What is Mystery Shopping?
Explanation and Benefits
Mystery shopping explained: real consumers visit your location(s) and provide feedback. Learn how it works and why over 200 organizations use Secret View.
What is mystery shopping?
Mystery shopping (also known as customer experience research) measures how customers perceive your organization. Mystery shoppers visit your location(s) as regular customers, make a purchase, and share their experience through a questionnaire.
Reasons organizations use mystery shopping:
- Improving customer experience with feedback from customers
- Targeted training for the team with concrete examples
- Creating engagement among employees
Mystery shopping at Secret View
Whether you're going to do it yourself or want a custom solution: mystery shopping at Secret View is simple:
- Choose what you want to measure: Together we map out your customer journey.
- Mystery shoppers visit your locations: Consumers from your target audience provide feedback on the customer journey.
- Receive results in your dashboard: View scores, detailed feedback, and AI analyses. Compare locations and dive deeper into various aspects.
- Train and improve: Use the data for coaching and growth of your team.
What does mystery shopping offer?
Effective Training
Custom dashboard with actionable AI-driven insights to train your team effectively.
Engaged Employees
Celebrate successes, provide feedback, and motivate with incentives.
Higher Conversion
Identify revenue opportunities in qualitative feedback and train specifically on targeted areas.
Better Evaluation Meetings
Continuous feedback and concrete examples for coaching and evaluations.
Who is mystery shopping for?
Secret View offers mystery shopping for retail and hospitality: from the local bakery to supermarket chains, from the corner restaurant to international hotel chains.

Mystery shopping for large organizations
Organizations with 5+ locations
Our Enterprise solution ensures a consistent customer experience across 6 to 500+ locations, with tailored onboarding and dashboards.
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Free pilot: Test in a few locations before rolling out
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Personal onboarding: Dedicated Customer Success Manager from start to finish
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Custom dashboard: Surveys and research frames tailored to your organization

Mystery shopping for SMEs
Organizations with 1-5 locations
Launch your first mystery shopping assignment in 15 minutes for €29.99 per visit. No subscription, cancel anytime.
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First mystery shopper free: Try mystery shopping with no commitment
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Ready-made questionnaires: Based on 10+ years of experience in retail and hospitality
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Self-service: Choose target audience, frequency, and compensation and go live
Secret View vs. traditional mystery shopping
Mystery shopping done right: fast, data-driven, and real consumers from your target audience
| Secret View | Traditional mystery shopping | |
|---|---|---|
Mystery shoppers | Real consumers | Trained inspectors |
Speed | Results within 48 hours | 1-4 weeks wait |
Dashboard | Custom-made | Standard software |
Technology | 100% developed in-house | Dependent on third parties |
Community | 65,000+ worldwide | Limited quantity |
AI & Analytics | Ready-made AI analyses | Manual analysis |
Innovation | Regularly new features | Limited external software |
Support | Personal support | Long response times |
Pricing | Lowest price in the market | High price per visit |
Frequency | Ongoing research | Single snapshots |
From local hotspot to international brand
Trusted by 200+ retail and hospitality brands worldwide
FAQ
What is mystery shopping?
Mystery shopping (also known as customer experience research) is a research method where customers from the target group visit a store or webshop and evaluate their experience. Mystery shoppers, if possible, make a purchase and fill out a detailed questionnaire after the visit, assessing the customer experience.
What does mystery shopping deliver?
Mystery shopping helps you grow in several ways. You can train your team effectively with concrete examples from customer visits, while our dashboard with AI-driven insights immediately shows where training is needed. It also boosts employee engagement by celebrating successes and coaching objectively with feedback and rewards. You can spot revenue opportunities through qualitative feedback and train specifically on elements such as upselling. Finally, it improves evaluation meetings by using concrete scenarios and photos, making feedback objective and directly applicable.
Who is mystery shopping for at Secret View?
Mystery shopping at Secret View is suitable for any retail or hospitality organization, from 1 to 500+ locations. Large organizations receive a free pilot, personal onboarding and a custom dashboard. Fewer than 6 locations? Get started within 15 minutes from €29.99 per visit, no subscription needed, with the first mystery shopper free and ready-to-use questionnaires.
How does Secret View differ from traditional mystery shopping providers?
Secret View works with real consumers instead of professionals, delivers results within 48 hours instead of weeks, and offers a fully customized real-time dashboard with AI analyses. Our technology is 100% developed in-house, we have 65,000+ shoppers worldwide, and we offer the lowest price with personal support and continuous research.
Who are the mystery shoppers of Secret View?
Our mystery shoppers are real customers from the target group and service area, not professionals. We have a community of over 65,000 mystery shoppers, primarily in the Benelux, but active in more than 20 countries worldwide.
They receive, if possible, shopping credit to spend directly in a store or webshop and fill out a detailed questionnaire after the visit. This way, they only sign up for brands they are interested in. Organizations receive authentic feedback from their target group about all aspects of the customer journey.
How does Secret View ensure the quality of mystery shoppers?
Quality is our top priority. Mystery shoppers must identify themselves via iDIN, complete e-learnings on how to provide objective and reliable feedback, and build a reputation score. Additionally, every completed questionnaire goes through a quality check and is assessed for quality, reliability, and language.
What does a mystery shopping study cost?
For large organizations (5+ locations): Between €24.99 and €59.99 per mystery shopper (excluding shopping credit). The research is fully customized, and the price depends on the number of locations, visit frequency, complexity of the research, and any additional agreements. Book a demo or contact us for a customized quote.
For SMEs (1-5 locations): Between €29.99 and €49.99 per mystery shopper (excluding shopping credit). The price varies depending on the length of the ready-made questionnaire. You are not tied to a subscription and only pay per completed assignment.














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