The use of mystery shopping results: From retail store managers’ perspective
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School of Business |
Master's thesis
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Date
2019
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Management and International Business (MIB)
Language
en
Pages
64+3
Series
Abstract
Since assessing service quality and performance in retailing has become more critical than ever, retailers are keen to use mystery shopping as a method to measure the customer service process. It is recognized that most companies adopt mystery shopping with the hope that performance measurement will encourage positive changes in managers and employees’ behaviors, and subsequently, result in customers’ satisfaction and better sales performance. However, transforming those information into accurate understanding and thus, leading to practical actions is not an easy task for many managers. Hence, this study aims to explore what store managers do with mystery shopping results and factors that influence their behaviors. The theoretical part of this study reviews mystery shopping with a focus on the perspective of organizations adopting mystery shopping. The literature on management behaviors in using mystery shopping results is also presented. Following by a brief discussion of retail store operations and the role of retail store managers since the context for this study is retail stores. The study uses a qualitative approach, and data was collected by semi-interview with seven store managers from the same retailer. The findings were analyzed using thematic content analysis and positioned within the process stages for performance management by Bourne et al. (2005), including data analysis, interpretation, communication, and taking actions. The study found that store managers acknowledge the use of mystery shopping results for a variety of purposes. However, all respondents are much concerned about the reliability of mystery shopping results. Store managers then rely on their intuition and work experiences to analyze and interpret the results. It is implied that store managers only adopt the results on criteria that they found reasonable and keep in mind that the results only reflect a partial view of the store’s operations. Besides, most respondents perceive getting a high mystery shopping score as a way to avoid the problem with their direct managers - area managers. However, store managers show no interest in getting the reward liked with mystery shopping as they see it unreachable. This study also found that store managers are sensitive about the well-being of sales staff, and thus, store managers try to avoid unnecessary stress for staff from the mystery shopping results. Despite many complaints about mystery shopping and its results, most store managers accept mystery shopping results and rarely feedback about the program to higher managers. This can be explained as store managers feel they lack support from the company, and they all aware of the service quality orientation in their organization.Description
Thesis advisor
Kent, DerinKeywords
mystery shopping, mystery shopping results, retail store manager, performance management