A German brand wanted to verify perceived quality across Europe, rewarding its best stores. A German large-scale retail brand assesses its stores through a mystery shopping programme that spans the whole of Europe with the same checklist and the same scores. The programme awards prizes to the stores that exceed a certain average score, while the processes with the highest number of non-conformities benefit from tailored training paths. With mystery shopping we assess the staff, the correct display of visual materials and goods — also with photos in the case of anomalies. Uniforms and expired products are checked (again capturing the presence of expired products by photo). We verify the checkout queue, the cleanliness of the fresh-food counters, the volume of the background music, and the presence of products on promotion. The system sends the store an alert in the case of an expired product, and a certificate to the cashier who offered the loyalty card even to the mystery shopper — who on that occasion bought only a few items, thus simulating a customer rarely interested in the loyalty card. In the year it was taken as a focus, the promotion of loyalty cards reached a compliance index of 90%, making it possible to offer the loyalty programme to almost every customer.
