Frequently asked questions (FAQ's)

Do I need a purchase allowance?

A purchase allowance is money you provide the mystery shopper to pay for any purchases they need to make to complete the scenario you've set.

Whether you need a purchase allowance will obviously depend on your scenario and type of business. However you will need to consider what would stand out as being unusual behaviour for one of your customers, and which parts of your customer service and sales process you want to evaluate.

If it would be unusual for one of your customers not to make a purchase, or if you need to evaluate the final stage of the sales process where the customer makes their purchase (which is after all the most important bit), then you will need to set your scenario accordingly and provide a purchase allowance which covers the cost of what you want the mystery shopper to buy.

If the usual cost of a purchase for your business is particularly high (you might be a car dealership for example) or if you can evaluate your customer service and sales process without the mystery shopper having to make a purchase by setting a scenario which wouldn't look unusual (for example you might be a travel agent where it wouldn't be unusual to take a customer through all the options for the customer then to take them away to think about) then you don't necessarily have to provide a purchase budget. In these situations you might just want to suggest in the brief what excuses mystery shoppers might use for leaving without finalising the purchase, so they don't look out of place.