Do you run a mystery shopping business and you need high paying clients? If YES, here is an 11-step guide on how to get mystery shopping clients. Organizations over the years have been looking for ways that will enable them improve on their products and services. One of the business tools that is used to achieve this is mystery shopping.
Mystery shopping is a very important component of the customer relationship management program of any organization that places service and hospitality as key components of their value proposition. The truth is that mystery shopping is perhaps one of the most cost-effective and flexible customer relationship management tools available in the business world today.
It can be leveraged on quickly and cheaply. Additionally, it is a program that can be modified and tweaked on the go, giving the client access to very current market research information without expensive set-up costs. If you intend starting a mystery shopping business, it is very needful that you analyze existing businesses in and outside of your area.
Also, you would be required to check the existing competition, as well as know their strength and weaknesses. Knowing the weaknesses of existing mystery shopping companies means that you would be able to learn from their mistakes and in turn come up with a better company devoid of the mistakes and weaknesses of others. Please note that there are no limits to the industries you can offer your mystery shopping services to.
You can offer your services to retailers, corporate organizations, manufacturers and distributors, research and development companies, entrepreneurs and startups and investors et al. Having said that, if you run a mystery shopping firm, here are some sure – fire tips that will help get mystery shopping clients;
How to Get Mystery Shopping Clients That Pay Well
1. Choose a Good Location for Your Company
The first and perhaps one of the most important things to put in place if you want to continue to get new business deals and contracts as a mystery shopping company is to position your business in the right location. It cannot be over emphasized that the success of any business lies in the location you choose to locate the business.
In essence, if you want to continue to get new business deals and contracts and be very busy with your mystery shopping business, then you should ensure that you locate your business close to retail hubs and business districts.
2. Make Your Mystery Shopping Business Superior to Your Competition
Come to think of it, people and organizations will always patronize a business that appears to be superior to others. In a nutshell, in order to keep getting new businesses cum contracts, you should project your company to be superior to your competitors not only in appearance, but in also in your concepts and services delivery. Your unique selling point should be your vast industrial experience and solid reputation.
So also trust, honesty, good network and excellent relationship management, strong management, reliable statistical software, operations, experienced mystery shoppers (field agents), and your network, your size advantages, cost advantages, supply chain, customer loyalty and strong reputation amongst domestic industry players, etc. will count a lot for you in this regard.
3. Build Good Business Network
Networking is perhaps one of the most effective and creative marketing ideas needed to build your clientele base and you have to put plans in place to leverage on all your networks if you truly want to do well in the industry. In view of that, you should look out for gatherings where you can network with captain of industries, entrepreneurs, manufacturers and merchants et al that make use of mystery shopping tools.
As a matter of fact, your first port of call will be to connect with the nearest Chamber of Commerce; you are likely going to get your first major deal from them.
4. Get Your Employees Involved in Marketing Your Services
As a mystery shopping cum marketing consulting company, part of what you need to do if you want to continue to get new businesses in the industry, is to ensure that all your employees (not only marketing and sales executives) are directly or indirectly involved in marketing your services.
Just ensure that you create a provision for your employees to earn commission when they bring in business for the organization. You can as well create a business model that will enable freelancers to work with your organization especially as it relates to bringing in mystery shopping contracts; whenever they refer clients to your organization, they will earn a percentage of the deal.
5. Build a Mystery Shopping Business That Will Serve Both Big and Small Clients
Another idea that will help you get new businesses in the industry is to ensure that you design your business in such a way that you can comfortably work with both startup and well – established companies. The truth is that some companies miss out from mystery shopping contracts because they are either too big to attend to smaller clients or too small to execute larger mystery shopping contracts.
6. Form Strategic Marketing Alliance with Your Competitors in the Mystery Shopping cum Marketing and Sales Consulting Industry
As a mystery shopping consultant, if you want to continue to get new business in the industry, then you should look towards forming strategic marketing alliance with your competitors in the industry. Good enough, there are opportunities for mystery shopping companies to form strategic marketing alliance with other competitors in the industry due to the fact that some companies may lack the capacity to handle certain mystery shopping contracts.
So also, a mystery shopping consulting company can form strategic marketing alliance with a company that does not collect sales data to help them carry out mystery shopping contracts.
7. Create a Brand Identity for Your Company
You will quite agree that customers go for products or services that are always in front of them; in the business world, it is called promotion and branding. So, if you want to continue to get new business deals and contracts in the mystery shopping industry, then you should be ready to create a brand identity for your mystery shopping company.
It is a fact that any business that wants to grow beyond the corner of the street they are operating from must be ready to utilize every available means to advertise and promote the business. Boosting your brand awareness will a go a long way to endear you to the available market in the United States of America and Canada.
8. Get Celebrities in Your Community to Endorse Your Company
If your mystery shopping company is located in a community where you have a celebrity, you will do your businesses a whole lot of favor if you can get the celebrity to endorse your services and brand. It is fact that celebrities are social influencers and if people in your community know that a celebrity has endorsed your business, they would want to go out of their way to also be listed amongst people who are doing business with you.
9. List Your Mystery Shopping Company on Yellow Pages Ads (Local Directories)
Another sure way to attract mystery shopping contracts is to ensure that you list your mystery shopping company on yellow paged ads (local directories) in your city or community. Although with the advent of internet, hard copy yellow pages’ ads have been relegated to the background, but it is still one major tool that will help people identify your mystery shopping company.
