Quality auditing requires a shopper to interact with a company under the guise of being a prospective customer. The shopper then observes the interaction and assesses performance based on specific pre-defined criteria that the business is trying to measure.
This criteria can involve customer service skills, selling skills, how well employees are adopting specific behaviours, whether certain practices are followed and much more.
Since the 1940’s, forms of research designed to assess and track operational and behavioural performance were established - this became known as quality auditing. Yet, really quality auditing began to grow in the retail industry in the early 1990’s. The industry expanded at a rapid pace as the Internet grew in the mid 1990’s. That’s when quality auditing went beyond its original roots in the retail space and became the invaluable tool it is today in a broad cross-section of industries.
In general, quality auditing requires a shopper to visit or call a company under the guise of being a prospective customer. The shopper then observes the interaction and assesses performance based on specific pre-defined criteria that the business is trying to measure. This criteria can involve customer service skills, selling skills, how well employees are adopting specific behaviours, whether certain practices are followed and much more.
Quality auditing can also examine operational aspects of a business such as cleanliness, merchandising, maintenance etc. Shoppers evaluate the look and feel of a business, on top of the employees.
Depending on the type of company, certain businesses use quality auditing specifically to ensure that their local laws and standards are being met. Companies that deal with regulated products such as tobacco or alcohol use quality auditing to ensure that their employees are complying with age and identification requirements.
Quality auditing is commonly used as a tool for auditing the execution of specific customer service and operational standards, whereas to assess ongoing customer satisfaction and attitudes; customer satisfaction surveys are more reliable. To measure any aspect of your business and evaluate how your teams are performing, quality auditing provides insight you wouldn’t otherwise be privy to.
