The process, start to finish

A mystery shop is only useful if it is realistic, consistent and reported clearly. Here is how we do each part.

Step 1

Building the shopper

Every shop starts with a persona: a name, a location near the store, a vehicle or service need, a budget, and a reason for asking. We keep a rotating bank of names and questions so no store sees the same shopper twice, and we retire personas that have been used. For phone shops, each persona gets a real local number in the store's area code that is retired after use.

Questions are written the way real customers write them. Short, slightly vague, sometimes asking two things at once. A shop that reads like a script tests nothing.

No AI shoppers. Every inquiry is written and submitted by a real person, and every call is placed by a real person. Your team is being shopped the same way your customers shop you.

Step 2

Shopping the store

Digital lead shops go in through whatever channel you want tested:

The forms on your own website (vehicle detail pages, contact, service booking, trade-in)
Third-party listings such as AutoTrader, CarGurus and Kijiji Autos
Your OEM site's dealer locator and lead forms
Website chat

Phone shops are live calls placed during business hours, spread across days and times of day, to the main line or a department's direct line. Calls are recorded and transcribed automatically on our phone platform. Canada permits recording a call when one party to the call consents, and our shopper is that party.

Shopper persona

Melissa Tran

705-555-0142 · retired after use

"is this one still available?"

Your website formsVDP · contact · service · trade-in

Third-party listingsAutoTrader · CarGurus · Kijiji Autos

OEM lead formsdealer locator

Website chatlive or bot

Phonerecorded · transcribed

Lands at your store

Store 3 · Used vehicle

Who answeredtracked

How fasttracked

What they saidtracked

Appointment offeredtracked

→ One scorecard

Step 3

Tracking the response

We watch each inquiry for [five business days] after submission and log everything: the automated reply, the first human reply, every follow-up email, text and call, and how long each took. For phone shops we log time to a live answer, hold time, transfers, drops and any callback afterward.

Step 4

Scoring

Each shop is scored against criteria you set. Most groups start from our standard scorecard and adjust it.

Digital lead shops

Time to first human response
Did the reply answer the actual question
Was the reply personalized to the customer and the vehicle
Was a price, availability or timing given when asked
Was an appointment or next step offered
Follow-up count and mix over the tracking window
Was the lead routed to the right person or department

Phone shops

Rings or auto-attendant steps before a live answer
Permission asked before hold, and total hold time
Transfer reached the right department without a drop
Greeting, listening and answering the question
Asked for name and contact, offered an appointment
Callback received, and how quickly

Step 5

Reporting

Results post to a shared Google Sheet as each shop is completed, one row per shop with links to any recording and transcript. At month end you get a summary by store and department, month-over-month, and a short note on the two or three things most worth a manager's attention. Every shopped salesperson gets a short written piece of personal feedback you can pass along.

Every program includes an online dashboard with score trends, hold-time and follow-up rates, and one-click call playback.