Mapping customer experience through mystery shopping: a case study in automotive dealerships

Purpose This study investigates mystery shopping as a diagnostic and strategic tool for assessing customer experience across the automotive retail customer journey. Design/methodology/approach The research adopts a case study methodology, using three sequential mystery shopper evaluations across a car-brand dealership network. It applies a structured assessment model across pre-visit, visit and post-visit stages. Findings Service-quality scores generally improved over time, with significant gains observed in needs identification, vehicle presentation and overall score. Quartile analyses showed that high-performing dealerships consistently outperformed lower performers, while top improvers, though initially lower-scoring, demonstrated substantial gains over time. Comparisons with real net promoter score data indicated that mystery shopping assessments became increasingly aligned with customer-reported outcomes, reflecting improved calibration across rounds. Research limitations/implications Limitations include the absence of purchase intention assessment and limited scoring scale granularity. Future research should expand the framework and integrate other evaluative tools. Practical implications Mystery shopping provides actionable insights for sales training, customer experience strategy and operational consistency across dealerships. Social implications This study introduces a structured, longitudinal mystery shopping framework that captures customer experience across time and touchpoints, extending beyond traditional one-off or compliance-focused applications. It contributes theoretically by operationalizing customer experience as an observer-based, journey-centric approach, complementing self-reported service quality assessments and offering a repeatable method for longitudinal CX evaluation. Originality/value This study introduces a structured, longitudinal mystery shopping framework that captures customer experience across time and touchpoints, extending beyond traditional one-off or compliance-focused applications. It contributes theoretically by operationalizing customer experience as an observer-based, journey-centric approach, complementing self-reported service quality assessments and offering a repeatable method for longitudinal CX evaluation.