate and monitor enforcement of own corporate
reach. Research embracement matrix in Figure 1 dis-           standards in service delivery. Also, it can be utilized
plays four possibilities to design mystery shopping re-       for business intelligence (BI) purposes. Leeds (1995)
search. These possibilities are obtained by intersecting      suggests that competitive mystery shopping provides
geographic and observational reach of mystery shop-
ping research.                                                3 Autogenous is a medical term used to describe phenomenon
                                                                which is self generated, or self produced.



                                                           Specificities of Mystery Shopping in Retail Financial Services      57
the opportunity to identify competitor’s best and          Frequency
worst practices and present the opportunities to im-
                                                           Research frequency should be determined in such
prove your own service delivery.
                                                           manner that it provides greatest employment poten-
    International standards and code of conduct (ESO-
                                                           tial, for a given amount of financial resources intend-
MAR, 2005; MRS, 2008; MSPA Europe, 2003) are very
                                                           ed to be invested in mystery shopping. How does this
strict when it comes to the competitive mystery shop-
                                                           apply to the particular types of mystery shopping in
ping, especially having in mind its BI employment po-
                                                           retail financial services, and what would be the appro-
tential. Therefore, standards prescribe that when con-
                                                           priate methodological recommendations regarding its
ducting competitive mystery shopping it is especially
                                                           frequency?
important to avoid any unnecessary losses or dam-
                                                               In order to be effective and reach limits of its em-
ages to the competitors. Data must be collected care-
                                                           ployment potential mystery shopping must be con-
fully without waste of the competitor’s resources (e.g.,
                                                           ducted on continual bases. According to Leeds (1995,
money, time, etc.). This is very important in order to
                                                           p. 3) „measurements should be taken quarterly to
prevent any kind of misuse of mystery shopping.
                                                           provide timely feedback on missed opportunities (for
    Driven by the need to have more efficient asset
                                                           example not asking the customer to come back or
management the industry of financial services un-
                                                           forgetting to offer an application)“. Previous recom-
derwent transformation throughout international-
                                                           mendation should be considered optimal, because it
ization of its business operations. In order to ensure
                                                           provides balance between employment potential and
international growth, financial service providers had
                                                           research cost. Conducting mystery shopping more
to introduce specific instruments of international de-
                                                           often would insignificantly increase its employment
velopment in all areas of business administration. In
                                                           potential, regarding the amount of additional funds
marketing, one of these innovative instruments was
                                                           it requires. Furthermore, conducting mystery shop-
multinational marketing research. The purpose of
                                                           ping too often will cause research to lose its impact,
multinational marketing research is to explore and
                                                           and saturate decision makers with information, which
monitor performance of subsidiaries operating at dif-
                                                           is just the opposite of what the research is intended
ferent national markets (countries) by using unified
                                                           to achieve. Also, it is important to recognize, that it
methodology, which provides comparability of find-
                                                           takes some time for financial service providers to ana-
ings and data.
                                                           lyze data and findings gained through mystery shop-
    This led to expansion of geographic reach of mys-
                                                           ping, make decisions, and subsequently take action.
tery shopping and introduction of multinational mys-
                                                           Therefore, mystery shopping studies should be evenly
tery shopping. Multinational mystery shopping is
                                                           spaced during the entire business year, with enough
similar to the autogenous mystery shopping, except it
                                                           time in between, so each study can be utilized in deci-
is conducted simultaneously or in proximity, on more
                                                           sion making process.
than one national market. The objective of multina-
                                                               However, if it is not feasible to conduct mystery
tional mystery shopping is to evaluate and monitor
                                                           shopping quarterly, mystery shopping should be con-
enforcement of international corporate standards in
                                                           ducted no less than once a year. Otherwise, employ-
service delivery within subsidiaries. Its emphasis is to
                                                           ment potential of the research would significantly
investigate compliance with international corporate
                                                           deteriorate. Even when conducting mystery shopping
standards in general.
                                                           only once a year its employment potential is dimin-
    Multinational mystery shopping requires coopera-
                                                           ished, because it cannot be utilized in personnel train-
tion and synchronization of a large number of par-
                                                           ing, QM, CRM, and so forth. It can be used only to
ties, usually dispersed over a large geographical area.
                                                           evaluate performance in service delivery at certain
Furthermore cultural, social, and lingual issues – un-
                                                           moment in time. Even though it is better to conduct
known in national marketing research – emerge in
                                                           mystery shopping once annually, than not to conduct
multinational marketing research. This means that
                                                           it at all, it is recommended to make it more often, be-
methodological framework must be developed in such
                                                           cause only than it yields its true benefits for decision
manner that it assures comparability of data without
                                                           makers.
neglecting national specificities. (Further details in
                                                               When it comes to the competitive mystery shop-
reference with multinational mystery shopping will
                                                           ping, there is no need to conduct it more often than
be discussed later.)
                                                           once annually. Competitive mystery shopping aims to
                                                           acquire data that would later be used to compare per-



58      Marko Đorđić
formance in service delivery of own company against           servations of events4 during certain specified times”
its direct competitors. Having in mind that this type         (p. 144).
of research is far more demanding to conduct, more               There are two options to time individual shops in
expensive, and that it delivers more complex findings,        time sampling:
there is no need to conduct it more often. It especially
                                                              • Random timing, when the timing of each indi-
applies in case of multinational competitive mystery
                                                                vidual shop is determined only by the will of the
shopping.
                                                                mystery shopper without any external interfer-
                                                                ence. The sampling plan is not required because
Sampling Without a Sampling Frame                               the mystery shoppers independently decide when
Sampling in mystery shopping is quite different than            to visit branch offices.
sampling in survey research. In survey research,              • Systematic timing, when all shops are conducted
sample is obtained by deriving a certain number of              within those key hours when it is suspected that
elements from a target population by using some of              the quality of service delivery may decline. Usual-
the sampling methods (e.g., random sampling, quota              ly, these timings are: (a) in the morning just upon
sampling, etc.). Sample frame provides the informa-             the opening of branch offices, (b) the rush hour
tion on how to access particular sampling units, and            when it is expected that branch offices will be
consequently sampling elements. In survey research              flooded with customers, or (c) just before the end
relations between target population, sampling frame,            of the business hours. Systematic timing requires
sampling unit, and sampling elements are strong and             development of precise sampling plan, which
direct.                                                         needs to be strictly fallowed during the fieldwork.
    How different is the sampling in mystery shopping             The decision which timing option to apply is spe-
in retail financial services?                                 cific to each mystery shopping study, and depends on
    Well just to start with, the relations between sam-       the assumption which timing would be most benefi-
pling frame, sampling unit, and sampling elements are         cial to the representatives and objectivity of the study.
not that rigid. This is due to the fact that in mystery       While, the random timing may make the study more
shopping service encounters carry the role of sampling        unbiased, it might deliver less useful findings and data
elements, and sampling frame for service encounters           than systematic shopping. The decision which timing
is impossible to obtain. While the list of branch of-         to choose is usually made by the research orderer.
fices might be the closest thing to the sampling frame,           Finally there are two important recommendations
it is not an actual sampling frame. The list of branch        in reference with time sampling in mystery shopping
offices does not resemble the population of service           in retail financial services.
encounters, and thus prevents the formation of such               Firstly, it is especially important to emphasize that
rigid relations between sampling frame and sampling           the findings and data acquired through mystery shop-
elements. To be exact, in mystery shopping service en-        ping are representative only for branch offices where
counters are being induced rather than being sampled.         the mystery shopping took place. It is impossible to
But, from the branch office personnel point of view,          conduct mystery shopping in a number of branch
these covert service encounters appear like all others,       offices and then assume that acquired data is repre-
and effectively are being sampled from the infinite           sentative for the entire network of branch offices (i.e.,
population of service encounters which take place in          entire financial service provider). Therefore, mystery
branch offices.                                               shopping should be conducted in all branch offices.
    Then, what would be the appropriate sampling              Only branch offices which should be excluded from
method to use in mystery shopping?                            the sample are the ones where there is only one em-
    The inherent properties of mystery shopping as an         ployee, because it would lead to the identification of
observational research now come in to play, and di-           the employee, or according to the ESOMAR (2005)
rect the application of sampling methods which are            “the results must be given in a form only which does
widely used in observational research: (a) time sam-          not lead to the identification of an individual person”
pling or (b) event sampling. Having in mind that event        (p. 6). Under certain circumstances—such as the re-
sampling requires observation of an entire event, time        quirement of the research orderer—it is justified to
sampling is the only applicable method. According to          conduct partial mystery shopping covering only a
Brink et al. (1996/2006) “time sampling involves ob-
                                                              4 In mystery shopping events are induced service encounters.



                                                           Specificities of Mystery Shopping in Retail Financial Services      59
Figure 2. Mystery
 Shopping and Customer
 Satisfaction Surveys




 Note. It is especially important to make both researches complementary as possible, especially having in mind that both of
 them explore the issue of service delivery but from different angles.



portion of the entire branch office network. Yet again,         sary information for decision makers. They need to
acquired data is representative only for the portion            be complemented with findings and data acquired
covered by the mystery shopping, and not the entire             through observational research, primarily mystery
network of branch offices.                                      shopping. This especially applies to researches that
    Secondly, it is very important to shop at each              investigate the issues of service delivery, such as cus-
branch office at least twice during the same mystery            tomer satisfaction surveys (CSS). Therefore, when
shopping study. This is an important methodologi-               designing mystery shopping or CSS it is important
cal requirement because it gives an opportunity to              to align research subject of one another, in order to
reduce the risk of observer bias. According to Good-            make them as complementary as possible, and cre-
win (2010) observer bias emerges in observational               ate more synergy between these two different types
research because observers have some preconceived               of researches. It is recommended to engage the same
ideas about the object of observation and may un-               research provider to design CSS and mystery shop-
consciously allow their preconceived ideas to color             ping, and conduct them the same time. This approach
their observations. Conducting at least two shops to            enriches informational surrounding, and makes both
the same branch office provides interobserver reliabil-         researches more productive. Relations between the
ity. The reduction of the observer bias is the focus of         research subject of mystery shopping and customer
training, and with these measures it is reduced to a            satisfaction surveys are depicted in Figure 2.
minimum.                                                           Having this in mind, let us now investigate the re-
                                                                search subject of mystery shopping in retail financial
Three Components of Research Subject                            services.
                                                                   The most natural approach to define the research
As mentioned earlier, findings and data acquired
                                                                subject of mystery shopping is to start from service
through survey research do not provide all neces-
                                                                marketing mix. Service marketing mix contains ad-



60      Marko Đorđić
ditional 3 Ps which stand for: people, processes, and         service, starting with kindness and forwardness, right
physical environment. Furthermore, in retail finance          to the specific protocols on how to handle complaints
majority of services are delivered in branch offices          and unsatisfied customers. Sometimes they are so
through numerous interactions of customers, branch            strict that they prescribe exactly what branch office
office personnel, and physical environment. There-            personnel should or should not say in case clients ex-
fore, the generic mystery shopping research subject           press dissatisfaction. Prior to their unsupervised work
must cover three fundamental research components:             in branch offices, branch personnel are trained until
(a) people, (b) processes, and (c) physical environ-          they achieve certain level of readiness and capability
ment.                                                         to handle every customer. This is especially important
    However, having in mind the diversity among retail        having in mind fierce competition among providers of
financial service providers, and their efforts to design      retail financial services, and the value of each custom-
and deliver service in a unique way, it is usually neces-     er. Specific mystery shopping scenarios, which drive
sary to enrich generic framework of mystery shopping          branch office personnel through various situations
research subject. The generic framework is enriched           with customers, are designed to test their readiness
by integration of individual specificities of service de-     and capability to service customers.
livery into research components. Careful examination              Competence of the branch personnel is evaluated
of corporate standards in service delivery is required        as well. It is done by designing specific shop scenarios
in order to discover specificities and integrate them         which mimic the inquiry regular customers about
into shop scenarios and inscriptions. This can be done        certain financial products or services. Branch office
only in close cooperation between research provider           personnel needs to have in depth knowledge of vari-
and research orderer. It can be a time consuming pro-         ous products and services their company has to offer.
cess, especially in case of multinational mystery shop-       Therefore, when being asked about some of them, they
ping studies.                                                 should give elaborate and accurate product or service
    Another factor that may influence the embrace-            descriptions, and move forward with sales activities.
ment of research subject may be the requirement for           Mystery shoppers already know the answers to these
specific information. According to judgment of the re-        questions, and they can evaluate the competence of
search orderer, some components of service delivery           the branch office employees. On occasions branch of-
may require more attention and others may require             fice personnel may even be asked about product their
less. However, accurate and impartial findings can be         company does not offer, and tested whether they will
acquired only by gaining insights in all components of        act in compliance with prescribed protocol.
service delivery, without neglecting some, and priori-            Finally, mystery shoppers can observe general ap-
tizing others. Reclining on partial findings increases        pearance and tidiness of branch office personnel. This
the risk of drawing wrong or misleading conclusions.          refers to whether branch office personnel wears or
                                                              does not wear name tags, whether their workspace is
People                                                        clean and tidy, whether they are dressed properly, and
                                                              so forth. In modern financial services these criteria
In marketing mix of retail financial services people
                                                              are usually met and retail financial service providers
indicate the entire branch office personnel, with em-
                                                              report excellent performance in that department.
phasis on employees who provide services to custom-
ers. This is the most important research component
                                                              Physical environment
of mystery shopping in retail financial services. This
component of research subject covers investigation of         Second component of the mystery shopping research
branch office personnel’s                                     subject is physical environment where the service
                                                              delivery takes place. Practically all physical objects
• readiness and capability to provide services to
                                                              engaged in service delivery should be observed and
  customers;
                                                              evaluated. Yet again, corporate standards in retail fi-
• competence; and
                                                              nancial services are very strict when it comes to the
• general appearance and tidiness.
                                                              physical environment. They prescribe which items
   Exploration of people component of research sub-           and machines are to be used in servicing customers,
ject relies heavily on corporate standards in customer        their placement, and so forth. In retail financial ser-
service, and usually is unique to every financial service     vices the evaluation of physical environment refers to
provider. These standards cover all areas of customer



