If you have just begun mystery shopping your stores, it’s important to set an initial target for the level of compliance you hope to achieve at each of your locations.
How well do you think your locations are currently performing? We recommend setting an initial target of 85%. However, it's important to estimate a goal based on your current compliance level against standards.
For example, if you set an initial target of 75% compliance, this means you are estimating that 25% or a quarter of what you are measuring does not meet the internal standards you have set for your business.
As you measure your mystery shopping program over time, you’ll gain a better understanding of performance at each of your locations and be able to set a benchmark for success. We recommend setting a goal of 90-95% indicating your locations are performing as they should be.
A while back we wrote a blog on this topic called, what do your mystery shopping scores mean? that points out achieving high scores too quickly may not always be a good thing.
If an area of your operations is consistently achieving high scores, this is a strong indicator that it may be time to focus on other areas that haven’t received as much attention or an area of operation that’s underperforming.
As you evaluate your program and establish that you’re accurately measuring performance in the right areas, you can then work toward achieving higher scores knowing that those scores are truly reflective of improved performance.
Lastly, it’s important to re-evaluate your program objectives on an annual basis and adjust your program accordingly.
Download the infographic (PDF) here.