10. Encourage the Use of Word of Mouth Marketing (Referrals)
Do you know that word of mouth marketing i.e. referral marketing is one of the surest ways to attract clients to your mystery shopping company? No doubt, people trust the judgement of people they love or are friends with. So, all you have to do to increase sales in your mystery shopping company is to ensure that you encourage the use of word of mouth marketing (referrals) from you existing customers.
11. Make use of Attractive Hand Bills to Create Awareness
Another sure way to attracting clients (increase sales) in your mystery shopping business is to ensure that you make use of attractive hand bills to create awareness and also to give direction to your office.
As a matter of fact, this is one of the most reliable means that a business can leverage on to get businesses in the community to know about them. Just ensure that you distribute the handbills from door to door and in any gathering where you can find people who reside in and around the location.
12. Position Your Signage/Flexi Banners at Strategic Places Around the Location of Your Mystery Shopping Company
If you want to attract clients in your mystery shopping business, one of the ideas you should adopt is to ensure that you position your signage or flexi banners at strategic places around the location where you have your office. With that, it will be easier for residents to know that there is a mystery shopping company around.
13. Offer Excellent Customer Service Experience
People like going to places where they are treated with dignity hence it will be easier for businesses with marketing and sales related challenges to go to mystery shopping companies that they know they will be treated with dignity.
So, if you are looking for sure – fire ways to increase sales in your mystery shopping business, then you should ensure that you offer excellent customer service to all your customers when they come to you. With that, they will be able to come again and of course refer people to you.
14. Implement Goal Setting and Reward System for Your Marketing Executives
Another sure way to attract clients in your business is to implement goal setting and reward system for your marketing and sales executives. A sales plan can’t be complete without goal setting and reward system. This idea can work if you run a standard mystery shopping business with over a handful of marketing and sales executives.
15. Develop Mailing Lists
Develop mailing lists of your target market and stay in contact with monthly emails listing midweek special offers and promotions. Remind them of the services you offer and how they are going to benefit if they order your services. So also, you should endeavor to print out fliers and business cards and strategically drop them in offices, libraries, public facilities and train stations et al.
16. Make Use of Effective Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software
In order to increase the number of clients in your mystery shopping business, part of what you need to do is to track progress, results or outputs with the aim of improving on them quickly as the case demands. When it comes to managing your customers, and building loyal clientele base, you should purchase a customized CRM software.
With a customized CRM system, you can easily stay in touch with your clients (you can carry out quick survey, you can introduce new products and prices to them without any hitch, you can felicitate with them on their birthdays and other anniversaries, you can keep track of their progress, you can send bulk sms and customized e – mails and above all, you can easily receive compliant and feedback from them).
17. Diversify your Marketing Methods
Just like how your current customers do not match up to one particular profile, your methods to find new customers should also be varied. In order for your advertising for marketing strategy to be effective and have the furthest outreach, you need to be as digital friendly and accessible as possible. Most of your target audience will search the internet as their first resource when looking for a mystery shopping company to do business with.
The first rule is about attribution. If you have a client portal, you can have a custom integration done with Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) and Google Analytics to report on how many leads are coming online. Make sure to use Urchin Tracking Modules (UTMS). UTMs are tags that you can add to your website’s URL that will track where your online traffic is coming from.
When these are combined with your CRM in your facility management software, you can find out which marketing channels (social media, content, paid, etc.) are bringing you the most won prospects.
No doubt, you’ll have clients that don’t sign up online, and that’s okay. Be sure to have your sales representative or front desk staff ask each prospect how they heard about your mystery shopping company, and attribute the lead manually. Whether they came in manually or online, you’ll need a CRM to monitor the success of attracting more clients.
18. Participate In Local Events
You can grow your visibility and attracting clients to your business by demonstrating your dedication to the local community. Sponsor charity events, set up a booth at area festivals, and contact local media to get your business known. This can be an effective way to expand your local presence.
19. Facebook Business Page
Even if you have not created a Business page on Facebook, your mystery shopping company has one. Facebook allow users to check into an address or a business even if the business has not set one up. The business can then go in and claim their page. Facebook’s algorithms change frequently so we will address how to get your posts seen after this.
So, if not to post, then why use Facebook at all? To engage with customers and answer people messaging your business. Because people interact on Facebook so much, when people google search your business, your page might pop up. They then can go to that page to ask questions, read more about you and check out reviews. You need to be able to engage back.
20. Work on Your Retention Strategies
A company that is good with marketing but not good with generating repeated sales from their existing customers will always struggle to maximize profits in the business. You cannot keep welcoming customers from your front door and watch them leave via your back door and expect to generate enough revenue for your business.
As a mystery shopping consulting company, if you want to continue to get new business, then you should ensure that you put in place workable customer retention strategies and also continuously improve your customer experience.
Part of the retention strategies you need to adopt is to ensure that you leverage on price; your prices should be affordable and negotiable. The fact that your business door is open to both individuals and corporations means that you should have different price range for different category of clients.
You are in the mystery shopping consulting industry simply because you want to make money and you know that you cannot make money without having customers patronize your business hence you should able to map out strategies not only to win customers, but also to ensure that you retain them.
In conclusion,
As a mystery shopping company owner, if you can adopt the above tips when it comes to running your company, then you can be rest assured that you will continue to get new business in the industry. Please note that there may be certain challenges unique to mystery shopping companies in your business location; it is your duty to be creative and improvise when it comes to tackling such challenges.