Mystery Shopping: A Tool to Develop Insight into Customer Service Provision

30 Pages Posted: 6 Mar 2008

See all articles by Martijn Hesselink

Martijn Hesselink

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) - Erasmus School of Economics (ESE)

Jos van Iwaarden

Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM)

Ton van der Wiele

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) - Department of Economics; Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM)

Date Written: 15 2004, 10

Abstract

Reaching service excellence through a focus on the customer, demands more than just measuring customer satisfaction by means of questionnaire surveys. Nowadays, it is not sufficient anymore to have service excellence in services, processes and relationships. Now is the time to create excellence in customer experiences, as the only way to create competitive advantage in the market. Organisational change should then be driven by a broader focus on customers’ expectations and multiple ways of measuring customers’ satisfaction. The case of a service company in The Netherlands (a temporary employment agency) illustrates the way to service excellence as an organisational change process. The case supports the need for a broad focus on measurements in order to be able to monitor and to direct organisational changes. Customer satisfaction data based on surveys are needed, however, they will not be sufficient for continuing the change process over time. To achieve that, other measurements like mystery shopping may give more stimuli to change. Therefore, this research argues that mystery shopping can be a useful instrument in addition to the more often-used survey methods.

Keywords: service excellence, customer satisfaction, mystery shopping, mystery guest

JEL Classification: M, M10, L2, M39

Suggested Citation

Hesselink, Martijn and van Iwaarden, Jos and van der Wiele, Ton, Mystery Shopping: A Tool to Develop Insight into Customer Service Provision (15 2004, 10). ERIM Report Series Reference No. ERS-2004-082-ORG, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=636791

Martijn Hesselink

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) - Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) ( email )

Burg. Oudlaan 50
Rotterdam, NL 3062 PA
Netherlands

Jos Van Iwaarden (Contact Author)

Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM) ( email )

P.O. Box 1738
Room H15-28
3000 DR Rotterdam
Netherlands
+31 10 408 1321 (Phone)
+31 10 408 9169 (Fax)

Ton Van der Wiele

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) - Department of Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 1738
3000 DR Rotterdam
Netherlands
+31 10 408 1354 (Phone)
+31 10 408 9169 (Fax)

Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM)

P.O. Box 1738
3000 DR Rotterdam
Netherlands

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