Our focus today, is on the importance of Mystery Shopping in China, with Daxue Consulting, leading research company in China. We sat down with Thibaud Andre, to discuss about this methodology in Chinese business environment.
Mystery shopping in China is crucial to evaluate performance
For a retailer or a firm providing service, it can be tough to adapt its model in to China’s market. Moreover, it is difficult to evaluate the performance in a different environment. But, it is crucial for a new comer in China to identify strengths and areas where there is room for improvement. In a long term vision, it must assist the development of expertise on China’s market and help the retail or the service to fit with Chinese environment better. Thibaud Andre, consultant for Daxue Consulting, told us : “Our aim is to provide to our client powerful management assessment tool. In a long term, it should give them some good way to be successful in their in-store strategy, some solution for improvement and some help to let them keep their customer promises and optimize selling.” A mystery shopper is send into an outlet or a consumption place to act exactly as a usual customer: buy specific products or enjoy a service. It can include both groceries store and supermarkets, both cinema and bank. Discreetly, he will then observe some precise points related to the selling, the merchandising, the quality of services… “To control the reliability of the data, rigor and experience are crucial. Therefore, the quality of the staff and the fieldwork team must be highest-standard, as well as the quality-check before, after and during the survey” said Thibaud. The mystery shopper, of course, poses as a true client and will ask questions and file complaint to test the quality of the quality of the staff. Then he will file a questionnaire to judge the whole quality and give a valuable feedback to the client of the survey. Practices such as hidden camera are growing as well. “With Daxue Consulting, we use various methodologies: mystery phone calls, qualitative interviews with vendors and customers, we take photos, we do counting in the outlet, we record audio and video…” adds Thibaud Andre.
Daxue Consulting, a major actor in market research in China
Daxue Market Research Group is the most active and growing consulting firm in China today. It has offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong-Kong. Moreover, Daxue Consulting is able to manage projects efficiently all over China through its powerful network of project assistants and panels. Since 2009, it experienced an outstanding development. It gains the confidence of the biggest brands and retail as Samsung or Carrefour. Susan Wensu See also : Mystery shopping in Hong Kong http://marketingtochina.com/reliable-mystery-shopping-partner-china/ http://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx.shtml