Retail · Restaurants · Hotels
Mystery Shopping
Agency.
EXECUTIONAL is a UK mystery shopping agency built around the shopper. We recruit, brief and manage mystery shoppers who visit your shops, restaurants and hotels as ordinary customers, and score each visit against your own standards, from one store to a national estate.
Mystery shopping visits scored against your own standards, site by site.
Staffing UK brands since 2007
Want to work as a mystery shopper? Register with us →
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Visits we cover
Mystery shopping services for six kinds of visit.
Choose the visit types your programme needs.
Each one is scripted around a real customer scenario and scored against your criteria, whether it's a single round or a monthly cycle across the estate.
Retail mystery shopping
Browsing, asking for advice, testing product knowledge and paying at the till, scored on greeting, service and store standards. For shelf and display checks rather than service, see our merchandising audit.
Restaurant and bar mystery shoppers
Welcome, wait times, table service, upselling, food quality and the bill, with timings noted at each stage so you can see where a visit slowed down.
Hotel and leisure mystery shopping
Reception and check-in, room standards, gym, spa and pool, and how enquiries are handled, for hotels, health clubs and attractions.
Showroom and sales visits
A full sales conversation, from first approach to demonstration and quote, then whether anyone followed up and what was offered.
Branch and counter visits
Estate agents, service counters and other branch networks, following a set enquiry and recording how it was handled.
Competitor benchmarking
The same scenario run at your competitors' sites, so your scores sit beside a real comparison rather than a target on paper.
Why operators book us
Briefed shoppers, your scorecard.
Right to work and ID confirmed for every shopper. Employer's and Public Liability insurance on every booking, and DBS checks on request for sensitive sites.
We brief shoppers on your scenario, your standards and what a good visit looks like before they go in. Scores then compare fairly across sites and visit rounds.
We pay shoppers through EXECUTIONAL's PAYE, with National Insurance and HR in-house. There are no individual freelance invoices for your team to process.
Visits booked to your timing windows and confirmed as each one is completed, with a 24/7 support line answered day and night.
Where we fit
Evidence, not impressions.
Head office writes the service standard, but only a customer sees whether the customer experience matches it on a wet Tuesday afternoon. A mystery shopper walks in unannounced, follows a set scenario and records what was actually said and done. Area managers then work from evidence rather than impressions.
You set the scorecard, the scenarios and the sites. We find shoppers who fit your customer profile, brief them on what to look for and employ them through our own PAYE. Research agencies use the same service to cover sites inside their own client programmes.
Sites we visit
One store to a national estate.
Shoppers come from the staffing hub nearest each site, across 40 hubs in the UK. Site type not listed here? Tell us in your quote request.
Checks and cover
Insured and ready.
From the case files
Store visit programmes we've staffed.
Multi-site programmes from our case files, across retail stores and shopping centres. See all recent work →
Verified feedback
Clients who book a second round.
Booking, step by step
From scorecard to first visit.
Sites, visits per round, timing windows, the scenario and the standards you want scored.
Visits, any purchases the scenario needs and reporting set out line by line, with no hidden fees.
Chosen by location, experience and fit with your real customers, with an account manager once you approve.
Report format and deadlines set before the first visit, in your platform or ours, then each visit confirmed as it's completed.
Get a quote
Get a quote for mystery shoppers.
Request a quote
Request your mystery shopping quote.
Tell us how many sites, how many visits in each round, the type of visit and how you want results reported. We'll send an itemised quote.
Buyer questions
Choosing a mystery shopping agency: your questions.
What does a mystery shopping agency do?
It plans visits to your sites, supplies shoppers who match your customer profile, briefs them on a scenario and scorecard, with reporting agreed with you and set out in your quote. We concentrate on the shoppers and the visit schedule. The standards and the scoring criteria come from you.
Is secret shopping the same as mystery shopping?
Yes. Secret shopper services and mystery shopping are the same thing: a briefed person visits as an ordinary customer and reports back against a set of standards.
Is mystery shopping legal in the UK?
Yes. Brands book mystery shopping to check their own sites against their own standards, and the shopper behaves like any other customer from the door to the till.
Can other mystery shopping agencies use your shoppers?
Yes. The agency keeps the client relationship, the questionnaire and the reporting platform. We source, brief and pay the shoppers who fill sites in its programme, and we never contact the agency's client.
What does a mystery shopping report include?
Whatever your scorecard asks for: typically timings, a score against each standard, a description of the staff member who served, and a short narrative of the visit. The format is agreed at quote stage.
How do you keep shoppers anonymous?
We place shoppers away from sites where they might be recognised and vary them between visit rounds where the programme allows. They are briefed to behave as an ordinary customer from the door to the till.
Can mystery shopping run alongside other in-store work?
Yes. Brands often pair service visits with shelf checks or demonstrations on the same account. Our field marketing page covers the wider in-store programme.
How much does mystery shopping cost?
The number of visits and sites, how long each visit takes, whether the scenario needs a purchase, how spread out the sites are and how detailed the reporting is. Every quote is itemised.
How quickly can visits start?
Short-notice visits are often possible for a handful of sites. Larger estates take longer to match shoppers to every area, so share your first visit window when you ask for a quote.
Where in the UK can you send mystery shoppers?
Anywhere in the UK, from 40 staffing hubs, so shoppers live near the sites they visit and journeys stay short.