                                                            Specificities of Mystery Shopping in Retail Financial Services      61
• cleanliness and tidiness of service delivery envi-           not conducted simultaneously. Therefore, mystery
  ronment,                                                     shopping requires specific instruments to facilitate
• placement (existence) of objects, and                        and aid data acquisition.
• operational status of these objects.                             In mystery shopping field force uses shop inscrip-
                                                               tion5 because there is no surveying and it is not pos-
    In practice this means that mystery shoppers usu-
                                                               sible to note and acquire data simultaneously. While
ally observe external and internal appearance of the
                                                               the questionnaire in standard survey research is de-
branch offices and evaluate their cleanliness. Mystery
                                                               signed to allow field force to enter data by following
shoppers especially pay attention on proper location
                                                               certain order of questions, shop inscription is de-
of certain objects (e.g., information desks, automated
                                                               signed to aid mystery shopper to accurately recollect
teller machines, etc.), and whether these objects are
                                                               all of the information he or she previously collected
operational or out of order. Specific open ended ques-
                                                               through observation. That would be the key difference
tions are added to the shop inscriptions, so mystery
                                                               between questionnaire and shop inscription in terms
shoppers can provide more elaborate explanations of
                                                               of overall design. Therefore, MRS (2008) suggests that
particular observations. This component of service
                                                               mystery shopping studies should be limited in length
delivery is particularly easy for observation, and de-
                                                               and complexity in order to increase recollection abil-
livers very reliable findings.
                                                               ity of the field force operators.
                                                                   There are other, more particular differences as well.
Processes
                                                               While questions in the questionnaire can be rather
The last component of mystery shopping research                complex, and contain various scales, the questions in
subject are the processes involved in the service de-          shop inscription must be as simple as possible, and
livery itself. In practice this is related to the evaluation   directly related to the specificities of service encoun-
of their                                                       ter. Preferably questions should be designed in such
                                                               manner that they can be answered in a form of yes
• flow; and
                                                               and no answers. Each question must be accompanied
• duration.
                                                               with detailed directions for the mystery shoppers so
    Corporate standards in service delivery prescribe          they would exactly know what to observe. This is es-
the length of each process (e.g., opening of the cur-          pecially important because mystery shoppers need to
rent account should not take longer than ten minutes)          recollect all of the observations acquired during their
and their expected flow and outcome (e.g., customer            shops and then write them down in shop inscription.
should receive brochure about additional services).            Therefore, making questions to complex or ambigu-
Therefore, mystery shoppers measure the time it took           ous can lead to difficulties in interpreting data. Also,
to get them serviced, and observe have all the steps           the shop inscription should provide some room for
in the service delivery process been fallowed through.         mystery shoppers to describe special circumstances
Also, mystery shoppers may engage in testing of spe-           they might encounter while conducting mystery
cific services, such as currency exchange. These and           shopping. This is done by adding a limited number of
similar activities leave physical evidences such as            open ended questions.
bank statements, product brochures, and so forth.                  Another instrument specifically developed for the
Apart from providing physical evidence that the pro-           purposes of mystery shopping is a shop scenario. It is
cess has been fallowed through, this is a good quality         a written document which consist
control instrument.
                                                               • description of the setting in which mystery shop-
                                                                 ping is going to take place,
Shop Scenario and Inscription
                                                               • protocol which mystery shoppers should fallow in
Questionnaires are among the main instruments used               order to be serviced,
in survey research. Field force uses questionnaires to         • description of the expected outcome of the service
survey elements of target population, and acquire data           encounter, and
by asking questions and noting answers. Question-              • instructions on how to behave in case of unfore-
naires are designed in such manner that they provide             seen events.
simultaneous acquisition and entering of data. Unless
mystery shoppers are making an actual audio record-
ing of the shop, data acquisition and data noting are          5 Other terms such as evaluation form or even questionnaire can
                                                                 be used as well.



62      Marko Đorđić
After reading the scenarios mystery shoppers                  consumer behavior in natural setting as close to
should be almost able to visualize the environment                reality as possible.
they are going to be in, and know what exactly to ex-           • Safe. Scenario must not entice mystery shoppers
pect. Scenarios should tell mystery shoppers what to              to do anything illegal or put them under any kind
wear, what actions to take, which service to ask for,             of risk or danger.
and what to do in case of unforeseen events. Suc-
cessful development of realistic scenario is possible
                                                                Data Acquisition and Quality Control
only with close cooperation of research orderer and
research provider. It is not uncommon that research             Quality control in mystery shopping requires engage-
orderers develop the shop scenarios, because they are           ment of both research provider and research orderer.
the ones who are most familiar with the service they            The duty of research provider is to ensure highest
provide.                                                        quality of data acquisition, while the duty of research
    Shop scenarios play an important role in training           orderer is to ensure compliance of its employees. The
of mystery shoppers, and they should be exercised               engagement of research orderer is very important for
in training prior to the deployment in real setting. A          overall success of the mystery shopping and it should
common practice is to develop more than one scenar-             be encouraged. There are secondary benefits of close
io for each mystery shopping study. This brings more            cooperation between research orderer and research
diversity to the assumed roles of mystery shoppers.             provider such as: (a) strengthening of relations be-
Unlike with mystery shopping subject, there is no               tween two parties, (b) incrising of morale of mystery
generic framework for the shop scenario. Each shop              shoppers, and (c) better chances for success of the en-
scenario is developed according to the requirements             tire study. Therefore, there are a lot of obligations for
of the particular mystery shopping study.                       both sides prior, throughout, and afterwards the study
    MRS (2008, p. 5) outlined three key features of             in order to maintain its methodological integrity and
good shop scenario design.                                      enhance overall quality. Figure 3 depicts the roles of
                                                                research orderers and research providers in quality
• Straightforward. The scenario should be straight-
                                                                control in mystery shopping. International standards
  forward and easy for field force to comprehend,
                                                                and code of conduct in mystery shopping especially
  but with enough depth to the role.
                                                                emphasize quality control and its influence to the suc-
• Credible. In order to make mystery shoppers
                                                                cess of the mystery shopping study (ESOMAR 2005;
  convincible, scenario should aim to reproduce
                                                                MRS, 2008; MSPA Europe, 2003).



 Figure 3. Quality
 Control in Mystery
 Shopping




Note. Quality control in mystery shopping is a continuous process lasting before, throughout, and after the study has ended.
It requires joint efforts and close cooperation between research orderers and research providers.



                                                             Specificities of Mystery Shopping in Retail Financial Services      63
When it comes to the research provider quality           tions for mystery shoppers. The ultimate objective of
control is mainly related to the preparation, organi-       training is:
zation, and supervision of the data acquisition stage.
                                                            • to make mystery shoppers adopt scenarios and
Regardless of operational capabilities of research
                                                              inscriptions as their second nature, and
provider data acquisition in survey research remains
                                                            • reduce the influence of observer bias of each
a challenging task, and data acquisition in mystery
                                                              mystery shopper, thus making them observe the
shopping is twice as challenging. In mystery shop-
                                                              factual circumstances they detect in branch offices
ping the risks of data falsification are much greater,
                                                              in neutral way.
and quality control is harder to achieve. Therefore, it
is necessary to apply different quality control instru-         MRS (2008, p. 5) suggests that “the primary aim is
ments than the ones used in survey research.                to document precisely what happened at the point of
   What can be done to ensure and enhance the qual-         contact, rather than how the mystery shopper feels”
ity of data acquisition in mystery shopping in retail       and that is exactly what such specific training pro-
financial services?                                         vides.
   Firstly, careful selection of field force is crucial.        The actual data acquisition must take place under
According to the Wilson (1998b) “the shoppers must          continuous supervision. This is particularly hard to
match a customer profile that is appropriate for the        achieve because it is impractical to validate each shop
scenario that they are being asked to enact” (p. 154).      mystery shoppers make. However, there are few qual-
This is especially important because branch office per-     ity control instruments that can be deployed in order
sonnel has a large experience in servicing customers.       to prevent and detect wrongdoing.
Therefore, mystery shoppers must look convincing,           • Service usage. Usage of some service (i.e., auto-
and resemble customers that branch office person-             mated teller machine, foreign currency exchange,
nel meets on everyday basis. They must mimic regu-            etc.) conducted as a part of the mystery shopping
lar customers according to their: (a) age, (b) appear-        scenario, without unnecessary loss of time or
ance, and (c) social background. It would be wise for         money, and submission of physical evidence about
research providers to maintain a steady base of mys-          the usage of service (i.e., confirmation, bill, bank
tery shoppers that can be selected according to the re-       statement, etc), provides some proof that mystery
quirements of a particular study, rather than engaging        shopping actually took place. Documents issued
new mystery shoppers over and over. Even though it            by banks usually contain date and time, which
requires more funding, this is a much better policy in        may be useful to assure that the sampling plan was
long term, because it provides insight in the field per-      fallowed.
formance of each shopper, and possibility to enhance        • False branch offices. False (i.e., non-existing
their capabilities through training.                          branch offices) may be deliberately added to the
   Secondly, specific training for each study should be       sampling plan. If some mystery shoppers report
conducted. General training in mystery shopping is            back that they have conducted mystery shopping
not sufficient, because each mystery shopping study           in these false non-existing branch offices, it is an
usually is significantly different. During training filed     obvious sign of data falsification.
force must be thoroughly briefed on what to expect          • False questions. False questions referring to non-
upon entering branch offices. They need to know what          existing elements of service delivery may be added
corporate standards in service delivery prescribe,            to the shop inscription. If the financial provider
what exactly to observe, and pay attention to. Training       does not have a queueing system in its branch
transforms mystery shoppers into ordinary custom-             offices, and some mystery shoppers report other-
ers with deeper knowledge of how service delivery             wise it may indicate data falsification.
should look like. Also, it is important to thoroughly       • Time limit. Mystery shoppers must be time lim-
acquaint mystery shoppers with scenarios and shop             ited to submit shop inscriptions within the same
inscriptions. These documents must be carefully dis-          day the shop took place. Stalling with the submis-
cussed between mystery shoppers and research team             sion of the completed inscriptions should not be
so that there are no unclear questions or ambiguous           allowed. This ensures fallowing of the sampling
instructions. The participation of ordering party rep-        plan.
resentatives is encouraged in training, because they        • Debriefing. Mystery shoppers should be random-
can provide more elaborate explanations and instruc-          ly debriefed after they complete mystery shopping.



