Frequently Asked Questions
What does Performance in People do?
We help businesses improve customer experience using mystery shopping, audits, training and behavioural insight. We show organisations what customers are really experiencing and how to improve it in a practical way.
What industries do you work with?
We work with retail, automotive, hospitality, finance, leisure and housing. Each programme is tailored to the customer journey in that specific industry.
What is mystery shopping?
Mystery shopping is when trained people act as real customers and then report on their experience. It is used to measure service quality, compliance and customer experience in real situations. It is also used as a coaching and development tool to improve staff performance and service consistency.
What types of mystery shopping do you offer?
We offer in-person, video, telephone, email, live chat and social media mystery shopping. Each one reflects how real customers interact with businesses today.
What are the benefits of mystery shopping?
Mystery shopping shows you what customers actually experience, not what you think they experience.
It highlights what is working well and where service is breaking down. It helps improve customer service, sales performance, compliance and consistency across locations. It also gives clear direction for training and coaching.
What makes Performance in People different from other mystery shopping companies?
We don’t just send reports. We deliver a full customer experience programme from start to finish.
That includes launch workshops, multi-channel mystery shopping, audits, training for staff and managers, and ongoing coaching. We also use our award-winning Behavioural Measurement Score (BMS®) to measure real behaviours, not just results.
Everything is supported by our in-house reporting platform “Vision”, which is built specifically for our clients. Every mystery shop is also independently reviewed by our internal quality team, rather than relying on shopper self-scoring, which gives much higher accuracy and consistency.
Will staff know they are being mystery shopped?
Staff are made aware that a mystery shopping programme is in place, but they will not know when they are being assessed. This ensures feedback reflects a genuine, real-time customer experience.
How do you make sure mystery shopping results are accurate?
Every mystery shop is checked by our in-house quality team. They watch or listen to each interaction and score it directly. This ensures results are consistent and reliable, rather than depending on the shopper’s own scoring.
Is mystery shopping legal?
Yes. Mystery shopping is completely legal in the UK. It is a standard and ethical way to measure customer experience and service quality.
All work is carried out in line with UK GDPR and strict data protection rules.
What is BMS®?
BMS® is our Behavioural Measurement Score. It measures the behaviours behind great customer service, not just the process.
It helps businesses understand how staff are interacting with customers and what needs to change to improve performance.
Why is behavioural measurement important?
Because it shows why performance is happening, not just what the score is.
It helps improve training, consistency and customer experience by focusing on real behaviours like friendliness, attentiveness, and professionalism.
What is an audit?
An audit is an overt check on how well your business is performing in areas like housekeeping standards, compliance, branding, stock and presentation.
It shows whether standards are being followed consistently across locations.
Do you offer training?
Yes. We provide training and development workshops, including customer service training, sales training, coaching for managers, and complaint handling training.
How is training delivered?
Most training is delivered online through Microsoft Teams. We also offer eLearning and can deliver face-to-face sessions when needed.
How do you deliver results?
All results are delivered through our online reporting platform called Vision.
It shows dashboards, trends, scores and clear actions so businesses can easily see what needs to improve.
Can we track performance over time?
Yes. You can track results across locations, teams and time periods to see progress and improvement.
What extra insight do you provide?
Our CX Lab team analyses all data in detail and produces deeper insight reports, including video examples of best practices and areas for improvement.
We also create benchmark reports so you can compare your performance against wider industry data.
How do you start a programme?
We start with a simple consultation to understand your goals. We then design a tailored programme that fits your business and can be rolled out across multiple locations nationwide.