Secret View Client Day 2025

Niek Koning, founder of Secret View, opened the day with a reflection on the past year and a look ahead to the future. He shared key developments on the dashboard and platform, including AI-driven insights, AI quality control, and the new incentive programme. In addition, clients FEBO, NAME IT and NS Stations Retail (franchisee of AH to go) showed how they use mystery shopping daily to improve customer experience.

The new dashboard: faster, smarter and powered by AI

Over the past year, we completely redesigned the Secret View dashboard. The growing amount of data required a platform that’s faster and more powerful. We upgraded both the design and the technology to the next level.

The new dashboard also paves the way for exciting new features:

• AI summary: Automatically generates concise summaries of questionnaire results.
• Key takeaways: AI-generated insights that instantly highlight the essence of the research.
• Demographics: Adds more context about the mystery shoppers.

These new features give even more meaning to the results, making it easier to recognize patterns and implement targeted improvements. Take a look at the dashboard to see them in action!

AI Quality Control: reliability at a new level

Alongside the revamped dashboard, we introduced AI Quality Control, the next step in verifying mystery shopping results. Previously, this was done manually and later by our top community members. Now, the new AI system ensures faster, more consistent and more reliable checks.

Here’s how it works:

• The AI system checks whether the assignment was completed within the research parameters.
• Answers are evaluated on quality, reliability and consistency.
• Mystery shoppers receive instant feedback while completing the questionnaire.

This saves time, improves questionnaire quality and motivates the community. It supports mystery shoppers during the process, while clients benefit from more reliable data and faster feedback.

Full identity verification: greater certainty, better data

Since early 2023, the DAC7 legislation has been in effect. This regulation requires platforms like Secret View to report compensations that mystery shoppers receive (such as products or services), with the aim of detecting hidden entrepreneurship.

Therefore, all our mystery shoppers must verify their identity. While this introduced challenges, it also brought major benefits:

• We now know exactly who our mystery shoppers are.
• The research process is more transparent and future-proof.
• Clients have greater confidence in the quality and reliability of the data.

Incentive program: motivating instead of correcting

Research results are meant to help everyone learn, and curiosity grows best in a positive environment. Studies show that incentives that reward desired behavior can lead to significant improvements in employee performance. That’s the idea behind our new incentive program, launched earlier this year.

Through this program, top-performing locations automatically receive rewards based on their results, such as cakes, awards, or self-chosen prizes. By celebrating progress with team-focused rewards, we create a culture of growth and collaboration. It makes work more enjoyable, teams stronger, and customer experience better than ever.

Read more about the incentive program here.

Maarten van Ammers, Albert Heijn to go (NS Stations)

The presentation by Maarten van Ammers, Business Manager at AH to go (NS Stations), hit the core question: how do you keep employees engaged and motivated in a positive way?

He shared the art of retail in train stations, an environment where speed and quality must go hand in hand, and explained how AH to go fosters engaged teams and consistently high-performing stores. AH to go takes an intensive approach, conducting weekly mystery shopping visits at every store. Their secret? A performance point system where teams earn points based on their results in categories like hospitality, employees, freshness, store presentation, and checkout.

These points create a shared budget for fun team activities. Maarten explained: “This allows us to directly invest in team building and atmosphere on the shop floor.”

The results speak for themselves:

• Lower absenteeism
• Reduced turnover
• Better store presentation
• Enthusiastic teams proud of their achievements

"By working with Secret View’s mystery shoppers every week, we see that real conversations start between employees and store managers, and that’s how you drive genuine behavioral change. It helps teams truly understand what customers think."

Dino Lobbes, FEBO

During his presentation, Dino Lobbes, Director of Operations at FEBO, shared the company’s strategic plan and why FEBO chose Secret View. FEBO sees itself as unique, always fresh, hospitable and a little rebellious. But how does the guest actually experience that?

"We don’t rely on gut feeling; we rely on facts. Secret View isn’t a control tool, it’s a learning tool."

With 8 million touchpoints per year, FEBO aims not only to measure performance but to understand guest experience. The objective, outside-in view provides valuable insights into what truly happens on the shop floor. Secret View helps translate those insights into action:

• Mystery visits across all store types focusing on speed, convenience, friendliness, product quality and appearance.
• Benchmarking franchise vs. company-owned stores to encourage learning.
• Turning feedback into practical, straightforward training tools for teams.

This approach challenges franchisees to inspire one another and grow together.

The results:

• Practical tools for franchisees.
• More pride and ownership among employees.
• Faster, more consistent and more welcoming guest experiences.

Dino summed it up perfectly: “We want to learn from facts, not feelings. Secret View gives us the insights we need to deliver our unique promise in every store, for every guest.”

Linda Timmers, NAME IT

Finally, Linda Timmers, International Retail Manager at NAME IT, shared how the brand uses Secret View to strengthen its service and performance culture. NAME IT, part of the BESTSELLER fashion group, is a total kidswear brand with 207 stores across Europe.

"We discuss Secret View results not only with our area managers but also directly with the teams on the shop floor," said Linda. "This way, we show how customers truly experience us, and we use those insights to keep learning and improving."

NAME IT is focusing on a transformation from self-service to full service. To achieve this, the brand monitors the entire customer journey through monthly mystery visits across all stores. Average scores, ranging from 37% to 72% per touchpoint, clearly indicate where improvement is needed and where teams already excel. In a video shown during her presentation, NAME IT’s area managers summarized their partnership with Secret View beautifully:

"If you want to know what’s really happening on the shop floor, look through the eyes of your customer. That’s why we work with Secret View: real customers, real experiences, honest feedback. Mystery shopping helps us understand how our service is perceived, where processes can improve, and how we can train our teams effectively. Together, we create happy customers and proud employees."

With this approach, NAME IT is building a retail experience where every customer feels personally helped and genuinely seen, powered by the insights from mystery shopping.

See you next year!

Niek closed the day with an interactive session in which our clients shared their ideas and feedback. These insights help us build dashboard solutions that maximize the value of collected data for our clients. We are proud of the progress we’ve made together, and even more excited about what’s to come.

See you next year at the seventh edition of the Secret View Client Day!