Mystery Shopping FAQ

As either a successful or struggling business, you may be wondering how mystery shopping can help you. An anonymous shopper will not only uncover invaluable information about your strengths, but also where you’re going wrong. This information will prove essential in building on and developing your existing thriving processes, and also helping you to alter and improve any failing or less successful areas. Here at Amber Arch, we provide the services to professionally discover and effectively feedback vital data on how your company is perceived by the most important people – your customers. Read More >

We offer several different types of mystery shopping, which we have expertly developed and perfected, to offer the greatest possible benefit to each of the businesses who use our services.

Telephone, Video and Internet Mystery Shopping.
The power of a mystery shopper lies in their ability to remain completely anonymous. They could call or visit your company at any given time, and their true nature is unknown to all staff, allowing them to receive the same treatment as a typical customer. Each mystery shopper is able to fully explore whichever avenues you desire, picking out crucial areas of weakness, and highlighting any strengths.

Focus Groups
These groups will allow you to receive direct feedback on all areas of your business, in a personal manner. They are an excellent opportunity to discover how people really feel about your company, products and services, in a controlled, honest environment.

Competitor Visits
Through finding out whether your level of service matches your competitors, you’ll be able to effectively tweak and enhance your own service, to give prospective customers a reason to pick you over your rivals.

Exit Polls
We are able to devise questionnaires, individual to your business, which will allow you to receive a large amount of feedback, from a diverse range of your customers. This will enable you to develop your business to appeal to a much wider and more accurate audience.

These are only a few of the services which we offer, and the benefits extend even beyond the aspects which we have covered in this post. For further useful information on mystery shopping, why not get in touch with our friendly team today?

For business owners, gaining an understanding of the ability of their staff in terms of customer service is crucial. It’s a much repeated fact within the retail sector that a customer will tell two friends if they have a good experience, and if they have a bad experience they will tell seven. For restaurants, the customer service provision can be just as important as the quality of the food itself, which is why introducing mystery shopping is such a great way of keeping standards high. Read More >

The team here at Amber Arch work alongside a number of clients to provide efficient and accurate measurements and analysis of service. We can show you exactly where you may need to improve, as well as areas of strength and expertise. In addition, we can provide expert training that will have your staff up to speed with exceptional customer service practises.

Mystery shopping is the only method of examining the level of service you are providing – crucially from the perspective of your customers. Secret shoppers are the most cost-effective way of providing you with the invaluable knowledge you need to progress as a company, and develop your competitive edge and build customer loyalty.

There are numerous ways to test satisfaction, but the most popular are mystery shopping visits, competitor visits, focus groups, exit polls and, indirectly, staff satisfaction surveys. Competitor visits are a great way of understanding areas that you need to improve on, and things at which you excel. In terms of a restaurant, service is such an integral component of the whole experience that any advantage that can be levered here will stand you in good stead.

While mystery shopping visits are the best way of gaining an immediate understanding of the levels of service on display, other more informal methods can be equally as useful. A combination of the tools outlined above may be the most effective means of finding out how to improve your business.

Are you a natural observer who spends time people watching? Have you got a good memory as well as the ability to communicate with and understand people from all walks of life? If the answer to either of these questions is yes, then Amber Arch, specialists in mystery shopping, may be able to offer you an exciting way to make money. If you’re currently out of work, or are looking to make money in addition to part time employment, then it’s worth considering becoming a mystery shopper with us. Read More >

Companies like Amber Arch provide businesses with invaluable market research into customer service, as well as detailed, business-specific reports based on staff assessments of their customers’ experience. Such information is vital for businesses to continue to improve staff competency, but is only available thanks to the feedback received from secret shoppers.

As more and more businesses worldwide look to mystery shopping programmes to access and improve the customer experience, more ordinary people like you are required. Mystery shopping suits flexible, relaxed individuals who are good communicators and can express the subtle details of a customer experience effectively.

A job like this could see you experiencing some excellent services in addition to sampling some unsatisfactory customer service, but one thing you can be sure of is that no assignment will be exactly the same. Amber Arch intend to build upon their already sterling reputation as providers of mystery shopping programmes and you could help them do so.

Mystery shopping is an ideal role for students and older consumers alike. If eating at restaurants and using supermarkets, all while posing as a genuine customer and constantly assessing the experience, sounds appealing to you – then sign up at the Amber Arch website.

Although the news in August suggested that there’s been a strong retail sales growth and there have been reports of improving industrial exports, which offered a ray of sunshine for retailers in the aftermath of the recent recession, there is still a lot that retailers can do (and not just the large High Street names, but small independent shops) to beat the recession and improve their profit. One of which is by taking advantage of the tailor made mystery shopping services offered by us here at Amber Arch. Read More >

Since establishing in 1995, we’ve gained an excellent reputation for being a high quality mystery shopping company – and you can be sure that we will measure your customer’s satisfaction to retrieve honest and accurate feedback, which will help you improve your business while beating the aftermath of the recession.