64      Marko Đorđić
Debriefing may reveal if some of mystery shop-              tual time of the mystery shopping does not need to
   pers falsified data, did not fallow sampling plan           be revealed. If both the personnel and management
   exactly, and so forth. Also, it may clarify some            understands what is mystery shopping, why it is done,
   obscurities in noted observations. Although pri-            and how may they benefit from it, the chances that
   marily it is a quality control instrument, it is also       the study will succeed are much greater. Regular and
   provides feedback on practical employment of                timely communication ensures compliance, and has
   scenarios and inscriptions, and field performance           further benefits when it comes to the implementation
   of mystery shoppers. Close and sometimes infor-             of findings gained through mystery shopping. Also, it
   mal relations with field force can only do well, and        is important to clarify the objectives and intended uses
   enhance the chances of success of mystery shop-             of the findings, especially in case of mystery shopping
   ping study.                                                 projects which may be related to bonus operations.
                                                                   Consistent behavior after the study is also impor-
    Even though each of the previously mentioned
                                                               tant. Research orderer must not abuse mystery shop-
quality control instruments may fail, deploying all of
                                                               ping. MSPA Europe (2003) states that “disciplinary
them simultaneously significantly decreases the risk
                                                               action must not be taken only on the basis of the
of data falsification. However, the most effective in-
                                                               mystery shopping program results. The aim of mys-
strument of quality control in mystery shopping is
                                                               tery shopping should be to increase customer service
the strong base of loyal mystery shoppers. Loyal field
                                                               levels and develop staff through training and motiva-
force is less likely to commit any kind of falsifying
                                                               tion” (p. 5).
because they do not want to compromise relations
                                                                   The research orderer is also responsible to ensure
with research provider. Furthermore, their fieldwork
                                                               that branch office personnel does not make attempts
performance is constantly evaluated and enhanced
                                                               to identify mystery shoppers, as well as not to harass
through regular practice. Also, it is important that
                                                               them. Also, MSPA Europe (2003) suggests that at-
mystery shoppers who have successfully completed
                                                               tempts to identify mystery shoppers may lead to an-
the fieldwork receive adequate honorarium.
                                                               noying genuine customers, and that is very important
    Quality control does not end with the completion
                                                               to acquaint branch office personnel with the benefits
of the data acquisition. Research provider is obliged
                                                               of mystery shopping so they become less interested in
to maintain methodological integrity of the mystery
                                                               making attempts to identify mystery shoppers.
shopping in later stages of the study. This is particu-
                                                                   Therefore, by claiming that there will be no disci-
larly related to the anonymity of shopped employees
                                                               plinary action against employees, prior to the mys-
when reporting to the research orderer. MRS (2008)
                                                               tery shopping, research orderers ensure compliance
states that “the anonymity of respondent s must be
                                                               of their personnel. It is especially important to act
preserved unless they have given their informed con-
                                                               consistently after the study, and use findings and data
sent for their details to be revealed or for attributable
                                                               gained through mystery shopping to improve the
comments to be passed on” (p. 3). It is especially im-
                                                               performance of employees with training, and subse-
portant to pay attention to details such as the actual
                                                               quently improve the quality of service delivery. Any
time that the shop took place, because such informa-
                                                               other course of action by research orderer may create
tion may indirectly reveal identity of the employees
                                                               more harm than good.
present at the branch office. According to ESOMAR
(2005) “there must be adequate security arrangements
in place both at the client and at the research company
level to ensure that any personal data are secure and          3.   hallenges in research 
                                                                  c
not accessible by unatorised parties” (p. 3).                     management
    As stated earlier, engagement of research orderer          Conducting marketing research has always been a
is also important to ensure quality control and overall        demanding and challenging endeavor, even to an ex-
success of the project.                                        tent that it strongly influences the relations between
    It is very important that research orderer prop-           research orderer and research provider. This brings a
erly and timely informs branch office personnel and            whole set of new non-methodology related challeng-
management about the mystery shopping. According               es in research management. What would be the root
to the MSPA Europe guidelines (2003) “all staff must           cause of this?
be informed that their organisation is subject to, or             Well, from a research orderer’s viewpoint, engag-
intends to undertake, mystery shopping” (p. 5). Ac-            ing in marketing research is somewhat like going to a



                                                            Specificities of Mystery Shopping in Retail Financial Services      65
doctor’s appointment. You need to share confidential        budget items. This makes the entire procurement pro-
information about your business, to someone with            cess more transparent, which in return should bring
specialized knowledge, in good faith that their advice      relief to the negotiations. However, if the pressure to
will be beneficial to your business. This situation is      cut cost remains, the duty of research provider is to
stressful itself. On the one hand, research providers       protect integrity of marketing research, and revise the
have the responsibility to deliver credible data and        decision to cooperate with research orderer in ques-
findings in order to aid decision making, and on the        tion. Another solution for the research provider is to
other hand, research orderers must allow insight to         go ahead with research, and provide the missing funds
their confidential business operations to an external       from its own resources.
party, and ultimately act upon marketing research.              On both occasions the integrity of mystery shop-
   If you add financial commitments, constrains, and        ping must be maintained or mystery shopping should
deadlines in equation it is obvious that a lot of com-      not be conducted. This is ultimately in the best inter-
plexity and tension can arise in relations between re-      est of research provider and research orderer.
search orderers and research providers.
   However, managing all marketing research does            The Nature of Research
not carry equal sensitivity. In retail financial services
                                                            The inherent properties of the mystery shopping tend
sensitivity is especially present in mystery shopping
                                                            to be a source of sensitivity itself. Mystery shopping
research. What would be the circumstances under
                                                            is, most of the time, advertised as an objective and
which the likelihood of developing such sensitivity
                                                            reliable tool to evaluate the enforcement of corporate
is particularly high, and what challenges in research
                                                            standards in service delivery. Therefore, top manage-
management may arise with it?
                                                            ment examines mystery shopping reports with scru-
                                                            tiny in order to pinpoint weak performers, and act on
Research Cost
                                                            improving service quality.
Well, just to start with, mystery shopping projects             Unlike other types of marketing research which
tend to be more expensive than other types of market-       examine opinions of target population, mystery shop-
ing research (Leeds, 1995). Mystery shopping requires       ping intends to examine factual circumstances and
specific recruitment and training of field force, addi-     therefore leaves no room for free judgment. For exam-
tional instruments of quality control, and so forth. All    ple, if certain branch office reports weak performance
of this adds extra cost to mystery shopping research,       in customer satisfaction survey, this can be attributed
whit almost no room to save funds.                          to more demanding customers that expect higher
    Right there, even before the actual start of the re-    quality service than an average customer, and there-
search, this strains the relations between research         fore evaluate the service with lower grades. Since, the
orderer and research provider. It is not only a prob-       mystery shopping intends to provide objective mea-
lem for a research provider—who needs to justify the        surement based on the observation of factual circum-
extra cost—but, for a manager assigned to conduct           stances, the weak performance can only be acknowl-
the mystery shopping as well. Top management and            edged. That is why mystery shopping is so powerful if
department heads request firm assurance from their          conducted properly.
subordinates, that there will be no unnecessary ex-             Surely this brings a lot of sensitivity to the research,
penditures, and that financial resources will be spent      especially in the case when mystery shopping is relat-
wisely. Therefore, during negotiations or tender pro-       ed to bonuses or promotions. Branch office managers
curements, managers in charge of mystery shopping           or regional managers tend to be particularly affected
insist on getting the most favorable conditions espe-       by the fact that they might be the ones to acknowl-
cially in terms of price.                                   edge weak performance and face consequences (e.g.,
    Even though cost reduction requests are justi-          get downgraded). Therefore, intra personal relations
fied and acceptable, this kind of pressure can force        among managers can be altered by the findings of
research provider to make unreasonable cost reduc-          mystery shopping. This may not be the case in some
tions, just in order to close a deal with research order-   occasions, but in others it cannot be avoided.
er. If such occasion occurs, the duty of marketing re-          Intra personal relations at research orderer, can
search provider is to render all necessary explanations     place research providers in an inconvenient position.
on what exactly makes mystery shopping so expen-            Depending on a particular study, and particular set
sive, and perhaps offer detailed insight into research      of circumstances, more or less obvious attempts can



66      Marko Đorđić
be made to somehow influence the design of mystery              work for mystery shopping into a very complex and
shopping, or doubt methodology and research find-               demanding task.
ings.                                                               Inscriptions and shopping scenarios need to be de-
   While it is completely acceptable that research or-          veloped in such manner that they assure comparabil-
derer expresses interest for the research, tries to be          ity, and at the same time, that they can be applied to all
more involved, any interference on methodology is               national markets. This requires careful examination of
not acceptable. Research provider must:                         service delivery standards. In one country standards
                                                                may prescribe that branch office personnel must have
• remain neutral,
                                                                name tags. In the other country name tags may not be
• maintain mystery shopping integrity thought
                                                                required, and so forth.
  entire duration of study, and
                                                                    Infinite number of specificities in service delivery,
• enforce international code of conduct and stan-
                                                                unique to all national markets, prevents development
  dards for conducting mystery shopping.
                                                                of unified shopping scenarios. Therefore, shopping
    As mentioned earlier research orderers can help             scenarios are customized according to the local stan-
mystery shopping to succeed. It is especially impor-            dards in service delivery. Usually there are some basic
tant to promote mystery shopping among employees                multinational guidelines.
as a tool that would be used for common benefit, and                When it comes to the inscription design, there is
that will make them better in providing high quality            a way to go around this problem by using modular
service. Communication needs to be consistent and               inscription. Modular inscription comprises one main
motivational. Key to the success of mystery shopping            module common for all national markets, and it can
is to secure cooperation and compliance of regional             be expanded through supplemental modules, which
and branch management and branch office personnel.              are customized according to the specificities of ser-
It is important that everyone accepts mystery shop-             vice delivery in effect in each national market. That
ping in good faith, and build its image through con-            way important data for comparison of performance
sistent action.                                                 among subsidies is collected through main module,
    Intra personal relations will continue to be a source       while country specific data can be collected through
of sensitivity in mystery shopping. Only with proper            supplemental modules.
communication, neutrality, and objectivity research                 Secondly, further efforts are required to design ap-
orderers and research providers can increase the                propriate measuring methodology. Even though, just
chances of success of mystery shopping.                         the basic statistics is required for mystery shopping,
                                                                making of a unified measuring methodology can be
Multinational Mystery Shopping                                  time consuming, especially in case when a large num-
                                                                ber of national markets are involved in a study.
When it comes to multinational mystery shopping in
                                                                    Therefore, specificity in service delivery of each na-
retail financial services additional challenges in re-
                                                                tional market must be taken into account. Measuring
search management emerge, as well as a unique form
                                                                methodology should not prefer one national market,
of sensitivity.
                                                                or put other national market in disadvantage. It is very
   Firstly, some challenges emerge due to the dif-
                                                                important to thoroughly probe measuring methodol-
ferences in market development. Some markets are
                                                                ogy before the start of actual research. After the proj-
more developed with intense rivalry among competi-
                                                                ect has started, and the data has already been collected,
tors, and diversified offer of financial products. Other
                                                                is not a good time to discover that chosen measuring
markets are less developed. The competition is not as
                                                                methodology requires different type of data, or that
intense, product offer is basic, and mergers or acquisi-
                                                                they methodology needs to be redesigned. In general
tions are not yet finalized. Because all of this, financial
                                                                changes and revisions of the methodology in multi-
service providers may be present in a number of na-
                                                                national marketing research should be kept to mini-
tional markets, providing different types of financial
                                                                mum once the research has started. Keeping up with
products and services, with different standards in ser-
                                                                constant changes in methodology is a challenging task
vice delivery. Therefore, it is inevitable that financial
                                                                especially in multinational marketing research. Meth-
service providers will not be able to deliver service ex-
                                                                odology should be carefully developed, thoroughly
actly the same way in all national markets. This makes
                                                                probed, put in practice, and utilized until it reaches
the development of unified methodological frame-
                                                                its own analytical limits, or there is requirement from
                                                                research orderer to change it.


                                                              Specificities of Mystery Shopping in Retail Financial Services      67
Finally, a unique form of sensitivity may arise in       sure of personal data, and mystery shopping projects
multinational mystery shopping, this time on a level         require the disclosure of personal data, because they
of entire subsidiary.                                        are sometimes related to bonuses operations.
    The engagement in multinational mystery shop-                The main inherent property of mystery shopping
ping means that findings and data will be disclosed to       is that it is an observational research. It can be un-
the top management at the corporate headquarters of          structured, which intends to deliver qualitative data,
the financial institution. Furthermore, performance          or structured, which intends to deliver quantitative
of each subsidy will be examined. Even though there          data. Regardless of the data which intends to deliver,
might not be intense rivalry among subsidies from            it provides important insights which would other-
different countries, it is inevitable that each subsidiary   wise remain inaccessible such as factual observations
will try to do its best to look as good as possible in       of the service delivery, rather than opinions acquired
multinational mystery shopping.                              through survey research.
    Sensitivity towards mystery shopping can be par-             In order to be effective and reach its maximal em-
ticularly visible in those subsidiaries that operate at      ployment potential mystery shopping must be con-
undeveloped markets, or in these subsidies which             ducted continually, and it is recommended to conduct
have not yet finalized process of synchronization            it quarterly. More complex studies, such as competi-
with corporate standards (e.g., after a merger or ac-        tive or multinational mystery shopping can be con-
quisition). These subsidies may feel that their position     ducted once annually.
puts them in disadvantage, and that subsidiaries from            Time sampling is the sampling method of choice in
more developed markets, or fully integrated subsid-          mystery shopping. Timing of individual shops can be
iaries, will perform better in mystery shopping. In          random or systematic and is chosen according to the
general this leads to involuntary compliance and diffi-      preference of the research management. It is especial-
culties in implementation of mystery shopping. Since         ly important to include all branch offices into mystery
the cooperation of local parties is necessary, it is very    shopping, and to shop each branch office twice during
important to avoid such situation. Yet again, proper         the same study. Data acquired through the mystery
communication and cooperation between corporate              shopping is representative only for the branch offices
headquarters and subsidiaries should stem towards            included into the research.
acceptance of multinational mystery shopping to full             Generic research subject of mystery shopping con-
extent.                                                      sists of three research components: (a) people, (b) pro-
    Therefore, it is especially important to pay atten-      cesses, and (c) physical environment. These research
tion that methodological solutions developed at the          components can be enriched with integration of in-
corporate headquarters of financial institution and          dividual features of service delivery, specific to each
multinational research provider maintain their integ-        service provider. It is especially important to align
rity when deployed over a large geographical area.           research subject of mystery shopping with research
                                                             subject of CSS, in order to create more synergy and
                                                             maximize employment potential of both researches.
conclUsion                                                       Shop scenarios need to be realistic and straightfor-
                                                             ward. Inscriptions need to contain questions designed
Previous argument revealed methodological specifici-         in such manner that they can be answered in a form of
ties of mystery shopping in retail financial services, as    yes and no answers. A limited number of open ended
well as non-methodological issues of mystery shop-           questions should exist as well, so that mystery shop-
ping research management. The argument reviewed              pers can provide more elaborate answers about special
these issues in light of the latest standards and code of    circumstances they might encounter when conduct-
conduct in mystery shopping. Here is a summary of            ing mystery shopping.
key methodological recommendations, which can be                 Quality control in mystery shopping requires joint
particularly useful to overcome practical challenges in      efforts of both research provider and research orderer,
mystery shopping, and which can enhance the overall          prior, throughout, and afterwards the study. Research
quality of mystery shopping studies.                         provider is in charge of quality control of prepara-
   Prior to the engagement in any kind of mystery            tion, execution, and supervision of data acquisition.
shopping study it is very important to separate mys-         Research orderer’s duty is to ensure compliance of
tery shopping research, and mystery shopping proj-           branch personnel and managers, promote mystery
ects. Mystery shopping research excludes the disclo-         shopping, and act consistently after the study has


