Mystery shopper apps provide deep insights into how customers experience your business. In this article, I share 7 recommendations for the best mystery shopper apps to use today.
Using a mystery shopper app can help you better understand the experiences customers have with your business. Compared with traditional feedback programs, mystery shopping can provide more detailed data about your customers’ on-site experience, the quality of your customer service, and more.
You can use data from mystery shopper apps to deliver the best possible customer experience and turn first-time visitors into loyal customers. In this guide, I’ll review the 7 best mystery shopping apps to use in 2024 and explain how to choose the right one for your business.
If you don’t have the time to read through our research, jump down to our quick comparison table.
Our Top Picks
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Best all-in-one mystery shopper app
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Good for accessing millions of potential mystery shoppers
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Good for surveying shoppers who visit your locations
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Our team of unbiased software reviewers follows strict editorial guidelines, and our methodology is clear and open to everyone.
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Tools considered
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How I Chose the Best Mystery Shopper Apps
Here are some key features I looked for when picking the best mystery shopping apps.
Must-have features
- Customizable surveys: I prioritized apps that let you create custom surveys so you can ask shoppers questions that matter to your business. Connecteam, for example, makes it easy to create and distribute a new survey in seconds.
- Checklists: You can provide mystery shoppers with checklists to ensure they check on everything you want feedback on.
- Analysis dashboards: A good mystery shopper app will visualize your data to help you make decisions.
- Photo and video support: You can learn a lot about your business when a shopper takes photos or videos while they’re on-site. I looked for apps that enable photo and video submissions.
I also made sure the software is:
- Affordable to ensure your mystery shopper app doesn’t break the bank.
- User-friendly so secret shoppers can provide feedback seamlessly.
Finally, I checked for features that make mystery shopping apps great:
- Geolocation, which ensures mystery shoppers visit the correct location and provide feedback while on-site.
- One-on-one messaging to communicate with mystery shoppers while they’re visiting your business.
- Task management tools so you can assign specific tasks to secret shoppers, such as visiting a certain part of your business, and they can mark them as completed.
The 7 Best Mystery Shopper Apps of 2024
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Connecteam — Best all-in-one mystery shopper app
Key Features
Customizable forms, checklists, and surveys
Real-time data collection and analysis dashboards
One-on-one and group chat
Task management tools
Drag-and-drop scheduler
Multimedia support in checklists and forms
Pros
Get data from your mystery shoppers in real-time
Automatically collect more information about issues with dynamic forms
Offers free trial
Includes additional team management tools
Cons
Needs internet or wifi access to work
Connecteam is an all-in-one workforce management platform with tons of features for secret shopping.
Why I chose Connecteam: Importantly, Connecteam is geared towards managing workers rather than plugging into an existing network of mystery shoppers. That can be a major advantage for your business since you can handpick a team of mystery shoppers whose experience you know and trust.
These shoppers can then visit multiple locations or return to the same location over time to provide consistent and actionable feedback.
Also, Connecteam’s design helps you stay in touch with your mystery shoppers. When they visit your business locations, you can use Connecteam’s mobile app to assign them tasks, collect data, message them in real time, and much more.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the features Connecteam offers for mystery shopping.
Customizable forms and checklists to collect data from inside your business premises
Connecteam makes it easy to create forms and checklists to distribute to your mystery shoppers. Both forms and checklists support photos and videos, so shoppers can upload media to supplement their written responses.
In addition, Connecteam’s checklists support geolocation. So, you can ensure that a mystery shopper completed the checklist while they were visiting your business.
One of my favorite things about forms in Connecteam is that they’re dynamic. For example, say a shopper’s response said they had a problem finding a specific item. The form can automatically follow up with questions about what the item was, where they looked, and more.
Data from forms and checklists arrives in your analysis dashboard in real-time, enabling you to make decisions quickly. You can see at a glance how many of your shoppers have completed their checklists. Plus, Connecteam lets you visualize all reported data and export it to share with others in your company.
You might also be interested in reading our in-depth review of the top checklist app for your business.
Easy-to-deploy surveys with real-time results
Connecteam also lets you build and send custom surveys and digital polls to mystery shoppers. I like this feature because you can ask for live feedback from shoppers while they’re in your company’s locations. For example, you can quickly survey mystery shoppers about their most recent interaction with an employee.
Task management tools to assign secret shopper tasks and monitor progress
Connecteam’s built-in task management app enable you to create and assign tasks to your mystery shoppers.
Tasks can include forms, checklists, images, due dates, and other file attachments. For instance, when assigning a shopper to inspect something (like a movie theater bathroom), you would simply attach the checklist they should use for their inspection.