All Amber Arch mystery shoppers are fully trained to provide a wide range of services, and our clients can choose from an unlimited range of mystery shopping formats (including competitor visits, focus groups and exit questions) and customer feedback surveys, as well as staff training programmes. Put simply, this means we’ll be able to cost-effectively provide you with the invaluable knowledge you need to develop your competitive edge and build customer loyalty.

The information we receive is then presented in various formats so that you can access the information 24 hours a day and beat the recession by making any needed improvements.

Only by examining the service you are providing from the perspective of all your customers are you able to genuinely know how you’re performing in a time when we’re all watching our pennies. So if you, like us, believe that it’s essential that every member of your team consistently provide a level of service which either meets or exceeds your customer’s expectations, then why not take advantage of our mystery shopping service?

No matter what your business, it is essential that your team consistently provides above-average levels of customer service. The only way you can accurately examine the level of customer service your business is providing is through the eyes of the customer. At Amber Arch, we provide bespoke mystery shopping programmes to any sized business, ensuring the programme is tailored to deliver the specific feedback you need. Read More >

A sound knowledge of your existing level of customer service serves as the basis for our analysis. It is only by knowing this that we can work together to create logical and achievable business solutions, to increase your company’s level of customer service.

We only use the most experienced mystery visitors, who have extensive knowledge on what makes for appropriate levels of customer service. With this is mind, they are fully equipped to make a fair and rational judgement on your customer service. Amber Arch can mystery shop a business using a variety of different programmes, such as video, telephone, mail-order, on-site and web enquiries. We are suitable for the majority of businesses, with mystery visitors available throughout the UK. Research indicates the most important aspect of the service you provide is how much the customer values the human contact they receive from your team member. This can only truly be judged by the customers themselves, which is why mystery shopping is so valuable to businesses.

A new customer is great news for any business, but regular customers are just as important for continuous revenue. Businesses should never underestimate the power of customer service. No matter how amazing your product is, it is not strong enough to stand alone in a buoyant market, and must be backed by a good level of service to retain the customer.

Here at Amber Arch, we’ve been in the industry of mystery shopping since 1995, and as a well-established company we’re dedicated to making your business the best it can be. In times of financial difficulty, high levels of customer service have never been more important to the success of your business. Choose us for mystery shopping results you can trust.

Becoming a mystery shopper with Amber Arch isn’t as hard as you may think, though it does require a certain skill set. You’ll need to be alert, have a great memory and be able to critically analyse your experiences. Read More >

Most people do this every day, yet they don’t receive a penny for it. Have you ever been somewhere and wished you had received better service? Now you have the chance to make a change and get paid for your opinions.

Many retailers want to know what is working and what isn’t in their outlets so that they can make improvements and increase their bottom line. We work closely with those retailers and have a wide range of mystery shopper positions available.

To become a mystery shopper with Amber Arch, you’ll need to register through our site. We’ll be in touch to get you up and running. Every time a new task is posted on our jobs board you can self-assign it, meaning that you can pick and choose which assignments you wish to take and how many you complete. We regularly post jobs via our Shop Notifier app or send them direct to you via email. We also keep you informed through Twitter and Facebook, so make sure you like and follow us to be the first to hear about our latest tasks.

Once you have visited the outlet, we need to know about your experience. A form will have to be submitted with as much information as you can gather. Of course, you’ll know what information you need to feedback before you even visit the shop.

If you have the right character and want to take on the challenge, you could certainly be on your way to earning well. But pay isn’t always the only reward.

Many of our previous shopping expeditions have included freebies. With some, you even get to keep the goods you purchase. If you are visiting a restaurant, you could even have the cost of the meal covered.

Keep a look out for these hidden extras as they make it a much more rewarding experience! You must be self-employed to carry out work for Amber Arch. Now you know how to become a mystery shopper, apply online today!

Hiring the services of a mystery shopping company can prove to be an invaluable experience. Maybe your business is losing out on competition to rivals, and you cannot work out why, or you simply wish to build on the service which you already offer. Here at Amber Arch, we have developed a comprehensive series of techniques in order to assess the effectiveness of the level of service which your business provides. Gaining an objective point of view from an outsider will provide you with an honest and accurate reflection of how your company operates, allowing you to build on its strengths, and work on its weaknesses. Read More >

The assignments which we have devised for our mystery shoppers offer a unique perspective into how others view you and provide an insight into your company’s real reputation. They work by each mystery shopper being given a specific task to carry out within your business environment, such as asking a question to assess the satisfaction gained from your company’s response. The answers and outcome from this will then be translated into a detailed report, which will be fed back to you.

Whilst it’s extremely useful to see where your service may be falling short, it may often be difficult to establish the correct way in which to develop the correct techniques to achieve success. For this reason, we also specialise in competitor mystery shopping. This involves conducting an assignment within a rival company, in order to see what methods are proving most beneficial to their success. This will in turn, allow you to develop your own processes, thus improving overall service, and maximise your chances of turning one off customers into returning visitors.

For a highly advantageous insight into the real service which your company offers, our carefully planned assignments, excellently executed by our mystery shopping team, act as a valuable investment to improve and enhance key areas of your business.