68      Marko Đorđić
been completed. It is especially important not to take           odology related challenges in mystery shopping. Even
disciplinary action on the basis of mystery shopping,            though these challenges are different, the solution
and utilize mystery shopping to enhance training and             for overcoming them is the same. It is utmost impor-
empower branch office personnel.                                 tant to develop close, transparent, and trustworthy
    Data acquisition in mystery shopping remains a               relationship between research orderers and research
challenging task. However it can be enhanced through             providers. Research orderers and research providers
training which main objective is: (a) to make mystery            should turn cooperation into partnership, and that
shoppers adopt scenarios and inscriptions as their               way make achieving their own objectives a joint effort.
second nature, and (b) reduce the influence of ob-                   Even though mystery shopping may not be the
server bias. Quality control during data acquisition is          most important marketing research, it certainly be-
ensured through deployment of various instruments                come a must have in retail financial services. From its
such as: (a) service usage, (b) false branch offices, (c)        rocky beginnings, almost three quarters of a century
false questions, (d) time limit, and (e) debriefing. The         ago, it became an objective and reliable tool to mea-
greatest assurance of quality is a steady base of loyal          sure and monitor performance in service delivery. Its
mystery shoppers.                                                employment potential grew, and it is safe to say that
    The research cost, nature of the mystery shopping            it deserves a lot of credit for the quantum leap in en-
research, and intra subsidiary relations in multina-             hancement of service quality we witness in modern
tional mystery shopping will remain key non-meth-                retail financial services.


references

 1. Brink, H. Van der Walt, C., & Van Rensburg, G.               11. Limbrick, D. (1997), “Mystery Shopping”, in P. Murley
    (2006), Fundamentals of Research Methodology for                 (Ed.), Gower Handbook of Customer Service, (pp. 151-
    Health Care Professionals, 2nd edition, Juta & Co.,              159), Grower Publishing Limited, Hampshire.
    Cape Town. (Original work published 1996)                    12. Market Research Society (2008), Mystery Shopping
 2. Dorman, K. G. (1994), “Mystery Shopping Results                  Research Guidelines, http://www.mrs.org.uk/
    Can Shape Your Future”, Bank Marketing, Vol. 26, No.             standards/downloads/2008-10-30%20Mystery%20
    8, pp. 17-21.                                                    shopping%20guidelines.pdf, accessed: May 16, 2011.
 3. Easwaran, S., & Singh, S. J. (2006), Marketing               13. Michelson, M. (n.d.), Taking the Mystery out of
    Research: Concepts, Practices, and Cases. Oxford                 Mystery Shopping, http://www.mspa-ap.org/about/
    University Press, New Delhi.                                     MysteryShopping1.ppt, accessed: May 16, 2011.
 4. European Society of Opinion and Marketing Research           14. Morrall, K., (1994), Mystery shopping tests service
    (2005), ESOMAR World Research Codes & Guidelines:                and compliance, Bank Marketing, Vol. 26, No. 2, pp.
    Mystery Shopping Studies, http://www.esomar.                     13-23.
    org/uploads/pdf/ESOMAR_Codes&Guidelines_                     15. Mystery Shopping Providers Association Europe
    MysteryShopping.pdf., accessed: May 16, 2011.                    (2003), Advisory Guidelines for Mystery Shopping
 5. Goodwin, C. J. (2010), Research in Psychology:                   in Europe, http://mspa-ap.org/pdf/Guidelines.pdf,
    Methods and Design, 6th edition, John Wiley & Sons,              accessed: May 16, 2011.
    Inc, Hoboken.                                                16. Newhouse, I. S. (2004), Mystery Shopping Made
 6. Hoffman, G. (1993), “Customers Can Hone Mystery                  Simple, McGraw-Hill, New York.
    Shopping”, Bank Marketing, Vol. 25, No. 8, pp. 36-37.        17. Stovall, S. A. (1993), “Keeping Tabs on Customer
 7. Holliday, K. K. (1994), “Mutual Funds”, Bank                     Service”, Bank Marketing, Vol. 25, No. 6, pp. 29-33.
    Marketing, Vol. 26, No. 7, pp. 23-31.                        18. Stucker, C. (2005), Mystery Shopper‘s Manual, 6th
 8. Hotchkiss, D. A. (1995), “What Do Your Customers                 edition, Special Interests Publishing, Sugar Land.
    Really Think?”, Bank Marketing, Vol. 27, No. 3, pp. 13-      19. Tepper, G. C. (1994), “The Merits of Self-Testing”,
    20.                                                              Mortgage Banking, Vol. 54, No. 8, p. 76.
 9. Leeds B. (1992), “Mystery Shopping Offers Clues to           20. Wilson, A. M. (1998a), “The Role of Mystery
    Quality Service”, Bank Marketing, Vol. 24, No. 11, pp.           Shopping in the Measurement of Service
    24-26.                                                           Performance”, Managing Service Quality, Vol. 8, No. 6,
10. Leeds, B. (1995), “Mystery Shopping: From Novelty                pp. 414-420.
    to Necessity”, http://www.allbusiness.com/sales/             21. Wilson, A. M. (1998b), “The Use Of Mystery Shopping
    customer-service/506432-1.html, accessed: May 16,                in the Measurement of Service Delivery”, The Service
    2011.                                                            Industries Journal, Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 148-163.



                                                              Specificities of Mystery Shopping in Retail Financial Services      69
rezime
Specifičnosti tajne kupovine u bankarskom
poslovanju sa stanovništvom
Marko Đorđić


Svrha ovog metodološkog članka je istraživanje meto-          kupovine u kontinuitetu, (b) sprovođenjem tajne kupovine
doloških specifičnosti tajne kupovine u finansijskim          u celoj mreži filijala, (c) integrisanjem svih komponenti
uslugama za stanovništvo, kao i seta novih izazova u          koje učestvuju u pružanju usluge u predmet istraživanja, i
menadžmentu studija tajne kupovine koji nisu u vezi sa        (d) stalnom primenom instrumenata za kontrolu kvaliteta
metodologijom istraživanja, a koji su nastali sa skoraš-      pre, tokom, i posle studije. Nalazi su prevashodno primen-
njim inovacijama tajne kupovine. Članak takođe otkriva        ljivi u tajnoj kupovini u finansijskim uslugama za stanov-
metodološke preporuke kako poboljšati sveukupni kvalitet      ništvo, kao i do izvesne mere, u tajnoj kupovini u ostalim
tajne kupovine u svetlu tekućih standarda i pravila za        maloprodajnim i korporativnim uslugama.
sprovođenje tajne kupovine. Izložene preporuke ukazuju        Ključne reči: tajna kupovina, finansijske usluge za sta-
na to da se kvalitet tajne kupovine u finansijskim uslugama   novništvo, metodologija istraživanja, marketing usluga,
za stanovništvo može poboljšati: (a) sprovođenjem tajne       menadžment istraživanja.




                                                                                                              contact:
                                                                               Marko Đorđić, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia
                                                                                       e-mail: marko.djordjic@gmail.com




70      Marko Đorđić

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Specificities of mystery shopping