Connecteam will alert you when shoppers complete tasks or are overdue on them. Via the central dashboard, you can view all open tasks and quickly send reminders when deadlines are approaching.
You might also like to read our research on the best free task management software of 2024
One-on-one and group messaging to stay in touch with secret shoppers
You can also use Connecteam to chat with your shoppers in real time. This is a great way to talk about an issue they find at your establishment or ask for updates on a task.
I appreciate that the chat tool also supports group messaging, which is handy if you want to send a message to all your shoppers. Plus, it lets you and your shoppers send attachments, including images and videos, within messages. This lets shoppers provide evidence of findings—like a dirty bathroom.
Additionally, Connecteam’s employee directory app makes it easy to quickly find and contact anyone on your team.
Drag-and-drop scheduler to assign mystery shoppers to locations and shifts
Connecteam has a drag-and-drop employee scheduling app that lets you assign mystery shoppers to work. You can schedule them to visit a specific business location at a specific time and ensure no overlap between your shoppers.
You can also create schedules automatically with Connecteam. Automated schedules can be based on shoppers’ preferences, such as which business location is closest to them. Should shoppers want to swap shifts, they can easily do so with your permission.
Seamless onboarding to get mystery shoppers started quickly
You can also use Connecteam to quickly onboard new mystery shoppers to your team. Shoppers can see all the documents they must complete or upload before they can begin work, and you can create and issue custom onboarding workflows for them to follow independently.
It’s also easy for you to add mystery shoppers to chat groups and give them access to training materials. As a result, they can hit the ground running in hours instead of weeks.
Training tools help you standardize mystery shopping practices
Connecteam offers tools to help you build custom training courses for your mystery shoppers using the employee training software. These can help you quickly get new mystery shoppers up to speed and ensure all your shoppers evaluate your locations to the same standard.
The courses are self-paced and can include videos, manuals, checklists, and more. You can even create your own training quizzes to each course to ensure mystery shoppers retain important information.
Affordable for all businesses
Besides the platform’s powerful features, I enjoy Connecteam because it’s very affordable, no matter how big or small your business is.
It’s free for life for businesses with up to 10 users, and paid plans start at only $29 per month for up to 30 people. Additional users cost just $0.50 each per month.
Connecteam also offers a free for life plan – Get Started Now!
Pricing
Free-for-life plan availablePremium plans start at $29/month for 30 users
14-day free trial, no credit card required
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Streetbees — Good for accessing millions of potential mystery shoppers
Available on
- Web
Key Features
- Large global network of mystery shoppers
- Surveys and tasks
- Built-in analysis dashboard with visualizations
- Demographic data about shoppers
Pros
- Lets you require shoppers to be on-site to complete tasks or surveys
- Offers AI tools to assist with data analysis
Cons
- Participation largely depends on how much you pay for each task
- You have little control over who your mystery shoppers are
Streetbees is a web-based consumer survey app.
Why I chose Streetbees: The platform plugs your business into a network of more than 3.5 million mystery shoppers worldwide. You can create tasks for mystery shoppers to complete, and anyone in Streetbees’ network can decide to complete your task.
Tasks can include completing a survey, purchasing an item at one of your business’s locations, and more. To ensure accurate responses, you can limit shoppers to completing a task or survey only while they’re in one of your business locations.
One thing to note is that you must pay for each task a mystery shopper completes in Streetbees. I found that you’re likely to get mystery shoppers to complete tasks thoroughly if you offer a higher payout.
Learn more about StreetbeesPricing
Contact vendor for price Trial: No Free Plan: No
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Market Force — Good for surveying shoppers who visit your locations
Available on
- Web
Key Features
- Network of 400,000+ mystery shoppers
- Task and survey payment options
- Custom surveys
- Detailed shopper guidelines
Pros
- Option to create surveys for online and mobile customer experiences
- Consulting available for survey design and analysis
Cons
- Limited built-in data analysis tools
- Not suitable for businesses with global business locations
Market Force is a mystery shopping platform.
Why I chose Market Force: It lets you easily survey shoppers who visit your business locations and pay them for their time. You can build custom surveys to get feedback on your customer service, cleanliness, inventory, and more.
Market Force is very easy to use and has a user base of more than 400,000 mystery shoppers, mainly in the US. I like that Market Force also has a team of consultants available to help you design your surveys and analyze your results.
That said, if you want to crunch your mystery shopping data on your own, Market Force falls a bit short. The platform includes limited analysis and data visualization tools.
