Mystery shopping kit template

Banks, telecoms, retailers, restaurants, clinics, agencies and NGOs that want to know how customers are treated and what to fix first, and teams that recruit and manage mystery shoppers.

• Word document
• Editable, no password
• Includes a scorecard, shopper brief, scenario cards, report form and quality checklist

What is inside

• A pre-start checklist covering purpose, people, law and ethics, and money.
• A scorecard with eight sections you can adapt to any sector, plus items for calls, chats and apps.
• A one-page shopper brief and six scenario cards.
• A shopper report form, a quality checklist for reviewing every report, shopper conduct rules and a client report outline.

How long it takes

How to use it

1. Decide what you will measure. Keep the scorecard to things a shopper can see, hear or time. Delete items you will not use, so shoppers can finish a report quickly and accurately.
2. Use the same scenarios everywhere. Give every shopper a scenario card and use the same cards in every location so results compare. Rotate the cards over time so staff do not spot a pattern.
3. Recruit and train shoppers. Choose people who look like ordinary customers, speak the local language and report honestly. Brief them on the scorecard, timing, evidence and what they must never do, and review a test shop before real work.
4. Check every report. Use the quality checklist before a report counts and before anyone is paid. Look for impossible times, copied text and gaps, and re-shop a sample of locations with a different shopper.
5. Report strengths as well as gaps. A report that shows what each location does well, as well as what to fix, changes behaviour. A list of failures makes staff defensive.

Sample questions

A few of the questions as they appear in the template. Items in square brackets are for you to fill.

• The location was open at the stated time.
• The shopper was greeted within the time standard set for [COMPANY].
• Staff answered questions about [PRODUCT OR SERVICE] correctly.
• The correct price, fee or charge was quoted, in [LOCAL CURRENCY].
• The shopper received a receipt, reference number or confirmation.
• Staff listened and did not blame the customer.
• Staff solved the problem, or explained the next step and who owns it.
• Overall, would the shopper return or recommend [COMPANY]?

Check your sample size first

Before you field, work out how many completed interviews you need with the sample size calculator and check the precision with the margin of error calculator.

Country versions

Pick your country to get a copy with the currency, languages, regions, mobile money providers and data protection law already filled in.

Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.