  • 1. COPYRIGHT NOTICE SERBIAN MARKETING ASSOCIATION (SEMA) IS THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER AND PUBLISHER OF FALLOWING ARTICLE. YOU ARE OBLIDGED TO CONTACT SEMA AND EDITORIAL BOARD OF QUARTERLY MARKETING JOURNAL (QMJ) IN ORDER TO OBTAIN PERMISSION TO USE THE ARTICLE. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT: WWW.SEMA.RS REFERENCING AND CITATION FOR REFERENCE LIST USE: Djordjic, M. (2011). Specificities of Mystery Shopping in Retail Financial Services. Quarterly Marketing Journal, 42(1), pp. 53-69. FOR IN-TEXT CITATIONS USE: Djordjic (2011) or (Djordjic, 2011)
  • 2. UDK 658.6, Pregledni rad Članci/Papers Specificities of Mystery Shopping in Retail Financial Services* Marko Đorđić ABSTRACT:  The purpose of this  introdUction article is to investigate methodological  specificities of mystery shopping in retail  The term mystery shopping was coined in 1940s by the WilMark Compa- financial services, as well as a set new  ny which was the first one to offer mystery shopping services (Michelson, non-methodology related challenges in  n.d.). Even thought financial institutions have been conducting mystery management of mystery shopping stud- shopping since then (Newhouse, 2004) it was not until 1970s when the ies, introduced with recent innovations in  major employment of mystery shopping started in banking. It evolved mystery shopping. The article also reveals  from a tool intended to monitor and enhance performance, and develop methodological recommendations on how  sales culture, into a predictor of customer satisfaction, after the intro- to enhance the overall quality of mystery  duction of innovative concept of service quality in 1980s (Leeds, 1995). shopping studies in light of current inter- Today mystery shopping is an industry worth $1.5 billion USD globally national standards and code of conduct  (Michelson, n.d.) and a part of everyday business practice of small and in mystery shopping. Exposed recommen- dations indicate that quality of mystery  large companies. shopping in retail financial services can  Mystery shopping in general has been a subject of a numerous pub- be enhanced by: (a) conducting mystery  lications about customer service, service, quality and so forth (Limbrick shopping on continual basis, (b) mystery  1997; Newhouse, 2004; Stucker, 2005). When it comes to mystery shop- shopping in entire network of branch  ping implementation in financial services – primarily in banking – ma- offices, (c) integrating all components  jority of previous scholarship dates back from mid 1990s (Dorman, 1994; of service delivery into research subject,  Hoffman, 1993; Holliday 1994; Hotchkiss, 1995; Leeds 1992, 1995; Mor- and (d) continuous application of quality  ral, 1994; Stoval, 1993; Tepper 1994). control instruments prior, throughout, and  Even though mystery shopping in financial services was the subject afterwards the study. Findings are mainly  of extensive scientific exploration, further research is needed in order to applicable in mystery shopping in retail  extend present knowledge base is with exploration of specificities of mys- financial services, as well as to an extent,  tery shopping in retail financial services. Also, further research is needed in mystery shopping in other retail and  corporate services. especially having in mind (a) the advancements in research methodology which have occurred since 1990s, (b) revised and updated international Keywords:  mystery shopping, retail  standards and code of conduct in mystery shopping, and (c) new chal- financial services, research methodology,  lenges which have emerged in research management. service marketing, research management. Therefore, primary objective of this methodological article is to inves- tigate methodological specificities of mystery shopping in retail financial services, and expose methodological recommendations that can enhance the overall quality of mystery shopping. These methodological recom- mendations refer to the mystery shopping’s: (a) purpose and objective, (b) geographic and observational embracement, (c) frequency, (d) sam- * The article is partially based on previously conducted study Kvantitativna marketing istraživanja u bankarskom poslovanju [Quantitative Marketing Research in Banking] (Unpublished master’s thesis) by M. Djordjic, 2009, University of Belgrade, Depar- tment for Organizational Sciences, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia. 53
  • 3. pling, (e) research embracement, (e) shop scenario practice without further development of its theoreti- and inscription, and (f) data acquisition and qual- cal foundation. ity control. Methodological recommendations are Because of this, providers of mystery shopping ser- revealed in light of current international standards vices invested a significant amount of effort in order and code of conduct for mystery shopping, and ag- to compensate for the missing knowledge, and fill gregate existing theoretical knowledge, with author’s the void between inadequately developed theoreti- professional experience in managing mystery shop- cal foundations and growing employment of mystery ping studies for retail financial service providers. The shopping in practice. These efforts resulted in intro- article also examines a set of new non-methodological duction of internationally recognized standards and challenges which have emerged in mystery shopping guidelines for conducting mystery shopping, which management, as well as some fundamental issues of today make the methodological foundation of mys- mystery shopping methodology. tery shopping. Therefore, today there certainly is no Even though the article addresses the issues of con- discrepancy between theory and practice of mystery ducting mystery shopping in retail financial services, shopping. majority of the recommendations can be employed Even though the initial objective of international to an extent, when conducting mystery shopping in standards was to codify existing knowledge, and ex- other retail services, and in corporate (i.e., business periential learning about mystery shopping—thus to business – B2B) services. However, it is important providing a firm basis for further theoretical devel- to note that mystery shopping in retail and corporate opment—standardization surpassed initial objec- services do not share the same methodological frame- tives and led to creation of strict code of conduct for work, and therefore conducting mystery shopping mystery shopping. International standards of mystery research in corporate services is not feasible solely re- shopping are developed and enforced by associations lying on methodological recommendations presented such as Mystery Shopping Providers Association in this article. (MSPA), European Society for Opinion and Market Practical implications of the article may be particu- Research (ESOMAR), and British Market Research larly interesting to marketing professionals (market- Society (MRS). Member companies of these asso- ing managers and research consultants), because it ciations are obliged to conduct mystery shopping in provides recommendations on how to deal with chal- compliance with the international standards and code lenges that emerge on everyday basis when conduct- of conduct, because declination from these regula- ing mystery shopping research in retail financial ser- tions can result in sanctions. vices. Theoretical implications may be interesting to Despite strict standards and code of conduct there academics and scientists who study the field of mar- still are some methodological issues regarding mys- keting research or marketing in financial services. tery shopping which need to be addressed before en- gaging in further discussion. 1.   ethodological foUndations  m Marketing Research or Not? of mystery shoPPing One of the issues trailing mystery shopping since the Mystery shopping as marketing research has had a day of its conception is whether the mystery shopping bit of a rough start. Contrarily to the other types of actually is a marketing research? This is an important marketing research — which were firstly developed in issue because it determines overall approach towards theory, and then enhanced through practical exercise mystery shopping, both in science and practice. — mystery shopping emerged on the basis of practical According to MSPA Europe (2003) “mystery shop- needs without ever reaching such high level of theo- ping is not traditional market research but is a busi- retical development. ness information tool” (p. 3). It is important to rec- Premature employment of mystery shopping cre- ognize previous statement, because it represents an ated a discrepancy between its practical implementa- opinion of the most influential industrial association tion and theoretical development. On one hand, the of companies specialized in providing only mystery theoretical basis of mystery shopping was insufficient shopping services. The state of fact is that these com- to provide high quality research, but on the other panies are not genuine marketing research compa- hand, mystery shopping could not be enhanced in nies, and from their perspective, it might be justified 54      Marko Đorđić
  • 4. to observe mystery shopping as a business informa- Mystery Shopping as tion tool, rather than as a marketing research. Observational Research On the other hand ESOMAR (2005) provides very strict definition of mystery shopping in relation to its In primary marketing research original data can be belonging to the diverse spectrum of marketing re- acquired trough (a) observation, (b) survey, (c) ex- search. periment, and (d) qualitative methods (Easwaran & Singh, 2006, p. 95). Since data in mystery shopping is “In cases where any personal data collected are acquired through observation and not through survey to be treated as fully confidential and are not to – which is a more common method of data acquisi- be used for any purpose other than scientific tion – it is important to recognize that mystery shop- research the study falls under the definition of ping is an observational research. This type of research market research and can be described as mys- allows direct observation of phenomenon in its natu- tery shopping research. ral setting. To be more specific, mystery shopping is If the personal data collected are not to be treat- a form of covert observational research. Furthermore, ed as fully confidential and may also be used ESOMAR (2005) emphasizes that “key characteristic for purposes other than scientific research—for of a mystery shopping studies is that the data subjects example in connection with the staff training, are normally not aware at the time they are participat- reinforcement of sales efforts or the operation ing in a study” (p. 2). of bonus system—then the study does not fall One of the ways to classify observational research exclusively under the definition of market re- is as (a) structured or (b) unstructured (Brink, Van der search and must not be described as the mystery Valt, & Van Rensburg, 1996/2006, p. 143). While the shopping research but as the mystery shopping data acquired through unstructured observational project.” (p. 4) research tends to deliver descriptive information pri- According to ESOMAR’s definition key qualifiers marily used in qualitative analysis, structured obser- that determine when mystery shopping abandons vational research tends to acquire quantitative data. boundaries of marketing research are (a) confidential- “Structured observations entail specifying in ad- ity of personal data and (b) purpose of mystery shop- vance precisely the behaviors or events that are ping. How does this apply to the business practice? to be observed and how they will be recorded, Well, it is hard to find a mystery shopping study and preparing forms for record-keeping such that would be exclusively used for scientific purposes as checklists, categorization systems and rating outside scientific or academic institutions. In busi- scales. Structured observation is the method ness practice mystery shopping is used in customer most commonly used in quantitative studies, relationship management (CRM), quality manage- where the researcher or trained observer simply ment (QM), personnel training, business intelligence, observes and records certain aspects of the sub- and so forth. However, this type of deployment does ject’s behavior.” (Brink et al., 1996/2006, p. 143) not necessarily lead to disclosure of personal data. Therefore, until there is no disclosure of personal data In practice of retail financial services it is much mystery shopping in business environment still can more common to conduct mystery shopping as struc- be categorized as marketing research. On occasions tured observational research. Qualitative data is of no when it is necessary to disclose personal data it should value for research orderers because it does not deliver be considered as a mystery shopping project. findings which can be deployed in CRM, QM, person- The distinction introduced by ESOMAR is very nel training, and so forth. Marketing research indus- valuable both in scientific discussion, as well as in try is very responsive to this requirement and research practical employment. It clearly defines boundaries, providers are constantly innovating mystery shopping which should be kept in mind when engaging in mys- methodology towards making it more robust, reliable, tery shopping. This article predominantly examines and quantitative, thus drifting away from its qualita- methodology of mystery shopping research. However, tive counterpart. the majority of recommendations can be successfully However, it is important to have in mind that even applied to the mystery shopping projects as well. when conducting mystery shopping as structured ob- servational research it still is not typical quantitative research. Observational research requires different methodological platform especially in terms of sam- Specificities of Mystery Shopping in Retail Financial Services      55
  • 5. pling method, data analysis, data interpretation, and firstly observed and then recorded in detailed and so forth. Friedrichs and Ludtke (as cited by Wilson, objective manner1. 1998b) indicate potential advantages which observa- tional research offers over survey research. 1. Reported behavior can differ from real behavior. 2. research methodology Statements gathered through interviewing can be different than the factual behavior of the inter- Methodology of mystery shopping studies relies viewed person. heavily on international standards and strict code of 2. Sometimes, facts can be brought to light only by conduct. While from the outside it resembles other examining them in their natural setting, because marketing research methodologies, closer review these facts emerge only when interviewee is not will reveal some crucial differences between mystery aware of the interview. shopping and other types of marketing research. Therefore findings and data gained only through Purpose and Objective survey research may not be sufficient, and can be very well complemented with findings from observational The generic purpose of mystery shopping research is research. That is exactly what mystery shopping pro- to provide positive contribution in decision making vides because “participant observation helps to de- processes related to the issues of CRM, QM, sales, and velop richer knowledge of the experiential nature of personnel training. The objective of mystery shopping services” (Wilson, 1998b, p. 149). research is to acquire objective and unbiased data in reference with factual performance of a service deliv- Definition of Mystery Shopping ery unit2 at a particular moment in time, in accordance with the pre-defined protocols and specifications, so ESOMAR, MSPA Europe, and MRS define mystery that acquired data can later be used to evaluate the en- shopping in quite similar manner without essential forcement of corporate standards in service delivery. differences. Examination of ESOMAR’s definition is Various authors provide more elaborate viewpoints sufficient for the purposes of this article. that relate purpose and objective of mystery shopping “Mystery shopping studies involve the use of to its specific deployment in practice. Leeds (1995, mystery shoppers who are trained and/or briefed p. 3) indicates that mystery shopping provides feed- to observe, experience and measure any cus- back on how branch office personnel treats custom- tomer service process by acting as a prospective ers, and whether branch office personnel is competent customer and undertaking a series of pre-deter- and courteous. Wilson (1998b, p. 153) establishes mined tasks to assess performance against spe- a concatenation between expectations of managers cific criteria reporting back on their experiences and customers – which are expressed through cor- in a comparable and consistent way.” (2005, p.2) porate standards in service delivery – and mystery shopping – which collects facts rather than percep- Previous definition reveals key features of mystery tions, and that way objectively measures performance shopping which set it apart from other types of mar- in service delivery relative to these standards. Same keting research. author denotes that mystery shopping provides the 1. Unlike in other types of research, in mystery possibility for managers to look behind the aggregate shopping filed force is required to go one step data acquired through customer satisfaction surveys further from just acquiring data, and try to experi- and detect decline in service delivery at specific time ence the service process they are engaging in. and specific service delivery units (Wilson, 1998b, p. 2. In mystery shopping field force acts as ordinary customers and behaves in accordance with pre- 1 On occasions, if there are no legal constrains, it is possible to defined protocol, in order to evaluate performance make an audio recording of mystery shopping, thus making the in service delivery, without ever disclosing their data acquisition and recording a simultaneous process. true intentions or identity. 2 Service delivery unit comprises of people, processes, and 3. Contrary to the survey research when data is physical environment engaged in service rendering to the acquired and recorded simultaneously, data and customers. Main service delivery units in retail financial ser- vices are branch offices, even though financial services can be insights collected through covert observations are rendered via telephone, Internet, or automated teller machines (ATMs). 56      Marko Đorđić
