Mystery Shopper Research Articles

Improving Outpatient Access and Patient Experiences in Academic Ambulatory Care

Effective scheduling of and ready access to doctor appointments affect ambulatory patient care quality, but these are often sacrificed by patients seeking care from physicians at academic medical centers. At one center, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, the authors developed interventions to improve the scheduling of appointments and to reduce the access time between telephone call and first offered appointment. Improvements to scheduling included no redirection to voicemail, prompt telephone pickup, courteous service, complete registration, and effective scheduling. Reduced access time meant being offered an appointment with a physician in the appropriate specialty within three working days of the telephone call. Scheduling and access were assessed using monthly "mystery shopper" calls. Mystery shoppers collected data using standardized forms, rated the quality of service, and transcribed their interactions with schedulers. Monthly results were tabulated and discussed with clinical leaders; leaders and frontline staff then developed solutions to detected problems. Eighteen months after the beginning of the intervention (in June 2007), which is ongoing, schedulers had gone from using 60% of their registration skills to over 90%, customer service scores had risen from 2.6 to 4.9 (on a 5-point scale), and average access time had fallen from 12 days to 6 days. The program costs $50,000 per year and has been associated with a 35% increase in ambulatory volume across three years. The authors conclude that academic medical centers can markedly improve the scheduling process and access to care and that these improvements may result in increased ambulatory care volume.

The influence of emotions displayed and personal selling on customer behaviour intention

The impact of employee performance on customer behavioural intentions and consumption behaviour is important to service marketers. In many service settings, service organizations require emotional display and personal selling to stay competitive in todays market. Based on a review of service literature, this study investigates the effect of emotions displayed and personal selling on customer purchase amount and re-patronage intention in convenience-goods retail service settings. This work applies mystery shopper methods to data collected from a Taiwan bakery chain. Analysis of the results from 519 responded questionnaires in this study reveal that positive emotions displayed by contact personnel are unrelated to consumption expenditure, but do affect re-patronage intention. Further, the results show that personal selling negatively influences consumption amount. This study suggests that service managers consider enhancing their emotional display perspective in human resource practices, and focus on performing personal selling as a consumer need, in different service industries.

Why should i comply? Sellers' accounts for (non-)compliance with legal age limits for alcohol sales

BackgroundAvailability is an important predictor of early and excessive alcohol consumption by adolescents. Many countries have implemented age limits to prevent underage purchases of alcohol. However, shop-floor compliance with these age limits appears to be problematic. This study addresses the issue of non-compliance with age limits. Which measures do vendors take to avoid underage alcohol sales, and what do they report as important reasons to comply or not with age limits for alcohol sales?MethodsOpen-ended telephone interviews were conducted with store managers selling alcohol (N = 106). Prior to the interviews, all outlets were visited by an underage mystery shopper in order to measure compliance with the legal age limits on alcohol sales. The interview results are compared against actual compliance rates.ResultsSeveral measures have been taken to prevent underage sales, but the compliance level is low. Furthermore, open coding resulted in 19 themes, representing both valid and invalid arguments, that vendors mentioned as relevant to their decisions of whether to comply with the law. Compliance with age limits is dependent on the knowledge of the rules and the ability and motivation to follow the rules. The ability aspect in particular seems to be problematic, but in many cases, the motivation to actively comply with the age limits is lacking.ConclusionsTo enhance compliance, it is important to raise the awareness of the importance of age limits and to connect possible violations of the regulations to negative consequences.

Initial and Ongoing Mystery Shopper Motivations: An Empirical Investigation By Experience Level and an Application of the Theory of Motivational Crowding

Mystery shopping has become an accepted method of performance measurement in many industries. This study contributes to the mystery shopping research stream by empirically testing the initial and ongoing motivations of mystery shoppers. Simultaneously, the study also examines whether the theory of motivational crowding is applicable to the mystery shopping industry. Motivations, analyzed with a mixed between–within split plot analysis of variance mostly affirmed the psychoeconomic theory of motivation crowding in the mystery shopping industry. Practical implications of the results indicate a need for optimization of compensation in mystery shopping and a need to analyze mystery shoppers based on experience level to further insure validity of mystery shopping reports.

