Ashburn Mystery Shopping

As a census-designated place in Loudoun County, Virginia, Ashburn had a population of 43, 511 in 2010. The city is located just 30 miles northwest of Washington D.C. Because of its strategic location in Northern Virginia, Ashburn is home to the largest metro data center in the U.S. A significant portion of the world’s internet traffic flows through the area, a suitable place for Ashburn Mystery Shopping.

Home to many high-tech businesses in addition to aerospace and defense companies, Ashburn is part of Dulles Technology Corridor –– a business center that Atlantic Magazine has deemed “The Silicon Valley of the East.” With such a booming economy and a growing population, it’s important businesses need to continue an upward trend of success.

But it can be difficult to understand employee performance and customer experience without the right team to help you. Sure, you may be going above and beyond to achieve the very best in service, but what does your business look like from the customer’s standpoint? 

That’s where Reality Based Group (RBG) comes in. We stay committed to helping businesses like yours gain insights and gain a competitive advantage through Mystery Shopping. 

Companies in the heart of Ashburn and neighboring cities including, Tysons Corner, Reston, Herndon, and Sterling can count on RBG to help ensure their businesses are achieving the very best in service.

Why use Mystery Shopping in Ashburn?

Businesses in and near Ashbrook, Ashburn Farm, Ashburn Village, and Belmonte Greene wanting to gain a competitive edge should look to Mystery Shopping. Whether you’re located in the heart of Ashburn, a nearby county, or in the surrounding area, RBG is here to help.

women walking with sunglasses with shopping bags

You’ve got (almost) everything you need for a great business –– perfect location, experienced and well-trained staff, great products and services at quality prices –– so what’s keeping you from being in 1st place? Mystery shopping could just be the missing piece. 

That’s why we designed our program to provide business with simple and targeted observations of your business performance and operations through the eyes of our undercover highly trained undercover shoppers.

When a customer visits your store, aren’t you curious to know how they felt about their overall shopping experience? When you’re running a big business, these things can be hard to tell without having an expert on the case. With so many clients coming in and out and, you’re not going to be able to track every aspect of the customer experience. 

When our mystery shoppers are assigned to your store, we have them analyze everything from the customer’s standpoint, which includes everything from the initial greeting to parting comments.

Benefits of Using Secret Shoppers

Mystery shopping is more than just a provision of data –– it is designed to assess your business by providing you and your employees with a report card that shows areas of strength in addition to areas you could improve on. And after your evaluation, the real magic begins. 

Once our RBG mystery shoppers have submitted their feedback, we will use that feedback to help your business create a detailed roadmap of what key performance behaviors will help your frontline associates improve the customer experience. 

Providing exceptional sales and service are learned behaviors. Sometimes, frontline employees don’t have either the work or life experience to incorporate the proper service expectations into their daily interactions with customers. 

Evaluating each team members’ strengths and areas for improvement will help you improve your performance and gain a competitive edge.

Areas of Analysis

Our mystery shoppers come into your business and analyze 5 key areas, including:

  1. Site Analysis –– Is your business location clean and easy to navigate? This is an important factor for many shoppers and their overall experience. Our mystery shoppers will assess your store’s overall cleanliness and organization.
  2. Opening Statements –– Are customers being greeted when they walk in? Many customers say that being greeted upon arrival at a store contributes to their overall positive shopping experience.
  3. Sales Skills –– Does your business take advantage of up-selling opportunities? Up-selling is a crucial part of increasing revenue. Our mystery shoppers are skilled at creating opportunities for upselling and helping your employees recognize them.
  4. Knowledge Matters –– How knowledgeable is your staff about the business? The more your staff knows, the more confidence customers will have in their suggestions.
  5. Parting Remarks –– Are your employees bidding customers a warm farewell? Building a foundation with customers and making them feel appreciated helps contribute to long-term success and a higher chance of them returning.

Methods Used for Competitive Advantages

Since the late 90s, RBG has spent countless hours perfecting our program to give businesses a reality-based insight on the customer experience. We challenge the status quo to create a one-of-a-kind experience improvement process that’s composed of four parts.

1. Design

We will apply your program scorecard and design to your unique business goals and objectives that will promote ROI. Our team is committed to ensuring your scorecards focus on actionable items to help you constantly improve and drive overall revenue.

2. Evaluate

RBG collects and evaluates data in several ways to help you get the most out of our mystery shopping program. Whether we’re using video mystery shopping or price auditing, we make sure to evaluate your business from all angles so you can get a complete and accurate measure of the data you’re using for evaluation.

3. Report

Our customized reports will help you figure out where you’re doing well and where your business could improve and set up progressive objectives. We also provide you with an online dashboard available to access 24/7 with real-time notifications and a suite of other tools to help gauge your customer experience.

4. Coach

Data is important, but having the proper coaching and expertise is crucial to helping your business succeed and stay successful. Our highly trained professionals are available to help you and your team understand your data and create a game plan for the ultimate customer experience improvement.

All of our clients are assigned a service team and one point of contact, which makes us easily accessible if at any point you need us. As a company that’s in the business of customer service, the way we treat our customers is no exception.

Tools Used to Gain Insights

man working on laptop with coffee in hand

Whether you’re interested in Real Check™, Mystery Shopping+, or any of our other unique mystery shopping programs, we have several features to help you gain additional insights. 

  • 24/7 access to your data
  • Real-time notifications via email the moment an evaluation or customer input is received
  • Tiered access so that employees have access on a need-to-know basis, meaning restricted information can be kept solely amongst designated individuals
  • Question versioning by location so that you can customize your mystery shopping auditing question for each of your store locations
  • Customized reporting delivered to you live at no additional charge
  • Automated & supervised quality assurance and fraud protection

We also offer reality-based programs that include:

Real Check™

Is the competition lowering their prices or offering a new product? This program allows you to conduct competitive pricing audits so that you can always be in the know as to what your competitors are up to. 

We want you to stay ahead of the competition, which is why we offer this unique program with the tools to help you do so. Real Check also allows you to complete things like manager audits, service inspections, and inventory audits for your store locations.

Real Feedback™

With Real Feedback, we will help you stay connected to your customer base. Our surveys will be uniquely tailored to your line of work so that you can get a better understanding of your customers’ experience.

Real Calls™

Making great sales is all about first impressions. Our Real Calls recording system lets you make sure your employees are having the right conversations and enhancing the overall customer experience.

Industries RBG Serves

With a rapidly growing workforce and one of the lowest levels of unemployment in the nation, Ashburn boasts a strong industry backbone. The low cost of living and proximity to D.C. also makes it an attractive place for families. Several successful companies have set up shop in and around Ashburn, including Verizon Business, Telos, and Amazon Web Services.

As a center for many residential neighborhoods and nearby suburbs, Ashburn has some high-quality restaurants and shopping centers for visitors and residents alike. The One Loudoun town center is a one-of-a-kind place with shopping, dining, and recreation that is all easily walkable. The area has become Loudoun County’s new downtown.

Below is a list of just some of the many industries we’re proud to serve at RBG:

Become a Mystery Shopper

Looking to become a mystery shopper? With our diverse client base, we are proud to have some of the best secret shopping opportunities in the industry. Click here to find out more about how to get started as an RBG secret shopper.

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