Learn more about Market ForcePricing
Contact vendor for price Trial: No Free Plan: No
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iSecretShop — Good for collecting photos and videos from shoppers
Available on
- Web
Key Features
- Photos, video, and audio support
- Customizable tasks and payments
- Feedback submission options
- Analysis dashboard with visualizations
Pros
- Can send the same shopper to multiple locations
- Has built-in fraud detection to eliminate false responses
Cons
- Doesn’t offer a way to communicate with mystery shoppers
- No checklist tools
iSecretShop is a mystery shopping app from market research firm Prism Intelligence. It enables you to go beyond surveys to collect photos, videos, audio recordings, and more.
Why I chose iSecretShop: The app gives you access to a network of more than 1 million mystery shoppers. You can assign shoppers tasks and reward them with cash payments for completing those tasks.
The app lets shoppers take photos and record video and audio from inside your business location. They can also write lengthy narratives on their computer at home after their visit so you get more detailed data about their experiences.
Plus, the Prism dashboard collects data from iSecretShop in real time and offers excellent visualization tools. There’s even a fraud detection functionality that will eliminate false survey responses.
All this said, iSecretShop doesn’t allow you to communicate with shoppers through the app. I found this limits your ability to follow up when shoppers report a problem.
Learn more about iSecretShopPricing
Contact vendor for price Trial: No Free Plan: No
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IntelliShop — Good for curated mystery shopping experiences
Available on
- Web
Key Features
- One-on-one advising
- 800,000+ mystery shoppers
- Detailed report from each mystery shopper
- ROI analysis
Pros
- App creates shopping experiences tailored to your business
- Advisors help you make changes based on your results
Cons
- No way to communicate directly with mystery shoppers
- Only available for businesses in the US and Canada
IntelliShop is a brand management company that offers mystery shopping, online reputation management, and more.
Why I chose IntelliShop: What I like about IntelliShop is that you can sign up for the service and get mystery shopping curated for your business. IntelliShop works with you to understand what a good customer experience for your business should look like.
Then, the company uses its network of more than 800,000 secret shoppers to see how your customer experience actually looks. You get detailed and actionable data about each mystery shopper’s experience. Plus, IntelliShop offers advising to help you understand your results and make positive changes.
For me, the drawback to IntelliShop is that you never communicate directly with mystery shoppers. When you want to update a survey or follow up on feedback, you have to go through IntelliShop’s team.
Learn more about IntelliShopPricing
Contact vendor for price Trial: No Free Plan: No
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Field Agent — Good for mystery retail shopping
Available on
- Web
- iOS
- Android
Key Features
- Photo and video support
- Analytics dashboard
- Network of 2 million global mystery shoppers
- Survey tools
Pros
- Evaluate your business’s online customer experience
- Customizable
Cons
- No option to add checklists for shoppers
- Limited demographic data about mystery shoppers
Field Agent is a mobile mystery shopping app that helps you collect feedback from shoppers in stores and online.
Why I chose Field Agent: Field Agent is an omnichannel mystery shopping app. This means secret shoppers can report their experiences for both physical and online stores. Should shoppers call your support line or use live chat, you can find out how that went, too.
Shoppers can use the Field Agent app to take photos and videos, answer survey questions, and even report on product trials. With Field Agent’s analytics dashboard, you can drill down into specific details, including staff engagement and store conditions.
While I found Field Agent to be pretty customizable, I was disappointed that there’s no way to add checklists or communicate directly with shoppers. You also don’t get much demographic data about the mystery shoppers providing feedback.
Learn more about Field AgentPricing
Contact vendor for price Trial: No Free Plan: No
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Secret Shopper — Good for businesses with global retail locations
Available on
- Web
Key Features
- Global mystery shopper network
- Customizable analytics dashboard
- Analysis of on-site and online experiences
- One-on-one consulting
Pros
- Can sort responses by location or region
- Established company
Cons
- Shoppers can’t submit photos or videos
- Can’t assign on-site tasks to shoppers
Secret Shopper is a mystery shopping platform that’s been helping companies evaluate their customer experiences for more than 30 years.
Why I chose Secret Shopper: The platform has a network of millions of mystery shoppers worldwide—including in the US, Spain, Peru, China, Japan, Australia, and beyond. I’d recommend it for companies with locations in multiple countries.
Another thing I like about Secret Shopper is that the company has developed its own analytics dashboard. You get actionable insights into your data and the ability to break down shopper responses by business site location or region.
Secret Shopper mainly uses surveys to help you learn about your customers’ experiences, and it doesn’t collect photos or videos. To me, this made some reviews feel like they lacked detail.
