Mystery customer research: some key points

The time it takes to complete a mystery customer exercise should reflect a normal transaction.
You cannot record without permission therefore you must not record competitors.

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MRS Guidelines on Mystery Customer Research: (PDF 215KB, PDF Help)
Published October 2008

See also:

Code of Conduct
Frequently asked questions on the Research Governance Framework for research in health and social care
Guidelines and standards from other organisations

Interviewers: some key points

You MUST make clear that:

Interviewers must make clear that co-operation is entirely voluntary.
Respondents can withdraw at any stage.
All or any part of the information about respondents must be destroyed at once if they ask for this to be done.

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The Responsibilities of Interviewers (PDF 60KB, PDF Help)
(Word format, 93KB)
Updated November 2005

Code of Practice for Conducting Market Research in Town Centres (PDF 148KB, PDF Help)
(Word format, 117KB)
Published December 2002

See also:

Code of Conduct
Frequently asked questions on the Research Governance Framework for research in health and social care
Draft Health and Safety Guidelines for Face to Face Interviewers (PDF 24KB, PDF Help), published by the Interviewer Quality Control Scheme (IQCS)
The Food Standards Agency issues best practice guidelines on conducting food and drink product testing (www.food.gov.uk/cleanup).
Guidelines and standards from other organisations

MRS Regulations for Use of Predictive Diallers

Following a consultation in December 2007, Ofcom issued a revised Statement of Policy on the persistent misuse of an electronic communications network or service on 10 September 2008. This document last revised in 2006 covers misuse by creating silent calls with predictive diallers. Since the introduction of the 2006 statement the volume of complaints received the BT Nuisance Calls Bureau has fallen from 80,000 in January 2006 to and average of 18,200 a month in the current financial year.

Ofcom believes that the volume of abandoned and silent calls remains unacceptably high however and so has introduced some changes to the call centre procedures set out in the Statement of Policy. Accordingly, to help MRS members and Company Partners comply with these requirements, MRS has revised its Regulations on the Use of Predictive Diallers to match these procedures.