Assessing Manpower Integrity through Mystery Shopping

“In looking for people to hire, look for 3 qualities: Integrity, Intelligence & Energy. And if they don’t have the first, the other two will kill you.” - Warren Buffet

Mystery Shopping can be very well utilized to anonymously evaluate Staff integrity through trained shoppers. Several retail segments like Automobile, Consumer Electronics, Hotels & Restaurants etc. use Mystery shopping to identify the loopholes in their system and avoid the consequences.

Mystery Shoppers enact certain scenarios or get into a comfort zone/conversation mode with the sales/service executives and try to evaluate their stickiness to ethical conduct. Different industries experience different types of ethical misconduct. Some of the most common types are as follows:

Industry	Types of ethical misconduct
Automobiles	Pitching outside service/repair by service executive of brand Faster delivery in lieu of a monetary benefit Old car exchange \| Over-valuation for a monetary benefit
Real Estate	Data leakage \| Sharing contact details of prospective buyers with third-party brokers
Consumer Electronics/Durables	Selling lower than the brand-suggested price Recommending competition
Hotels & Resorts	Allowing additional member/extra bedding in lieu of a monetary benefit
Banking & Financial Services	Approving loan without proper documentation/identity proofs
Education Services	Assistance in clearing assessment tests for easier admission into coaching institutes, in lieu of a monetary incentive

Such ethical misconduct or integrity breach usually results in:

Hitting organization’s topline
Promoting a wrong culture in the organization with influence of such practices to ethic-abiding employees
Bad word of mouth and hence vandalizing the brand image

Integrity check through mystery shopping gives the brand a direction to make amendments to their processes and make it more robust.