In southern California, we are roasting right now—hundred degree afternoons, fire warnings all around us, you know, your typical mid-September weather for the greater-Los Angeles area. But maybe all that heat is coming out of our market research oven. That’s right, it’s time to keep it going with Market Research 101.
And just in time for the holiday season hiring surge, today, we will be looking at Rewards and Recognition mystery shopping programs.
Rewards and Recognition are a revealed market research mystery shop methodology. Field Agents make in-store purchases and pay careful attention to the execution of predetermined customer service standards and initiatives.
If the store associate correctly executes the monitored behavior, the Field Agent reveals themselves and offers the associate a cash reward; if they fail to execute the behavior, the Field Agent nonetheless reveals themselves but instead offers them a coaching flier advising them they did not pass the in-store mystery shop.
Successful employees feel valued and rewarded by receiving a cash reward and in-store recognition for a job well done.
Rewards and recognition mystery shops are important for any customer-facing business, most often retail and food service. Generally, corporate leaders contract rewards and recognition mystery shops to ensure that certain customer service standards are met across all franchise and corporate locations.
These customer service standards are often geared towards increasing basket and/or check size and can include the following scenarios:
Rewards and recognition programs reinforce training initiatives by proactively monitoring and rewarding employees who meet or exceed in-store customer service standards. They are a fun way to shore up in-store service initiatives, with each Field Agent either reward or coaching the employee being mystery shopped.
Equally important, however, they also provide a steady stream of data reflecting the adoption of in-store standards across corporate and franchise locations alike, helping companies monitor their many locations, find trends both positive and negative at the store and regional level, and implement small and large scale corrective action when necessary.
TrendSource has proprietary access to a deep and diverse network of Field Agents with experience in rewards and recognition methodologies; our shoppers are professional and enthusiastic, meaning they will happily reward expected behaviors but are also attuned to any potential short comings that should result in coaching rather than rewards.
More importantly, TrendSource’s Client Success Managers understand how to build a robust and flexible reward and recognition program to provide employees with the reinforcement they need while also giving leaders the data streams they require.