By our mystery shoppers

Mystery shopping

Your network, through your customers' eyes.

Our Smicers live the real customer journey, from arrival to departure. Varied scenarios to keep teams on their toes, rich verbatims for debriefing.

Gaëlle Bisson, Head of the Fabrique at Smice

Your contact

Hello, I'm Gaëlle and I've been at Smice for 15 years. Today I run the Fabrique, which manages all our mystery shopping programmes. Shall we talk?

Gaëlle BissonHead of the Fabrique

Book a meeting with Gaëlle Write to them →

Three types of visits

A mystery visit doesn't always answer the same question.

Compliance

Is the standard applied?

A factual scorecard, criterion by criterion. The Smicer checks each of your standards in a real situation, without interpretation: it's done, or it isn't.

ScaleYes / No · score of 100 or 0 per criterion

Ideal forChecking a set of standards, comparing sites, tracking waves.

You getA score per standard, per step, per site and per area.

Experience

How was the journey experienced?

The Smicer lives the journey like a real customer and rates every moment, from arrival to departure. They describe in their own words what struck them, good or bad.

ScaleWow · Nice · Meh · Get me out of here

Ideal forParks, hotels, restaurants, premium journeys: wherever emotion makes the difference.

You getA chart of the best and worst moments, highlighted verbatims, a summary per scenario.

03World first 2026

Smice QX™

Is what is done what is experienced?

For each criterion, a compliance question and a perception question, put to two populations: our mystery experts and a community of real, engaged customers. The combination is built in, not pieced together afterwards.

MeasureThe QX™ Score and the 4-quadrant QX™ Matrix

Ideal forAligning the brand promise with the experience actually delivered.

You getCriteria that are compliant but poorly perceived, and the levers to pull first.

Smice QX™ · Quality delivered × quality perceived

2 questions × 2 populations. The gaps nobody could see.

Most brands measure compliance on one side and satisfaction on the other: different providers, samples and calendars. It's impossible to explain the gap between the two. Smice QX™ asks the same criteria to the same populations, on both dimensions at once.

The result: you know exactly which standards are met but not perceived, which ones are at risk, and how to align your promise with the experience actually lived.

Plan a QX™ workshop

Low compliance · High perceptionCompensationNot done, but the customer doesn't notice. A latent risk.

High compliance · High perceptionOperationalDone and perceived. To maintain and showcase.

Low compliance · Low perceptionUrgentNeither done nor perceived. Top priority.

High compliance · Low perceptionDisconnectDone, but not felt. A visibility issue.

QX™ Matrix · the Disconnect and Compensation quadrants reveal levers that no traditional programme shows.

What our mystery shoppers experience

The full journey

From arrival to departure, every moment of truth is assessed.

Varied scenarios

Lunch, dinner, complaint, advice-led purchase: teams stay on their toes.

Rich verbatims

Precise comments, positive and negative, for debriefing.

Multichannel

In store, on the phone, online, at the drive-through.

How it works

Scenarios

Built on your standards and your key moments.

Casting

Smicers close to your sites, matching your customer profiles.

Visit

Carried out incognito, questionnaire completed in the Smice app.

Quality control

Report checked with the help of AI and reviewed by a person at the slightest doubt, before publication in Horizon.

What you get

✓One report per visit, reviewed and approved

✓An AI summary of the verbatims

✓A benchmark between sites and waves

✓A concrete basis for team briefings

In the Smice cycle

Step 05 · Measure. Measuring the quality delivered as customers experience it, to check that standards hold up in real life.

See the method →

After the measurement

Your data doesn't gather dust in a report.

Every visit, every audit feeds the Smice platform. Results are consolidated in Horizon for your managers, then flow back down to frontline teams in Pulse: every gap becomes an action.

Smice Horizon · For managers

Understand and steer the results

✓Scores by standard, site, area and wave
✓Summaries and recommendations from Smice AI
✓Action plans followed up until closed

Discover Horizon →

Smice Pulse · For employees

Turning data into corrective actions

✓Every gap goes back to the employee concerned
✓Corrective actions carried out and proven with a photo
✓The right behaviour reminded before the shift

Discover Pulse →

Why Smice

20 years of mystery shopping

MSPA member, with a methodology proven with more than 80 brands.

Every report reviewed

AI helps us spot inconsistencies and fix spelling mistakes. At the slightest doubt, an in-house reviewer takes over before publication.

AI on your verbatims

Summaries, hidden insights and action recommendations generated in Horizon.

Frequently asked questions

Compliance, Experience or QX™: how do you choose?

Compliance to check a set of standards, Experience when the emotion of the journey matters, QX™ to combine both and align the promise with the experience delivered. We frame the choice with you in a workshop.