The role of mystery shopping in the measurement of service performance

This paper reports on a programme of research in the UK aimed at examining the role of mystery shopping in the measurement and management of service quality. The research focused on the views of the senior managers responsible for commissioning mystery shopping research and the directors of market research agencies responsible for the provision of such research. The research findings identify the main uses of mystery shopping in the UK and the methods used to maximise the reliability of the technique. The study also discovers that organisations rarely integrate mystery shopping results with other measures of service delivery performance.