States, thanks to single-party consent laws for video and phone recording. If you're looking for customer experience research in one of the two-party consent states below, you can consider other options for strategic results. Independent or third-party sellers engage consumers to conduct retail transactions and provide a detailed record of the experience. In general, it's OK, yes, they can record it, they will certainly have policies on the storage and use of the similar recordings for CCTV, etc.
Following the DPA where appropriate, but unless they are recording it in the bathroom, they don't need your permission. If the Mystery Shopping company asks you to record the store, it can inform you that you have obtained the necessary consent. A secret shopper is a person employed by an agency, retailer, or industry critic whose primary purpose is to assess the level of customer service offered within their establishment. Some of the data that mystery shoppers collect and report (usually when completing a survey) includes normal observations such as occasional observers, but mystery shoppers can also be withheld to ask specific questions or be difficult customers.
However, there are some basic concepts about recording conversations that you should know if you're thinking of using a voice recorder in your mystery stores. Buyers are sent to a wide variety of service-based businesses, including stores, restaurants, banks, apartment complexes, potentially anywhere customers are served or served. Buyers would enter the stage of the visit prepared and record the phone so that they could capture the audio of the entire visit. Although I live in a state of one-party consent, it was reassuring to learn that the mystery shopping company and the customer had signed consent forms on employee file, acknowledging that they were aware that they could be recorded during the performance of their duties.
The buyer making these visits must provide an audio clip of the visit in the report being submitted. Think of mystery shoppers as undercover customers sent to observe, interact, and report on other customers and store employees. All other aspects of an audio-recorded mystery program would follow the same as the traditional Mystery Shopping method. Mystery shoppers aren't hired to give reviews, but to evaluate a company and its employees from a customer experience perspective.
Mystery Shopping recorded video can provide very clear insight and irrefutable evidence about customer experience and staff behavior, but understandably, staff may be more sensitive to its use.