  • 6. Figure 1. Mystery Sopping Research Embracement Matrix. Note. Mystery shopping studies can expand its geographical reach by conducting mystery shopping on multiple national markets, or expand its observational reach by including competitor’s service delivery units into study. 157). These findings would remain inaccessible with- Initially mystery shopping was designed to evalu- out mystery shopping. Leeds (1995) emphasizes the ate and monitor enforcement of standards in service role of mystery shopping in rising corporate income delivery of the company which ordered the research. because it (a) helps build customer satisfaction, (c) This type of autogenous3 mystery shopping is the ba- strengthens the ability to retain customers, and (c) sic way to design mystery shopping. It gives an op- enhances product usage. portunity to thoroughly examine the entire process According to the Wilson (1998a, p. 419) mystery of service delivery, and discover its strong and weak shopping studies have employment potential to points. Its findings can be utilized in CRM, QM, sales, and personnel training. • identify weak points in service delivery, Observational reach of mystery shopping can be • enhance personnel’s motivation by further train- extended to competitors branch offices as well. This ing and bonuses, and gives another deployment potential to the mystery • in case of competitive mystery shopping, to assess shopping and turns autogenous mystery shopping the company’s competitiveness in service delivery. into competitive mystery shopping. The emphasis of competitive mystery shopping is to evaluate perfor- Geographic and Observational Embracement mance in service delivery of own company relative to Embracement of mystery shopping research is deter- the performance of direct competitors, rather than to mined by its (a) geographical and (b) observational evaluate and monitor enforcement of own corporate reach. Research embracement matrix in Figure 1 dis- standards in service delivery. Also, it can be utilized plays four possibilities to design mystery shopping re- for business intelligence (BI) purposes. Leeds (1995) search. These possibilities are obtained by intersecting suggests that competitive mystery shopping provides geographic and observational reach of mystery shop- ping research. 3 Autogenous is a medical term used to describe phenomenon which is self generated, or self produced. Specificities of Mystery Shopping in Retail Financial Services      57
  • 7. the opportunity to identify competitor’s best and Frequency worst practices and present the opportunities to im- Research frequency should be determined in such prove your own service delivery. manner that it provides greatest employment poten- International standards and code of conduct (ESO- tial, for a given amount of financial resources intend- MAR, 2005; MRS, 2008; MSPA Europe, 2003) are very ed to be invested in mystery shopping. How does this strict when it comes to the competitive mystery shop- apply to the particular types of mystery shopping in ping, especially having in mind its BI employment po- retail financial services, and what would be the appro- tential. Therefore, standards prescribe that when con- priate methodological recommendations regarding its ducting competitive mystery shopping it is especially frequency? important to avoid any unnecessary losses or dam- In order to be effective and reach limits of its em- ages to the competitors. Data must be collected care- ployment potential mystery shopping must be con- fully without waste of the competitor’s resources (e.g., ducted on continual bases. According to Leeds (1995, money, time, etc.). This is very important in order to p. 3) „measurements should be taken quarterly to prevent any kind of misuse of mystery shopping. provide timely feedback on missed opportunities (for Driven by the need to have more efficient asset example not asking the customer to come back or management the industry of financial services un- forgetting to offer an application)“. Previous recom- derwent transformation throughout international- mendation should be considered optimal, because it ization of its business operations. In order to ensure provides balance between employment potential and international growth, financial service providers had research cost. Conducting mystery shopping more to introduce specific instruments of international de- often would insignificantly increase its employment velopment in all areas of business administration. In potential, regarding the amount of additional funds marketing, one of these innovative instruments was it requires. Furthermore, conducting mystery shop- multinational marketing research. The purpose of ping too often will cause research to lose its impact, multinational marketing research is to explore and and saturate decision makers with information, which monitor performance of subsidiaries operating at dif- is just the opposite of what the research is intended ferent national markets (countries) by using unified to achieve. Also, it is important to recognize, that it methodology, which provides comparability of find- takes some time for financial service providers to ana- ings and data. lyze data and findings gained through mystery shop- This led to expansion of geographic reach of mys- ping, make decisions, and subsequently take action. tery shopping and introduction of multinational mys- Therefore, mystery shopping studies should be evenly tery shopping. Multinational mystery shopping is spaced during the entire business year, with enough similar to the autogenous mystery shopping, except it time in between, so each study can be utilized in deci- is conducted simultaneously or in proximity, on more sion making process. than one national market. The objective of multina- However, if it is not feasible to conduct mystery tional mystery shopping is to evaluate and monitor shopping quarterly, mystery shopping should be con- enforcement of international corporate standards in ducted no less than once a year. Otherwise, employ- service delivery within subsidiaries. Its emphasis is to ment potential of the research would significantly investigate compliance with international corporate deteriorate. Even when conducting mystery shopping standards in general. only once a year its employment potential is dimin- Multinational mystery shopping requires coopera- ished, because it cannot be utilized in personnel train- tion and synchronization of a large number of par- ing, QM, CRM, and so forth. It can be used only to ties, usually dispersed over a large geographical area. evaluate performance in service delivery at certain Furthermore cultural, social, and lingual issues – un- moment in time. Even though it is better to conduct known in national marketing research – emerge in mystery shopping once annually, than not to conduct multinational marketing research. This means that it at all, it is recommended to make it more often, be- methodological framework must be developed in such cause only than it yields its true benefits for decision manner that it assures comparability of data without makers. neglecting national specificities. (Further details in When it comes to the competitive mystery shop- reference with multinational mystery shopping will ping, there is no need to conduct it more often than be discussed later.) once annually. Competitive mystery shopping aims to acquire data that would later be used to compare per- 58      Marko Đorđić
  • 8. formance in service delivery of own company against servations of events4 during certain specified times” its direct competitors. Having in mind that this type (p. 144). of research is far more demanding to conduct, more There are two options to time individual shops in expensive, and that it delivers more complex findings, time sampling: there is no need to conduct it more often. It especially • Random timing, when the timing of each indi- applies in case of multinational competitive mystery vidual shop is determined only by the will of the shopping. mystery shopper without any external interfer- ence. The sampling plan is not required because Sampling Without a Sampling Frame the mystery shoppers independently decide when Sampling in mystery shopping is quite different than to visit branch offices. sampling in survey research. In survey research, • Systematic timing, when all shops are conducted sample is obtained by deriving a certain number of within those key hours when it is suspected that elements from a target population by using some of the quality of service delivery may decline. Usual- the sampling methods (e.g., random sampling, quota ly, these timings are: (a) in the morning just upon sampling, etc.). Sample frame provides the informa- the opening of branch offices, (b) the rush hour tion on how to access particular sampling units, and when it is expected that branch offices will be consequently sampling elements. In survey research flooded with customers, or (c) just before the end relations between target population, sampling frame, of the business hours. Systematic timing requires sampling unit, and sampling elements are strong and development of precise sampling plan, which direct. needs to be strictly fallowed during the fieldwork. How different is the sampling in mystery shopping The decision which timing option to apply is spe- in retail financial services? cific to each mystery shopping study, and depends on Well just to start with, the relations between sam- the assumption which timing would be most benefi- pling frame, sampling unit, and sampling elements are cial to the representatives and objectivity of the study. not that rigid. This is due to the fact that in mystery While, the random timing may make the study more shopping service encounters carry the role of sampling unbiased, it might deliver less useful findings and data elements, and sampling frame for service encounters than systematic shopping. The decision which timing is impossible to obtain. While the list of branch of- to choose is usually made by the research orderer. fices might be the closest thing to the sampling frame, Finally there are two important recommendations it is not an actual sampling frame. The list of branch in reference with time sampling in mystery shopping offices does not resemble the population of service in retail financial services. encounters, and thus prevents the formation of such Firstly, it is especially important to emphasize that rigid relations between sampling frame and sampling the findings and data acquired through mystery shop- elements. To be exact, in mystery shopping service en- ping are representative only for branch offices where counters are being induced rather than being sampled. the mystery shopping took place. It is impossible to But, from the branch office personnel point of view, conduct mystery shopping in a number of branch these covert service encounters appear like all others, offices and then assume that acquired data is repre- and effectively are being sampled from the infinite sentative for the entire network of branch offices (i.e., population of service encounters which take place in entire financial service provider). Therefore, mystery branch offices. shopping should be conducted in all branch offices. Then, what would be the appropriate sampling Only branch offices which should be excluded from method to use in mystery shopping? the sample are the ones where there is only one em- The inherent properties of mystery shopping as an ployee, because it would lead to the identification of observational research now come in to play, and di- the employee, or according to the ESOMAR (2005) rect the application of sampling methods which are “the results must be given in a form only which does widely used in observational research: (a) time sam- not lead to the identification of an individual person” pling or (b) event sampling. Having in mind that event (p. 6). Under certain circumstances—such as the re- sampling requires observation of an entire event, time quirement of the research orderer—it is justified to sampling is the only applicable method. According to conduct partial mystery shopping covering only a Brink et al. (1996/2006) “time sampling involves ob- 4 In mystery shopping events are induced service encounters. Specificities of Mystery Shopping in Retail Financial Services      59
  • 9. Figure 2. Mystery Shopping and Customer Satisfaction Surveys Note. It is especially important to make both researches complementary as possible, especially having in mind that both of them explore the issue of service delivery but from different angles. portion of the entire branch office network. Yet again, sary information for decision makers. They need to acquired data is representative only for the portion be complemented with findings and data acquired covered by the mystery shopping, and not the entire through observational research, primarily mystery network of branch offices. shopping. This especially applies to researches that Secondly, it is very important to shop at each investigate the issues of service delivery, such as cus- branch office at least twice during the same mystery tomer satisfaction surveys (CSS). Therefore, when shopping study. This is an important methodologi- designing mystery shopping or CSS it is important cal requirement because it gives an opportunity to to align research subject of one another, in order to reduce the risk of observer bias. According to Good- make them as complementary as possible, and cre- win (2010) observer bias emerges in observational ate more synergy between these two different types research because observers have some preconceived of researches. It is recommended to engage the same ideas about the object of observation and may un- research provider to design CSS and mystery shop- consciously allow their preconceived ideas to color ping, and conduct them the same time. This approach their observations. Conducting at least two shops to enriches informational surrounding, and makes both the same branch office provides interobserver reliabil- researches more productive. Relations between the ity. The reduction of the observer bias is the focus of research subject of mystery shopping and customer training, and with these measures it is reduced to a satisfaction surveys are depicted in Figure 2. minimum. Having this in mind, let us now investigate the re- search subject of mystery shopping in retail financial Three Components of Research Subject services. The most natural approach to define the research As mentioned earlier, findings and data acquired subject of mystery shopping is to start from service through survey research do not provide all neces- marketing mix. Service marketing mix contains ad- 60      Marko Đorđić
  • 10. ditional 3 Ps which stand for: people, processes, and service, starting with kindness and forwardness, right physical environment. Furthermore, in retail finance to the specific protocols on how to handle complaints majority of services are delivered in branch offices and unsatisfied customers. Sometimes they are so through numerous interactions of customers, branch strict that they prescribe exactly what branch office office personnel, and physical environment. There- personnel should or should not say in case clients ex- fore, the generic mystery shopping research subject press dissatisfaction. Prior to their unsupervised work must cover three fundamental research components: in branch offices, branch personnel are trained until (a) people, (b) processes, and (c) physical environ- they achieve certain level of readiness and capability ment. to handle every customer. This is especially important However, having in mind the diversity among retail having in mind fierce competition among providers of financial service providers, and their efforts to design retail financial services, and the value of each custom- and deliver service in a unique way, it is usually neces- er. Specific mystery shopping scenarios, which drive sary to enrich generic framework of mystery shopping branch office personnel through various situations research subject. The generic framework is enriched with customers, are designed to test their readiness by integration of individual specificities of service de- and capability to service customers. livery into research components. Careful examination Competence of the branch personnel is evaluated of corporate standards in service delivery is required as well. It is done by designing specific shop scenarios in order to discover specificities and integrate them which mimic the inquiry regular customers about into shop scenarios and inscriptions. This can be done certain financial products or services. Branch office only in close cooperation between research provider personnel needs to have in depth knowledge of vari- and research orderer. It can be a time consuming pro- ous products and services their company has to offer. cess, especially in case of multinational mystery shop- Therefore, when being asked about some of them, they ping studies. should give elaborate and accurate product or service Another factor that may influence the embrace- descriptions, and move forward with sales activities. ment of research subject may be the requirement for Mystery shoppers already know the answers to these specific information. According to judgment of the re- questions, and they can evaluate the competence of search orderer, some components of service delivery the branch office employees. On occasions branch of- may require more attention and others may require fice personnel may even be asked about product their less. However, accurate and impartial findings can be company does not offer, and tested whether they will acquired only by gaining insights in all components of act in compliance with prescribed protocol. service delivery, without neglecting some, and priori- Finally, mystery shoppers can observe general ap- tizing others. Reclining on partial findings increases pearance and tidiness of branch office personnel. This the risk of drawing wrong or misleading conclusions. refers to whether branch office personnel wears or does not wear name tags, whether their workspace is People clean and tidy, whether they are dressed properly, and so forth. In modern financial services these criteria In marketing mix of retail financial services people are usually met and retail financial service providers indicate the entire branch office personnel, with em- report excellent performance in that department. phasis on employees who provide services to custom- ers. This is the most important research component Physical environment of mystery shopping in retail financial services. This component of research subject covers investigation of Second component of the mystery shopping research branch office personnel’s subject is physical environment where the service delivery takes place. Practically all physical objects • readiness and capability to provide services to engaged in service delivery should be observed and customers; evaluated. Yet again, corporate standards in retail fi- • competence; and nancial services are very strict when it comes to the • general appearance and tidiness. physical environment. They prescribe which items Exploration of people component of research sub- and machines are to be used in servicing customers, ject relies heavily on corporate standards in customer their placement, and so forth. In retail financial ser- service, and usually is unique to every financial service vices the evaluation of physical environment refers to provider. These standards cover all areas of customer Specificities of Mystery Shopping in Retail Financial Services      61
