@bgriffin, that SOMEBODY could be a major bicycle manufacturer like Trek, a national retail chain like Performance, a transportation company that operates bike shares in many cities like Lyft, a bicycle apparel company like Pearl Izumi, an accessories company like Bell, a sporting goods chain like REI, etc. The industry is much bigger than your local bike shop.
Bicycle and bicycle accessory manufacturers would benefit by knowing how their dealers (i.e., bicycle shops) are promoting and selling their products. Retail chains and bike shares would benefit by knowing if their company standards were being met. An owner of a local bike shop would benefit the same way as any business owner would--by learning how to improve customer service and customer experience and how to increase sales.
@bgriffin wrote:
You do realize that SOMEBODY has to HIRE MSCs right? From a practical standpoint who in the bicycle industry is going to hire a company to mystery shop? Retail companies usually mystery shop for one of a few reasons. Usually it's either a large company that wants to ensure it's individual locations are practicing standards and/or it's a highly competitive industry where they are trying to compare themselves to their competitors. Since a HUGE majority of bike shops are locally owned and operated the first doesn't usually apply, and since only the largest cities in the US have multiple bike shops there is little competition between them. From an economy of scale stand point it's just simply not a worthwhile way to spend money, especially in a low volume industry.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/28/2020 12:22AM by MSF.