Covert checks by standardised patients of general practitioners' delivery of new periodic health examinations: clustered cross-sectional study from a consumer organisation

ObjectiveTo assess if data collected by a consumer organisation are valid for a health service research study on physicians' performance in preventive care. To report first results of the analysis...

Mystery Shopping Research - Seeing the Company's Performance Through the Eyes of the Customers

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Mystery shoppers check out quality of patient experience

Mystery shoppers check out quality of patient experience

Improving shop floor compliance with age restrictions for alcohol sales: effectiveness of a feedback letter intervention

In this study, we investigated the effects and handling of an intervention to increase compliance with age limits regarding alcohol sales. The intervention tested in this field experiment was a feedback letter sent to alcohol outlets about their individual compliance results based on a mystery shopping study. We measured compliance in 146 alcohol outlets (cafeterias, supermarkets, bars, liquor stores and youth centres) in one region in the Netherlands with 15-year-old mystery shoppers. About half (n=72) of the outlets received the intervention letter (the experimental group). After this intervention, we measured compliance again (n=138). Then we sent the same letter to the control group and interviewed all the outlets regarding their handling of the intervention (n=106). After the experimental group received the letter, compliance increased significantly (from 18.1% to 32.4%). In the control group, compliance did not change. Of the outlets interviewed, 81% stated that they had received the letter, and the action most commonly taken was to bring the letter to the attention of their staff. Positive feedback letters are more often copied and shared integrally with personnel, compared with negative letters. Compliance with respect to underage alcohol sales can be improved, although compliance levels remain low in the Netherlands.

Taking the Mystery out of “Mystery Shopper” Studies

In response to a physician outcry, the Department of Health and Human Services cancelled its “mystery shopper” study of access to primary care. But the study would have generated valid estimates of primary care capacity prior to the anticipated insurance expansion.

The Effect of Mystery Shopper Reports on Age Verification for Tobacco Purchases

Mystery shops involving attempted tobacco purchases by young buyers have been implemented in order to monitor retail stores' performance in refusing underage sales. Anecdotal evidence suggests that mystery shop visits with immediate feedback to store personnel can improve age verification. This study investigated the effect of monthly and twice-monthly mystery shop reports on age verification. Mystery shoppers visited 45 Walgreens stores 20 times. The stores were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions. Control group stores received no feedback, whereas 2 treatment groups received feedback communications on every visit (twice monthly) or on every second visit (monthly) after baseline. Logit regression models tested whether each treatment group improved verification rates relative to the control group. Postbaseline verification rates were higher in both treatment groups than in the control group, but only the stores receiving monthly communications had a significantly greater improvement compared with the control group stores. Verification rates increased significantly during the study period for all 3 groups, with delayed improvement among control group stores. Communication between managers regarding the mystery shop program may account for the delayed age-verification improvements observed in the control group stores. Encouraging interstore communication might extend the benefits of mystery shop programs beyond those stores that receive this intervention.

