mystery shopping

English

Noun

mystery shopping (countable and uncountable, plural mystery shoppings)

1. The practice of using mystery shoppers to evaluate a business.
   • 1990, James L. Heskett, Service Breakthroughs:

     Younkers, a midwestern department store chain, carries out 12,000 mystery shoppings a year in support of its Satisfaction Plus quality and productivity effort.

   • 1997, Peter Murley, Gower Handbook of Customer Service, page 151:

     We were also keen to learn more about “mystery shopping" (something that was popular in the United States) and how it might help us to provide specific 'service' related information to individual managers.

   • 2005, Alan Marvell, GCE AS Travel and Tourism Single Award for Edexcel:

     Mystery shopping is used by many companies to assess the performance of their staff.

   • 2012, Charles W. Lamb, Joe F. Hair, Carl McDaniel, Marketing:

     Mystery shopping is, therefore, classified as an observational marketing research method even though communication is often involved.

Verb

mystery shopping

1. present participle and gerund of mystery shop