NUS Services’ successful mystery shopping programme, now in its fifth year, has helped numerous students’ unions with detailed insights into customer-facing services.
The purpose of the programme is to assist unions in developing their commercial and non-commercial services by providing a low cost, flexible and independent insight into the quality of the many existing services that operate in students’ unions today.
The programme
The mystery shopping programme includes five standard reports:
• Bar (covering a day visit, an evening visit, and/or a nightclub visit)
• Bar dining (breakfast, lunch and/or evening meal)
• Retail
• Self-catering
• Non-commercial services: a core cassette of questions relevant to all non-commercial services are followed by tailored questions specific to service eg reception, advice centre, gym
We arevery aware of the ever-increasing competition of the high street so we also offer the opportunity to conduct competitor visits to independently and objectively assess what and how they are doing.
Upon completion of your visits, you will be sent a full analysis report which will provide very detailed findings of the mystery shop, highlighting a series of action points ensuring that you get the most out of being a member of the programme.
We also like to create even deeper understanding of your services by offering the opportunity for conducting short qualitative interviews immediately on completion of the mystery shop.
We have the capacity to really delve in to the attitudes of your customers by asking them a small number of qualitative questions.
We will work with you to develop the most effective questions that will help to explain your customers’ needs and wants and shed even more light on your customer service.
Compare your union
Detailed in-depth analysis of all visits is conducted at the end of every term to enable comparisons to be made between your union and all other unions and between your union and the high street competition.
Quality assurance
NUS Services is company partners to the Market Research Society, ensuring gold standard professional research, coupled with our wealth of expertise in the student field.
The independent research agency that conduct the mystery shops, Mystery Shoppers Ltd, are members of the Mystery Shopping Providers Association (MSPA) and have been conducting mystery shopping services for over twenty years.
Mystery shopping programme rates
With a mystery shop from as little as £80 (the more you book, the cheaper the shop), why not look at our rate card to see how we can help your commercial services go from strength to strength?
Case studies
Many unions have already realised the benefits of the Mystery Shopping Programme. Click here to read how they have effectively used the programme in many different ways, from customer care development and training through to the inclusion of a target scores in union KPIs.
Get in touch!
For more information on the mystery shopping programme, please contact the research department via research@nussl.co.uk.
