"In 1983 I was commissioned to investigate the effect of customer service on company profits. My findings showed conclusively that companies who valued good customer service were more profitable. I knew instinctively, at that time, that technology and deregulation were having a negative effect on customer service and were damaging company images. Our surveys showed that those companies with depreciating images were experiencing fiscal problems. Yet, when these companies were polled they had absolutely no idea that their lack of customer service was the root cause of their problems. Whenever I asked ailing companies why they didn't know it, their answer was always - 'Because we had no way of measuring it'.
I knew then that if I could provide a service, which measured customer service, I would be doing companies a tremendous service. Thus the concept of Mystery Shopping was born -in the name of Evaluation Systems for Personnel.
The resultant 'snapshots' from the mystery shopping pinpointed immediately, weaknesses and omissions in the behavior of company employees. Armed with this information we were able to introduce corrective measures, such as training, long before they could cause any harm."
Gerald D. Blumenthal Ph.D.