Learn more about Secret ShopperPricing
Contact vendor for price Trial: No Free Plan: No
Compare the Best Mystery Shopper Apps
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| Pricing |
Starts at just $29/month for the first 30 users
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| Free Trial |
yes
14-day
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no
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| Use cases |
Best all-in-one mystery shopper app
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Good for accessing millions of potential mystery shoppers
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Good for surveying shoppers who visit your locations
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Good for collecting photos and videos from shoppers
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Good for curated mystery shopping experiences
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Good for mystery retail shopping
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Good for businesses with global retail locations
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| Available on |
Web
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Web
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Web
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Web
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Web, iOS, Android
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Web
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What Are Mystery Shopper Apps?
Secret shopping apps are digital tools that enable you to learn how mystery shoppers experience your business.
Those in retail stores and hospitality most commonly use these apps. But mystery shopping can benefit any industry where workers interact with customers or need to follow certain standards and procedures.
The best mystery shopping apps give you insight into the quality of your customer experience. You can learn about how clean and welcoming your business location is, how well your employees provide service, and much more.
Shoppers can use these apps when visiting one of your business locations to answer questions or submit feedback on different aspects of their experience. Most secret shopper apps also include data analysis tools so you can spot problems and make changes to your worksites or employee training.
How Do Mystery Shopping Apps Work?
Mystery shopping apps work differently for businesses and mystery shoppers.
You can use these apps to set up customer surveys, create tasks, and analyze responses from mystery shoppers. On many apps, you’ll need to assign a monetary value to each survey or task to incentivize secret shoppers to complete them.
Mystery shoppers can see all surveys and tasks that businesses have requested and choose the ones they want to complete. They’ll visit your business, complete your assigned tasks, and provide feedback on their experience—all through the app.
For example, a restaurant owner could use a mystery shopping app to task a shopper with ordering a specific menu item. A mystery shopper will accept this task, then visit the business and follow the task’s instructions. Afterward, they’ll complete a survey or write a narrative describing the experience and what could be improved.
The Benefits of Secret Shopper Apps
Gather more insight from more shoppers
Mystery shopping apps make it easy to survey dozens or even hundreds of mystery shoppers. This is a huge advantage over traditional mystery shopping methods, which rely on limited pools of shoppers, pen-and-paper surveys, and manual analysis processes. With secret shopper apps, you can gather a wide range of perspectives to better understand the customer experience at your business locations.
Identify opportunities for improvement
These apps enable you to gather and interpret information to identify pain points that could reduce your customer conversion rate—like excessively long lines or rude employees. With these insights on hand, you can take immediate action to improve your customer experience.
For example, a company might use mystery shopping feedback to personalize the shopping experience they offer or to determine an effective training intervention for an employee with problematic behaviors.
Enhanced consistency
With mystery shopping apps, you can create custom surveys, checklists, and more that all your secret shoppers will complete when on-site. Some also let you create and assign tasks—that include step-by-step instructions—to shoppers.
By standardizing the secret shopping process in these ways, you ensure your mystery shoppers evaluate your business using the same criteria and guidelines. This consistency is key to ensuring your data, especially across locations, is reliable.
How Much Do Mystery Shopper Apps Cost?
Mystery shopping apps are usually priced by quote only. The cost will depend on factors like:
- How many on-site locations your company has
- How many mystery shoppers you want to survey
- The time required of shoppers to complete your tasks or surveys
- Whether you need assistance developing surveys or analyzing data
Connecteam is one of the only mystery shopper apps that offers transparent pricing no matter how many locations you have.
The app is completely free for businesses with up to 10 users. Larger businesses can use Connecteam for as little as $29 per month for up to 30 people, plus $0.50 per month for each additional user.
>> Get started with Connecteam for free today! <<
FAQs
Are there drawbacks to mystery shopping?
One potential drawback to mystery shopping is that you can get biased data. For example, when a shopper is having a bad day, they may negatively review your business.
How do you pay mystery shoppers?
Shoppers receive money by completing tasks. You can pay them hourly, but they most commonly earn flat fees for the shopping jobs they complete. You’ll also need to reimburse mystery shoppers for any items or services you ask them to purchase.
The Bottom Line on Mystery Shopper Apps
Mystery shopper apps can provide actionable insights into how customers experience your business. With these apps, you can quickly spot and correct pain points that are turning away customers and impacting your revenue.
While many options are available, I find Connecteam the best mystery shopper app to use today. It enables you to build a hand-picked team of mystery shoppers and collect detailed feedback from inside your business locations. The platform offers many features for managing mystery shoppers—including forms and checklists, task management and scheduling tools, training tools, messaging, and more.