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The Advantages of Video Mystery ShoppingBy admin on February 9, 2009 | No Comments
Day by day, latest shopping techniques are enriching the world of confidential shopping. One of this latest technique is video mystery shopping . It is one of the most powerful ways to depict the exact scenario at the business place to the business owner. With this method, there is no chance of misinterpretation of information by the shopper or the client, which makes the technique more strong and reliable. It is very convenient shopping tool for the shoppers too, as they are relieved to a great extent from the critical responsibility of memorizing the whole shopping experience for writing the final report.
A video mystery shopping assignment is almost the same type of work for a shopper. Only difference is that here each and every event at the shop will be recorded by a hidden video camera. The camera is so small that it could be hidden easily behind a button hole and the battery and charger can be kept inside the belt or within the purse. The camera should be kept on from the time of entering the shop till the exit point. A video shopping mainly emphasize on outside store appearance, internal selling process, staff attitudes, body language and facial expressions of the staffs etc. All this information is recorded on a retail, or new customer point of view, whatever the industry may be.
The output of the video mystery shopping project is evaluated at the office to check the quality of the recording. Though highly efficient instruments are used for this purpose, sometimes the quality might drop due to less light or some other inconvenience. If the output does not meet the standard level of performance, then the assignment is redone. Many shopping companies also attach detail reports along with the recording. After viewing the tape, the owner can easily get the total picture of his business place. Based on this, he can plan out the correctional procedures required to be implemented to improve the scenario.
Prior to going for his first video mystery shopping assignment, a shopper needs to be trained accordingly. He should be able to handle the camera appropriately, so that it can record each detail perfectly. Also, he must have experience with normal shopping projects. At the shop, he should not feel shaky or uncomfortable with the camera and he has to act like a real life customer. Dealing with two responsibilities simultaneously might sound little difficult. To be on the safe side, the shopper might go for some test shops with the recording equipment to build up his confidence level. This way he can also identify and correct his flaws of his own by seeing the recording.
Most of the time, the equipments are provided by the shopping company to the shopper. Otherwise, the shopper could buy a micro video recorder from any local electronic shop. The price of the camera might be reimbursed by the shopping company, as it is going to be used for shopping purpose only. Normally this type of shopping assignments involves more challenges for the shopper than the normal method of shopping. This increases the amount of fee earned for video shopping over the normal shopping. However, a newcomer will never be able to start his career with video shopping, as he needs to be quite confident and expert with his shopping assignments.