Rational dispensing and use of artemether-lumefantrine during pregnancy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Artemether-Lumefantrine (ALu) is widely used for uncomplicated malaria during the second and third trimester of pregnancy. Because of the suspected teratogenic effects of artemether during the first trimester, quinine is used in early pregnancy unless the risks outweigh the benefits. The aim of this study was to assess dispensing practice of ALu in private pharmacies and knowledge of pregnant women regarding the use of ALu. This was a prospective-descriptive study involving visits to 200 private retail pharmacies (using a mystery shopper) and interviewing pregnant women at the municipal public hospitals in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Among the drug dispensers, 60 (30%) were pharmacists, 71(35.5%) nurse assistants, 34 (17%) pharmaceutical technicians and 35 (17.5%) sales persons with no formal education on drug dispensing. Among the dispensers, 14.5% had high knowledge, 38.0% had medium knowledge and 47.5% had low knowledge on the use of ALu during pregnancy. About thirty three percent of the drug dispensers were willing to dispense ALu during the first trimester of pregnancy. Sixty two percent of the drug dispensers indicated that ALu is the drug of choice for uncomplicated malaria after the first trimester of pregnancy. However, 36% indicated that ALu could not be used during pregnancy. A total of 200 pregnant women were interviewed. Among them, 16.5% were aware that ALu should not be taken during the first trimester of pregnancy. Only 17% of pregnant women were given information on the importance of taking food when using ALu, but none of them was given information on the importance of fatty meals when using ALu. In conclusion, the results show that most drug dispensers have inadequate knowledge about good dispensing practice of ALu in pregnancy. There is therefore a need for continuing training of drug dispensers regarding antimalarial drugs use in pregnancy.

Mystery shoppers: A new tool for coaching employee performance improvement

Mystery shoppers: A new tool for coaching employee performance improvement

Secrets to successful mystery shopping: A case study

Secrets to successful mystery shopping: A case study

Effects of a National Information Campaign on Compliance With Age Restrictions for Alcohol Sales

To investigate the effect of a national information campaign, introduced by the Dutch Food Retail Organization, named "Under 20? Show Your ID!," on compliance with age restrictions on alcohol sales. The compliance level after the campaign was compared with a baseline compliance, that we calculated based on 458 preintervention compliance measurements. Data were collected using the method of mystery shopping. Three teams, each consisting of two 15-year-old mystery shoppers, conducted 105 alcohol purchase attempts in supermarkets in three regions in the Netherlands. A compliance rate of 24.8% was found, which is a significant improvement compared with Dutch basement compliance rate from the past (14.9%), but is nominally still very low. This mass media intervention campaign failed to increase compliance to an acceptable level. Also the specific goal of the campaign (ask everybody under <20 years old for identification [ID]) failed because fewer than half of the 15-year-old mystery shoppers in the study were asked to show their ID when purchasing alcoholic beverages.

Service quality control mechanisms in franchise networks

This paper reports the study of some factors that influence the control intensity exerted by franchisors on the service quality provided by the franchised units of their networks and what interdependencies exist between the different mechanisms that can be used to monitor service quality. On the one hand, three control mechanisms of conformance quality are considered, namely audits, mystery shoppers, and mandatory purchase of inputs and products. On the other hand, polls are used to monitor perceived quality by customers. There are two main findings. First, control intensity is greater in those industries in which customers tend to be non-repetitive. Second, four complementary relationships are found between control mechanisms: between audits and mystery shoppers, between audits and polls, between mandatory purchase of inputs or products and mystery shoppers, and between mandatory purchase of inputs or products and polls.

MYSTERY SHOPPING − THE TOOL OF EMPLOYEE COMMUNICATION SKILLS EVALUATION

Mystery shopping is a tool often used for evaluation of providing services quality. It is also a tool, which enables to examine and evaluate communication skills of employees in order to identify their weakness and define the way of improvement. The reason is that their applied abilities are connected with customer´s total perception of providing services. National post operators must learn to listen to their customers through their employees. This process is crucial for the market environment – it enables to gain customer´s loyalty and trust. In order to ensure higher level of customer oriented behaviour between the employees, Slovak Post starts a pilot project called “Mystery Customer”. Main goal of the project is to analyze behavior of selected post office personnel towards the mystery customer. The paper also deals with the practical use of mystery shopping in conditions of Slovak Post.