  • 11. • cleanliness and tidiness of service delivery envi- not conducted simultaneously. Therefore, mystery ronment, shopping requires specific instruments to facilitate • placement (existence) of objects, and and aid data acquisition. • operational status of these objects. In mystery shopping field force uses shop inscrip- tion5 because there is no surveying and it is not pos- In practice this means that mystery shoppers usu- sible to note and acquire data simultaneously. While ally observe external and internal appearance of the the questionnaire in standard survey research is de- branch offices and evaluate their cleanliness. Mystery signed to allow field force to enter data by following shoppers especially pay attention on proper location certain order of questions, shop inscription is de- of certain objects (e.g., information desks, automated signed to aid mystery shopper to accurately recollect teller machines, etc.), and whether these objects are all of the information he or she previously collected operational or out of order. Specific open ended ques- through observation. That would be the key difference tions are added to the shop inscriptions, so mystery between questionnaire and shop inscription in terms shoppers can provide more elaborate explanations of of overall design. Therefore, MRS (2008) suggests that particular observations. This component of service mystery shopping studies should be limited in length delivery is particularly easy for observation, and de- and complexity in order to increase recollection abil- livers very reliable findings. ity of the field force operators. There are other, more particular differences as well. Processes While questions in the questionnaire can be rather The last component of mystery shopping research complex, and contain various scales, the questions in subject are the processes involved in the service de- shop inscription must be as simple as possible, and livery itself. In practice this is related to the evaluation directly related to the specificities of service encoun- of their ter. Preferably questions should be designed in such manner that they can be answered in a form of yes • flow; and and no answers. Each question must be accompanied • duration. with detailed directions for the mystery shoppers so Corporate standards in service delivery prescribe they would exactly know what to observe. This is es- the length of each process (e.g., opening of the cur- pecially important because mystery shoppers need to rent account should not take longer than ten minutes) recollect all of the observations acquired during their and their expected flow and outcome (e.g., customer shops and then write them down in shop inscription. should receive brochure about additional services). Therefore, making questions to complex or ambigu- Therefore, mystery shoppers measure the time it took ous can lead to difficulties in interpreting data. Also, to get them serviced, and observe have all the steps the shop inscription should provide some room for in the service delivery process been fallowed through. mystery shoppers to describe special circumstances Also, mystery shoppers may engage in testing of spe- they might encounter while conducting mystery cific services, such as currency exchange. These and shopping. This is done by adding a limited number of similar activities leave physical evidences such as open ended questions. bank statements, product brochures, and so forth. Another instrument specifically developed for the Apart from providing physical evidence that the pro- purposes of mystery shopping is a shop scenario. It is cess has been fallowed through, this is a good quality a written document which consist control instrument. • description of the setting in which mystery shop- ping is going to take place, Shop Scenario and Inscription • protocol which mystery shoppers should fallow in Questionnaires are among the main instruments used order to be serviced, in survey research. Field force uses questionnaires to • description of the expected outcome of the service survey elements of target population, and acquire data encounter, and by asking questions and noting answers. Question- • instructions on how to behave in case of unfore- naires are designed in such manner that they provide seen events. simultaneous acquisition and entering of data. Unless mystery shoppers are making an actual audio record- ing of the shop, data acquisition and data noting are 5 Other terms such as evaluation form or even questionnaire can be used as well. 62      Marko Đorđić
  • 12. After reading the scenarios mystery shoppers consumer behavior in natural setting as close to should be almost able to visualize the environment reality as possible. they are going to be in, and know what exactly to ex- • Safe. Scenario must not entice mystery shoppers pect. Scenarios should tell mystery shoppers what to to do anything illegal or put them under any kind wear, what actions to take, which service to ask for, of risk or danger. and what to do in case of unforeseen events. Suc- cessful development of realistic scenario is possible Data Acquisition and Quality Control only with close cooperation of research orderer and research provider. It is not uncommon that research Quality control in mystery shopping requires engage- orderers develop the shop scenarios, because they are ment of both research provider and research orderer. the ones who are most familiar with the service they The duty of research provider is to ensure highest provide. quality of data acquisition, while the duty of research Shop scenarios play an important role in training orderer is to ensure compliance of its employees. The of mystery shoppers, and they should be exercised engagement of research orderer is very important for in training prior to the deployment in real setting. A overall success of the mystery shopping and it should common practice is to develop more than one scenar- be encouraged. There are secondary benefits of close io for each mystery shopping study. This brings more cooperation between research orderer and research diversity to the assumed roles of mystery shoppers. provider such as: (a) strengthening of relations be- Unlike with mystery shopping subject, there is no tween two parties, (b) incrising of morale of mystery generic framework for the shop scenario. Each shop shoppers, and (c) better chances for success of the en- scenario is developed according to the requirements tire study. Therefore, there are a lot of obligations for of the particular mystery shopping study. both sides prior, throughout, and afterwards the study MRS (2008, p. 5) outlined three key features of in order to maintain its methodological integrity and good shop scenario design. enhance overall quality. Figure 3 depicts the roles of research orderers and research providers in quality • Straightforward. The scenario should be straight- control in mystery shopping. International standards forward and easy for field force to comprehend, and code of conduct in mystery shopping especially but with enough depth to the role. emphasize quality control and its influence to the suc- • Credible. In order to make mystery shoppers cess of the mystery shopping study (ESOMAR 2005; convincible, scenario should aim to reproduce MRS, 2008; MSPA Europe, 2003). Figure 3. Quality Control in Mystery Shopping Note. Quality control in mystery shopping is a continuous process lasting before, throughout, and after the study has ended. It requires joint efforts and close cooperation between research orderers and research providers. Specificities of Mystery Shopping in Retail Financial Services      63
  • 13. When it comes to the research provider quality tions for mystery shoppers. The ultimate objective of control is mainly related to the preparation, organi- training is: zation, and supervision of the data acquisition stage. • to make mystery shoppers adopt scenarios and Regardless of operational capabilities of research inscriptions as their second nature, and provider data acquisition in survey research remains • reduce the influence of observer bias of each a challenging task, and data acquisition in mystery mystery shopper, thus making them observe the shopping is twice as challenging. In mystery shop- factual circumstances they detect in branch offices ping the risks of data falsification are much greater, in neutral way. and quality control is harder to achieve. Therefore, it is necessary to apply different quality control instru- MRS (2008, p. 5) suggests that “the primary aim is ments than the ones used in survey research. to document precisely what happened at the point of What can be done to ensure and enhance the qual- contact, rather than how the mystery shopper feels” ity of data acquisition in mystery shopping in retail and that is exactly what such specific training pro- financial services? vides. Firstly, careful selection of field force is crucial. The actual data acquisition must take place under According to the Wilson (1998b) “the shoppers must continuous supervision. This is particularly hard to match a customer profile that is appropriate for the achieve because it is impractical to validate each shop scenario that they are being asked to enact” (p. 154). mystery shoppers make. However, there are few qual- This is especially important because branch office per- ity control instruments that can be deployed in order sonnel has a large experience in servicing customers. to prevent and detect wrongdoing. Therefore, mystery shoppers must look convincing, • Service usage. Usage of some service (i.e., auto- and resemble customers that branch office person- mated teller machine, foreign currency exchange, nel meets on everyday basis. They must mimic regu- etc.) conducted as a part of the mystery shopping lar customers according to their: (a) age, (b) appear- scenario, without unnecessary loss of time or ance, and (c) social background. It would be wise for money, and submission of physical evidence about research providers to maintain a steady base of mys- the usage of service (i.e., confirmation, bill, bank tery shoppers that can be selected according to the re- statement, etc), provides some proof that mystery quirements of a particular study, rather than engaging shopping actually took place. Documents issued new mystery shoppers over and over. Even though it by banks usually contain date and time, which requires more funding, this is a much better policy in may be useful to assure that the sampling plan was long term, because it provides insight in the field per- fallowed. formance of each shopper, and possibility to enhance • False branch offices. False (i.e., non-existing their capabilities through training. branch offices) may be deliberately added to the Secondly, specific training for each study should be sampling plan. If some mystery shoppers report conducted. General training in mystery shopping is back that they have conducted mystery shopping not sufficient, because each mystery shopping study in these false non-existing branch offices, it is an usually is significantly different. During training filed obvious sign of data falsification. force must be thoroughly briefed on what to expect • False questions. False questions referring to non- upon entering branch offices. They need to know what existing elements of service delivery may be added corporate standards in service delivery prescribe, to the shop inscription. If the financial provider what exactly to observe, and pay attention to. Training does not have a queueing system in its branch transforms mystery shoppers into ordinary custom- offices, and some mystery shoppers report other- ers with deeper knowledge of how service delivery wise it may indicate data falsification. should look like. Also, it is important to thoroughly • Time limit. Mystery shoppers must be time lim- acquaint mystery shoppers with scenarios and shop ited to submit shop inscriptions within the same inscriptions. These documents must be carefully dis- day the shop took place. Stalling with the submis- cussed between mystery shoppers and research team sion of the completed inscriptions should not be so that there are no unclear questions or ambiguous allowed. This ensures fallowing of the sampling instructions. The participation of ordering party rep- plan. resentatives is encouraged in training, because they • Debriefing. Mystery shoppers should be random- can provide more elaborate explanations and instruc- ly debriefed after they complete mystery shopping. 64      Marko Đorđić
  • 14. Debriefing may reveal if some of mystery shop- tual time of the mystery shopping does not need to pers falsified data, did not fallow sampling plan be revealed. If both the personnel and management exactly, and so forth. Also, it may clarify some understands what is mystery shopping, why it is done, obscurities in noted observations. Although pri- and how may they benefit from it, the chances that marily it is a quality control instrument, it is also the study will succeed are much greater. Regular and provides feedback on practical employment of timely communication ensures compliance, and has scenarios and inscriptions, and field performance further benefits when it comes to the implementation of mystery shoppers. Close and sometimes infor- of findings gained through mystery shopping. Also, it mal relations with field force can only do well, and is important to clarify the objectives and intended uses enhance the chances of success of mystery shop- of the findings, especially in case of mystery shopping ping study. projects which may be related to bonus operations. Consistent behavior after the study is also impor- Even though each of the previously mentioned tant. Research orderer must not abuse mystery shop- quality control instruments may fail, deploying all of ping. MSPA Europe (2003) states that “disciplinary them simultaneously significantly decreases the risk action must not be taken only on the basis of the of data falsification. However, the most effective in- mystery shopping program results. The aim of mys- strument of quality control in mystery shopping is tery shopping should be to increase customer service the strong base of loyal mystery shoppers. Loyal field levels and develop staff through training and motiva- force is less likely to commit any kind of falsifying tion” (p. 5). because they do not want to compromise relations The research orderer is also responsible to ensure with research provider. Furthermore, their fieldwork that branch office personnel does not make attempts performance is constantly evaluated and enhanced to identify mystery shoppers, as well as not to harass through regular practice. Also, it is important that them. Also, MSPA Europe (2003) suggests that at- mystery shoppers who have successfully completed tempts to identify mystery shoppers may lead to an- the fieldwork receive adequate honorarium. noying genuine customers, and that is very important Quality control does not end with the completion to acquaint branch office personnel with the benefits of the data acquisition. Research provider is obliged of mystery shopping so they become less interested in to maintain methodological integrity of the mystery making attempts to identify mystery shoppers. shopping in later stages of the study. This is particu- Therefore, by claiming that there will be no disci- larly related to the anonymity of shopped employees plinary action against employees, prior to the mys- when reporting to the research orderer. MRS (2008) tery shopping, research orderers ensure compliance states that “the anonymity of respondent s must be of their personnel. It is especially important to act preserved unless they have given their informed con- consistently after the study, and use findings and data sent for their details to be revealed or for attributable gained through mystery shopping to improve the comments to be passed on” (p. 3). It is especially im- performance of employees with training, and subse- portant to pay attention to details such as the actual quently improve the quality of service delivery. Any time that the shop took place, because such informa- other course of action by research orderer may create tion may indirectly reveal identity of the employees more harm than good. present at the branch office. According to ESOMAR (2005) “there must be adequate security arrangements in place both at the client and at the research company level to ensure that any personal data are secure and 3.   hallenges in research  c not accessible by unatorised parties” (p. 3). management As stated earlier, engagement of research orderer Conducting marketing research has always been a is also important to ensure quality control and overall demanding and challenging endeavor, even to an ex- success of the project. tent that it strongly influences the relations between It is very important that research orderer prop- research orderer and research provider. This brings a erly and timely informs branch office personnel and whole set of new non-methodology related challeng- management about the mystery shopping. According es in research management. What would be the root to the MSPA Europe guidelines (2003) “all staff must cause of this? be informed that their organisation is subject to, or Well, from a research orderer’s viewpoint, engag- intends to undertake, mystery shopping” (p. 5). Ac- ing in marketing research is somewhat like going to a Specificities of Mystery Shopping in Retail Financial Services      65
