On the Use of Mystery Shopping to Measure Competences

Abstract

Mystery shopping as a monitoring tool can be used for the measurement of the quality of personal sales and client service. The aim of this paper is to outline some methods and possibilities of mystery shopping conducted in respect to competence measurement. The theoretical background is supported also by an empirical survey in which 399 “shopping” acts were conducted. To measure competences we have selected 14 variables, which can be observed and evaluated in the process of mystery shopping. The objective of the study is to analyse internal structure of the related variables. To explore that, principal component (PCA) and Cronbach alpha analysis were utilized.

Keywords

• competency
• measurement
• observation
• mystery shopping