Specificities of mystery shopping in retail financial services

The purpose of this article is to investigate methodological specificities of mystery shopping in retail financial services, as well as a set new non-methodology related challenges in management of mystery shopping studies, introduced with recent innovations in mystery shopping. The article also reveals methodological recommendations on how to enhance the overall quality of mystery shopping studies in light of current international standards and code of conduct in mystery shopping. Exposed recommendations indicate that quality of mystery shopping in retail financial services can be enhanced by: (a) conducting mystery shopping on continual basis, (b) mystery shopping in entire network of branch offices, (c) integrating all components of service delivery into research subject, and (d) continuous application of quality control instruments prior, throughout, and afterwards the study. Findings are mainly applicable in mystery shopping in retail financial services, as well as to an extent, in mystery shopping in other retail and corporate services.

Not sold here: limited access to legally available syringes at pharmacies in Tijuana, Mexico

BackgroundSterile syringe access is a critical component of HIV prevention programs. Although retail pharmacies provide convenient outlets for syringe access, injection drug users (IDUs) may encounter barriers to syringe purchase even where purchase without a prescription is legal. We sought to obtain an objective measure of syringe access in Tijuana, Mexico, where IDUs report being denied or overcharged for syringes at pharmacies.MethodsTrained "mystery shoppers" attempted to buy a 1 cc insulin syringe according to a predetermined script at all retail pharmacies in three Tijuana neighborhoods. The same pharmacies were surveyed by telephone regarding their syringe sales policies. Data on purchase attempts were analyzed using basic statistics to obtain an objective measure of syringe access and compared with data on stated sales policies to ascertain consistency.ResultsOnly 46 (28.4%) of 162 syringe purchase attempts were successful. Leading reasons for unsuccessful attempts were being told that the pharmacy didn't sell syringes (35.3%), there were no syringes in stock (31.0%), or a prescription was required (20.7%). Of 136 pharmacies also surveyed by telephone, a majority (88.2%) reported selling syringes but only one-third (32.5%) had a successful mystery shopper purchase; the majority of unsuccessful purchases were attributed to being told the pharmacy didn't sell syringes. There was similar discordance regarding prescription policies: 74 pharmacies said in the telephone survey that they did not require a prescription for syringes, yet 10 of these pharmacies asked the mystery shopper for a prescription.ConclusionsIDUs in Tijuana have limited access to syringes through retail pharmacies and policies and practices regarding syringe sales are inconsistent. Reasons for these restrictive and inconsistent practices must be identified and addressed to expand syringe access, reduce syringe sharing and prevent HIV transmission.

‘Do it yourself’ sexual health care: the user experience

To describe client experience of self-management within a busy walk-in, sexual health service. Self-management in this context is self-registration and take-home pregnancy tests, chlamydia (Chlamydia trachomatis) and gonorrhoea (Neisseria gonorrhoeae) tests, or condoms dispensed from a free vending machine. Twenty-four in-depth, semi-structured interviews with users; 19 structured written reports from mystery shoppers paid to visit the service and report their experience; demographic details of those using the self-management option from the clinic database and 40 h of recorded observation in the clinic waiting room. Between 2 September 2008 and 1 September 2009, 18 657 people had 28 545 attendances at the service. Of these, 1845 (6.5%) attendances were self-managed by 1555 individuals (8.3% of all clients). Of those who self-managed, 646 (35%) obtained a chlamydia and gonorrhoea test only, 597 (32%) obtained condoms only and 488 (27%) obtained a pregnancy test only. Users valued the opportunity to self-manage because of the reduced waiting times, autonomy and privacy that such a service offers. Some prefer the additional support offered within a clinical consultation. Users made personalised decisions about self-management based on time pressure, need for additional services and preferred source of support. Users often required help and advice from client support workers to complete the self-management process. This created problems with confidentiality. Self-management is an acceptable option within sexual health services if informal support is available. Self-management options in clinical services could mean that 8% of clients at 6% of visits do not need to see a clinician, thus freeing up clinical capacity.

There are no safe drugs, only safe ways of using them (Voltaire)

All medications can heal or to harm, it is the way they are used that determines patient safety. This paper explores medication-related injury in high risk situations, such as the...