  • 15. doctor’s appointment. You need to share confidential budget items. This makes the entire procurement pro- information about your business, to someone with cess more transparent, which in return should bring specialized knowledge, in good faith that their advice relief to the negotiations. However, if the pressure to will be beneficial to your business. This situation is cut cost remains, the duty of research provider is to stressful itself. On the one hand, research providers protect integrity of marketing research, and revise the have the responsibility to deliver credible data and decision to cooperate with research orderer in ques- findings in order to aid decision making, and on the tion. Another solution for the research provider is to other hand, research orderers must allow insight to go ahead with research, and provide the missing funds their confidential business operations to an external from its own resources. party, and ultimately act upon marketing research. On both occasions the integrity of mystery shop- If you add financial commitments, constrains, and ping must be maintained or mystery shopping should deadlines in equation it is obvious that a lot of com- not be conducted. This is ultimately in the best inter- plexity and tension can arise in relations between re- est of research provider and research orderer. search orderers and research providers. However, managing all marketing research does The Nature of Research not carry equal sensitivity. In retail financial services The inherent properties of the mystery shopping tend sensitivity is especially present in mystery shopping to be a source of sensitivity itself. Mystery shopping research. What would be the circumstances under is, most of the time, advertised as an objective and which the likelihood of developing such sensitivity reliable tool to evaluate the enforcement of corporate is particularly high, and what challenges in research standards in service delivery. Therefore, top manage- management may arise with it? ment examines mystery shopping reports with scru- tiny in order to pinpoint weak performers, and act on Research Cost improving service quality. Well, just to start with, mystery shopping projects Unlike other types of marketing research which tend to be more expensive than other types of market- examine opinions of target population, mystery shop- ing research (Leeds, 1995). Mystery shopping requires ping intends to examine factual circumstances and specific recruitment and training of field force, addi- therefore leaves no room for free judgment. For exam- tional instruments of quality control, and so forth. All ple, if certain branch office reports weak performance of this adds extra cost to mystery shopping research, in customer satisfaction survey, this can be attributed whit almost no room to save funds. to more demanding customers that expect higher Right there, even before the actual start of the re- quality service than an average customer, and there- search, this strains the relations between research fore evaluate the service with lower grades. Since, the orderer and research provider. It is not only a prob- mystery shopping intends to provide objective mea- lem for a research provider—who needs to justify the surement based on the observation of factual circum- extra cost—but, for a manager assigned to conduct stances, the weak performance can only be acknowl- the mystery shopping as well. Top management and edged. That is why mystery shopping is so powerful if department heads request firm assurance from their conducted properly. subordinates, that there will be no unnecessary ex- Surely this brings a lot of sensitivity to the research, penditures, and that financial resources will be spent especially in the case when mystery shopping is relat- wisely. Therefore, during negotiations or tender pro- ed to bonuses or promotions. Branch office managers curements, managers in charge of mystery shopping or regional managers tend to be particularly affected insist on getting the most favorable conditions espe- by the fact that they might be the ones to acknowl- cially in terms of price. edge weak performance and face consequences (e.g., Even though cost reduction requests are justi- get downgraded). Therefore, intra personal relations fied and acceptable, this kind of pressure can force among managers can be altered by the findings of research provider to make unreasonable cost reduc- mystery shopping. This may not be the case in some tions, just in order to close a deal with research order- occasions, but in others it cannot be avoided. er. If such occasion occurs, the duty of marketing re- Intra personal relations at research orderer, can search provider is to render all necessary explanations place research providers in an inconvenient position. on what exactly makes mystery shopping so expen- Depending on a particular study, and particular set sive, and perhaps offer detailed insight into research of circumstances, more or less obvious attempts can 66      Marko Đorđić
  • 16. be made to somehow influence the design of mystery work for mystery shopping into a very complex and shopping, or doubt methodology and research find- demanding task. ings. Inscriptions and shopping scenarios need to be de- While it is completely acceptable that research or- veloped in such manner that they assure comparabil- derer expresses interest for the research, tries to be ity, and at the same time, that they can be applied to all more involved, any interference on methodology is national markets. This requires careful examination of not acceptable. Research provider must: service delivery standards. In one country standards may prescribe that branch office personnel must have • remain neutral, name tags. In the other country name tags may not be • maintain mystery shopping integrity thought required, and so forth. entire duration of study, and Infinite number of specificities in service delivery, • enforce international code of conduct and stan- unique to all national markets, prevents development dards for conducting mystery shopping. of unified shopping scenarios. Therefore, shopping As mentioned earlier research orderers can help scenarios are customized according to the local stan- mystery shopping to succeed. It is especially impor- dards in service delivery. Usually there are some basic tant to promote mystery shopping among employees multinational guidelines. as a tool that would be used for common benefit, and When it comes to the inscription design, there is that will make them better in providing high quality a way to go around this problem by using modular service. Communication needs to be consistent and inscription. Modular inscription comprises one main motivational. Key to the success of mystery shopping module common for all national markets, and it can is to secure cooperation and compliance of regional be expanded through supplemental modules, which and branch management and branch office personnel. are customized according to the specificities of ser- It is important that everyone accepts mystery shop- vice delivery in effect in each national market. That ping in good faith, and build its image through con- way important data for comparison of performance sistent action. among subsidies is collected through main module, Intra personal relations will continue to be a source while country specific data can be collected through of sensitivity in mystery shopping. Only with proper supplemental modules. communication, neutrality, and objectivity research Secondly, further efforts are required to design ap- orderers and research providers can increase the propriate measuring methodology. Even though, just chances of success of mystery shopping. the basic statistics is required for mystery shopping, making of a unified measuring methodology can be Multinational Mystery Shopping time consuming, especially in case when a large num- ber of national markets are involved in a study. When it comes to multinational mystery shopping in Therefore, specificity in service delivery of each na- retail financial services additional challenges in re- tional market must be taken into account. Measuring search management emerge, as well as a unique form methodology should not prefer one national market, of sensitivity. or put other national market in disadvantage. It is very Firstly, some challenges emerge due to the dif- important to thoroughly probe measuring methodol- ferences in market development. Some markets are ogy before the start of actual research. After the proj- more developed with intense rivalry among competi- ect has started, and the data has already been collected, tors, and diversified offer of financial products. Other is not a good time to discover that chosen measuring markets are less developed. The competition is not as methodology requires different type of data, or that intense, product offer is basic, and mergers or acquisi- they methodology needs to be redesigned. In general tions are not yet finalized. Because all of this, financial changes and revisions of the methodology in multi- service providers may be present in a number of na- national marketing research should be kept to mini- tional markets, providing different types of financial mum once the research has started. Keeping up with products and services, with different standards in ser- constant changes in methodology is a challenging task vice delivery. Therefore, it is inevitable that financial especially in multinational marketing research. Meth- service providers will not be able to deliver service ex- odology should be carefully developed, thoroughly actly the same way in all national markets. This makes probed, put in practice, and utilized until it reaches the development of unified methodological frame- its own analytical limits, or there is requirement from research orderer to change it. Specificities of Mystery Shopping in Retail Financial Services      67
  • 17. Finally, a unique form of sensitivity may arise in sure of personal data, and mystery shopping projects multinational mystery shopping, this time on a level require the disclosure of personal data, because they of entire subsidiary. are sometimes related to bonuses operations. The engagement in multinational mystery shop- The main inherent property of mystery shopping ping means that findings and data will be disclosed to is that it is an observational research. It can be un- the top management at the corporate headquarters of structured, which intends to deliver qualitative data, the financial institution. Furthermore, performance or structured, which intends to deliver quantitative of each subsidy will be examined. Even though there data. Regardless of the data which intends to deliver, might not be intense rivalry among subsidies from it provides important insights which would other- different countries, it is inevitable that each subsidiary wise remain inaccessible such as factual observations will try to do its best to look as good as possible in of the service delivery, rather than opinions acquired multinational mystery shopping. through survey research. Sensitivity towards mystery shopping can be par- In order to be effective and reach its maximal em- ticularly visible in those subsidiaries that operate at ployment potential mystery shopping must be con- undeveloped markets, or in these subsidies which ducted continually, and it is recommended to conduct have not yet finalized process of synchronization it quarterly. More complex studies, such as competi- with corporate standards (e.g., after a merger or ac- tive or multinational mystery shopping can be con- quisition). These subsidies may feel that their position ducted once annually. puts them in disadvantage, and that subsidiaries from Time sampling is the sampling method of choice in more developed markets, or fully integrated subsid- mystery shopping. Timing of individual shops can be iaries, will perform better in mystery shopping. In random or systematic and is chosen according to the general this leads to involuntary compliance and diffi- preference of the research management. It is especial- culties in implementation of mystery shopping. Since ly important to include all branch offices into mystery the cooperation of local parties is necessary, it is very shopping, and to shop each branch office twice during important to avoid such situation. Yet again, proper the same study. Data acquired through the mystery communication and cooperation between corporate shopping is representative only for the branch offices headquarters and subsidiaries should stem towards included into the research. acceptance of multinational mystery shopping to full Generic research subject of mystery shopping con- extent. sists of three research components: (a) people, (b) pro- Therefore, it is especially important to pay atten- cesses, and (c) physical environment. These research tion that methodological solutions developed at the components can be enriched with integration of in- corporate headquarters of financial institution and dividual features of service delivery, specific to each multinational research provider maintain their integ- service provider. It is especially important to align rity when deployed over a large geographical area. research subject of mystery shopping with research subject of CSS, in order to create more synergy and maximize employment potential of both researches. conclUsion Shop scenarios need to be realistic and straightfor- ward. Inscriptions need to contain questions designed Previous argument revealed methodological specifici- in such manner that they can be answered in a form of ties of mystery shopping in retail financial services, as yes and no answers. A limited number of open ended well as non-methodological issues of mystery shop- questions should exist as well, so that mystery shop- ping research management. The argument reviewed pers can provide more elaborate answers about special these issues in light of the latest standards and code of circumstances they might encounter when conduct- conduct in mystery shopping. Here is a summary of ing mystery shopping. key methodological recommendations, which can be Quality control in mystery shopping requires joint particularly useful to overcome practical challenges in efforts of both research provider and research orderer, mystery shopping, and which can enhance the overall prior, throughout, and afterwards the study. Research quality of mystery shopping studies. provider is in charge of quality control of prepara- Prior to the engagement in any kind of mystery tion, execution, and supervision of data acquisition. shopping study it is very important to separate mys- Research orderer’s duty is to ensure compliance of tery shopping research, and mystery shopping proj- branch personnel and managers, promote mystery ects. Mystery shopping research excludes the disclo- shopping, and act consistently after the study has 68      Marko Đorđić
  • 18. been completed. It is especially important not to take odology related challenges in mystery shopping. Even disciplinary action on the basis of mystery shopping, though these challenges are different, the solution and utilize mystery shopping to enhance training and for overcoming them is the same. It is utmost impor- empower branch office personnel. tant to develop close, transparent, and trustworthy Data acquisition in mystery shopping remains a relationship between research orderers and research challenging task. However it can be enhanced through providers. Research orderers and research providers training which main objective is: (a) to make mystery should turn cooperation into partnership, and that shoppers adopt scenarios and inscriptions as their way make achieving their own objectives a joint effort. second nature, and (b) reduce the influence of ob- Even though mystery shopping may not be the server bias. Quality control during data acquisition is most important marketing research, it certainly be- ensured through deployment of various instruments come a must have in retail financial services. From its such as: (a) service usage, (b) false branch offices, (c) rocky beginnings, almost three quarters of a century false questions, (d) time limit, and (e) debriefing. The ago, it became an objective and reliable tool to mea- greatest assurance of quality is a steady base of loyal sure and monitor performance in service delivery. Its mystery shoppers. employment potential grew, and it is safe to say that The research cost, nature of the mystery shopping it deserves a lot of credit for the quantum leap in en- research, and intra subsidiary relations in multina- hancement of service quality we witness in modern tional mystery shopping will remain key non-meth- retail financial services. references 1. Brink, H. Van der Walt, C., & Van Rensburg, G. 11. Limbrick, D. (1997), “Mystery Shopping”, in P. Murley (2006), Fundamentals of Research Methodology for (Ed.), Gower Handbook of Customer Service, (pp. 151- Health Care Professionals, 2nd edition, Juta & Co., 159), Grower Publishing Limited, Hampshire. Cape Town. (Original work published 1996) 12. Market Research Society (2008), Mystery Shopping 2. Dorman, K. G. (1994), “Mystery Shopping Results Research Guidelines, http://www.mrs.org.uk/ Can Shape Your Future”, Bank Marketing, Vol. 26, No. standards/downloads/2008-10-30%20Mystery%20 8, pp. 17-21. shopping%20guidelines.pdf, accessed: May 16, 2011. 3. Easwaran, S., & Singh, S. J. (2006), Marketing 13. Michelson, M. (n.d.), Taking the Mystery out of Research: Concepts, Practices, and Cases. Oxford Mystery Shopping, http://www.mspa-ap.org/about/ University Press, New Delhi. MysteryShopping1.ppt, accessed: May 16, 2011. 4. European Society of Opinion and Marketing Research 14. Morrall, K., (1994), Mystery shopping tests service (2005), ESOMAR World Research Codes & Guidelines: and compliance, Bank Marketing, Vol. 26, No. 2, pp. Mystery Shopping Studies, http://www.esomar. 13-23. org/uploads/pdf/ESOMAR_Codes&Guidelines_ 15. Mystery Shopping Providers Association Europe MysteryShopping.pdf., accessed: May 16, 2011. (2003), Advisory Guidelines for Mystery Shopping 5. Goodwin, C. J. (2010), Research in Psychology: in Europe, http://mspa-ap.org/pdf/Guidelines.pdf, Methods and Design, 6th edition, John Wiley & Sons, accessed: May 16, 2011. Inc, Hoboken. 16. Newhouse, I. S. (2004), Mystery Shopping Made 6. Hoffman, G. (1993), “Customers Can Hone Mystery Simple, McGraw-Hill, New York. Shopping”, Bank Marketing, Vol. 25, No. 8, pp. 36-37. 17. Stovall, S. A. (1993), “Keeping Tabs on Customer 7. Holliday, K. K. (1994), “Mutual Funds”, Bank Service”, Bank Marketing, Vol. 25, No. 6, pp. 29-33. Marketing, Vol. 26, No. 7, pp. 23-31. 18. Stucker, C. (2005), Mystery Shopper‘s Manual, 6th 8. Hotchkiss, D. A. (1995), “What Do Your Customers edition, Special Interests Publishing, Sugar Land. Really Think?”, Bank Marketing, Vol. 27, No. 3, pp. 13- 19. Tepper, G. C. (1994), “The Merits of Self-Testing”, 20. Mortgage Banking, Vol. 54, No. 8, p. 76. 9. Leeds B. (1992), “Mystery Shopping Offers Clues to 20. Wilson, A. M. (1998a), “The Role of Mystery Quality Service”, Bank Marketing, Vol. 24, No. 11, pp. Shopping in the Measurement of Service 24-26. Performance”, Managing Service Quality, Vol. 8, No. 6, 10. Leeds, B. (1995), “Mystery Shopping: From Novelty pp. 414-420. to Necessity”, http://www.allbusiness.com/sales/ 21. Wilson, A. M. (1998b), “The Use Of Mystery Shopping customer-service/506432-1.html, accessed: May 16, in the Measurement of Service Delivery”, The Service 2011. Industries Journal, Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 148-163. Specificities of Mystery Shopping in Retail Financial Services      69
  • 19. rezime Specifičnosti tajne kupovine u bankarskom poslovanju sa stanovništvom Marko Đorđić Svrha ovog metodološkog članka je istraživanje meto- kupovine u kontinuitetu, (b) sprovođenjem tajne kupovine doloških specifičnosti tajne kupovine u finansijskim u celoj mreži filijala, (c) integrisanjem svih komponenti uslugama za stanovništvo, kao i seta novih izazova u koje učestvuju u pružanju usluge u predmet istraživanja, i menadžmentu studija tajne kupovine koji nisu u vezi sa (d) stalnom primenom instrumenata za kontrolu kvaliteta metodologijom istraživanja, a koji su nastali sa skoraš- pre, tokom, i posle studije. Nalazi su prevashodno primen- njim inovacijama tajne kupovine. Članak takođe otkriva ljivi u tajnoj kupovini u finansijskim uslugama za stanov- metodološke preporuke kako poboljšati sveukupni kvalitet ništvo, kao i do izvesne mere, u tajnoj kupovini u ostalim tajne kupovine u svetlu tekućih standarda i pravila za maloprodajnim i korporativnim uslugama. sprovođenje tajne kupovine. Izložene preporuke ukazuju Ključne reči: tajna kupovina, finansijske usluge za sta- na to da se kvalitet tajne kupovine u finansijskim uslugama novništvo, metodologija istraživanja, marketing usluga, za stanovništvo može poboljšati: (a) sprovođenjem tajne menadžment istraživanja. contact: Marko Đorđić, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia e-mail: marko.djordjic@gmail.com 70      Marko Đorđić