ICCDS Mystery Shopping Intranet

OVERVIEW

ICC Descision Services (ICCDS) is a leading mystery shopping company, scheduling contractors to shop famous retailers across the country, and report back their findings.

Client retailers and businesses come to ICCDS with their requirements. ICCDS schedules shops at locations across the country, and draws on its pool of experienced contractors to fill the shops. The contractors report their findings back to ICCDS by filling out a survey provided by the client. ICCDS aggregates the survey data into reports for the clients, and credits and pays the contractors for their work.

CHALLENGE

ICCDS was scrambling to keep up with client needs, while distributing survey material and paychecks to contractors in a timely manner.

Specific issues

• ICCDS was drowning in paper. Each mystery shop required emailing a survey to the contractor, who would fill it out and FAX it back to ICCDS for manual key-in.
• Scheduling was a nightmare; there were no tools to handle scheduling easily, and employees spent a great deal of time on the phone, trying to fill up shops one by one.
• Paying contractors was expensive, requiring manual entry into the billing application, generation of paper checks, and postage to mail checks
• Business growth was stifled by the manual effort required to schedule, process, and pay for each shop.

SOLUTION

Pathfinder set out to utilize the power of the Internet to revamp ICCDS's operations for growth.

Specific improvments

• Created a website to track and manage all client projects, shopping assignments, and independent contractors
• Added a section to the site to allow independent contractors to sign up, accept shops, report on them using the online survey package, and then pass the survey results to ICCDS for online editing, approval, and release to the client
• Built an application to match shop requirements and location to independent contractors, and email eligible contractors with offers for shops
• Identified an online survey package and integrated this into the website to eliminate the paper waste
• Integrated PayPal into the website to allow paperless payment of contractors

RESULT

About 70-90% of the shops in any given month are now scheduled automatically without ICCDS office personnel intervention. Also, the cost to ICCDS to set up, schedule, report, and pay a shop has declined dramatically, resulting in increased profits. Despite a very competitive business environment, company volume has more than doubled, while allowing reassignment of existing staff to other potential growth areas.