Comparing Mystery Shopping with Smartphone and Traditional Mystery Shopping

Abstract

This study aims to investigate different methodologies in performing mystery shopping programs, i.e. new (call, SMS, and notes) and traditional methodologies in the aspect of shoppers’ workload, satisfaction, consistency, accuracy and timing. For that purpose, a single factor experiment with four levels was designed in this research. A smartphone and computer-mediated experiment was conducted with 40 Chinese students. The results showed that the traditional method was the most consistent method and there was no significant difference among the other three mystery shopping methods. However, the results also demonstrated that traditional method was the least accurate and there was no significant difference among the other three methods. The researcher also found that when conducting a mystery shopping program, the SMS method took the longest time, followed by the calling method. Finally, this research discusses the implications of these findings for developing mystery shopping guidelines.

Keywords: Mystery Shopping, Convenience Store, Smartphone, Workload, Satisfaction, Consistency, Accuracy, Timing

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe100560