Customer experience (CX) is more than just friendly service in the banking, financial services, and insurance industry. Every customer interaction that takes place in BFSI organisations can influence customer trust and loyalty, brand reputation, and compliance systems.
With the emerging need for improved CX, it becomes crucial for brands to focus on designing better strategies. This can be done by closely monitoring customer behaviour at every step and then strategising ways to improve it. There are various methods that can be implemented to analyse CX and employees’ efficiency. However, implementing a mystery shopping program can take you a step forward by helping you identify even the tiniest details of CX.
According to Zendesk’s 5 banking customer experience trends to consider for 2026, financial institutions that streamline CX tend to grow 3.2x faster than their competitors.
Mystery Shopping Program
Mystery shopping, also known as a secret shopper or mystery consumer, is an advanced practice used by companies to evaluate the quality of customer service delivered by their employees while adhering to the set regulations. Typically outsourced to a market research company, this practice is, at times, conducted internally by the company. Some of the common markets using this program are food, retail, automotive, and BFSI.
A well-planned mystery shopping program can serve as a supervisory tool, allowing financial institutions to classify service gaps and turn CX observations into actionable enhancements.
Mystery Shopping for BFSI
A mystery shopping program aims to help a company serve its customers better. Designed with precision to match the exact needs of the BFSI company, the program enables a detailed evaluation of the staff’s performance. It identifies the behaviours that impact their overall performance. While the program is already a massive success in the market, it is attracting a lot of demand and requests from the BFSI or banking sector.
According to Deloitte’s How banks can turn AI-assisted customer service into a business advantage, about 31% of customers have left the financial institutions after repetitive negative experiences.
Customers have always judged financial institutions for the type of services offered by them, the level of authenticity maintained, and the security measures taken to protect their customers’ data. With an informed customer base and increased risk of data theft and breach, it has become crucial for these institutions to stay updated and identify any threat in the financial sector.
Even though these institutions have already adopted several advanced methods and technologies to identify their customers’ pain points, implementing a mystery shopping program is one that can help them gain real insights.
Challenges Identified Using Mystery Shopping
The financial sector is an ever-evolving, customer-centric domain wherein institutions need to focus on staying competitive and delivering the best customer service. It is also important to remember that the transformation need not be limited to implementing advanced technologies in their operations but also to changing the way customers perceive a brand.
To enable this, financial institutions must increase their focus on keeping a close tab on their customers’ concerns and expectations, and finding the best ways to address them. While tools like speech analytics can serve this purpose, implementing a mystery shopping program can be a better idea to gain deeper insights. Such implementation attracts a wide range of challenges, which are:
Data Security
A mystery shopping program can be used to identify the extent to which a customer feels safe about sharing their personal information. The level of trust and faith exhibited by the customers can then be used to deploy such strategies that can keep their data safe. Doing so would make their customers feel privileged that, in turn, may help to improve their brand loyalty and satisfaction.
As per the FTC’s Data Show People Reported Losing $3.5 Billion to Imposter Scams in 2025, total reported fraud losses across all categories reached approximately $16 billion in 2025, a record high.
Hidden Fees
Many times, customers are either overcharged or charged for services for which they had never opted. As per CFPB’s Consumer Response Annual report, in 2025, 26% of US customers were charged fees or interest they weren’t expecting.
Being a significant setback for the customers, such situations increase the risk of losing them for a lifetime. To overcome such hurdles, the banks must carefully listen to their customers’ pain points, analyse their problems, and share the most suitable solution. Running mystery shopping for BFSI can make it easier to identify such troubles and the number of customers affected by them.
Customer Service
Being a customer-centric division, financial institutions need to match the exceptional quality level in all their services. Mystery shopping surveys can help identify whether a customer’s inquiry about a product or details about a particular loan is being answered meticulously, whether a customer’s call is being put on hold several times, and so on. It is essential to keep a tab on such issues, as customer service is one of the most important pillars of success for a banking organisation.
Based on Deloitte’s How banks can turn AI-assisted customer service into a business advantage article, 71% of customers consider easy resolution as an essential factor in receiving customer support, followed by 63% citing quick response time and 52% citing a positive support experience.
Bounced Checks/Cheques
Mismanagement of the customers’ bank accounts causes a heavy loss to the customers in the form of bounced checks/cheques and overhead fees. So, this has become one of their major areas of concern. To enable a smooth flow of operations and avoid such losses, customers are advised to maintain a proper record of the bank receipts, the deposits made, and other proofs to remember. Improving the process at the bank’s end is also essential to reduce the risk of any such future glitches.
Mortgage Issues
Poorly handled mortgage queries are one of the biggest reasons for growing customer discontent with various financial institutions. To name a few, the reasons for this are poorly trained staff, lack of proper knowledge, and ineffective tools.
As per the CFPB’s Consumer Response Annual report, in 2025, a total of 30,400 complaints were filed related to mortgages in the US alone.
Utilising advanced programs such as mystery shopping can make it easier to identify such issues and allow you to plan a suitable plan of action.
Branch Experience
CX varies across branches. However, financial entities need to make sure that each of their customers is offered an immaculate experience at every branch. Such organisations have started to bring in the required changes to analyse CX provided at their different branches using mystery shopping.
By redefining the entire structure and layout of their branches, the banks are now more focused on satisfying the exact needs and interests of their customers. They have also started giving away some gifts and services to help improve the overall branch experience for the customers.
Accenture’s Top banking trends for 2026 report stated that 76% of financial institutions still have to enable smart money capabilities.
Lack of Appreciation
Appreciating your customers does not imply offering exclusive privileges. It is simply about making your customers feel special and valued. At times, there can be situations when a customer faces some trouble with the bank’s services but is not blaming the latter for the same. In such cases, the banks must spare some time and invest in expressing gratitude.
Mystery Shopping and Customer Satisfaction
Financial institutions must understand that their customers expect a high level of authenticity, trust, and reliability. They assume that the level of service offered by these institutions at one level improves the next one. This cannot be done without gaining an in-depth understanding of the customer’s pain points and troubles. Mystery shopping for BFSI can open new doors.
Amidst the number of options available to understand your customers’ concerns, mystery shopping offers an entirely different experience. Therefore, it is better to be clear about your end goals and invest all your energy into attaining the highest level of customer satisfaction.
How Bill Gosling Approaches BFSI Mystery Shopping
Technology generates a huge load of data to provide valuable insights; however, data alone cannot enhance CX. Human agents and effective processes hold a significant place in ensuring outstanding CX.
At Bill Gosling Outsourcing (BGO), human agents are the centre of customer engagement. BGO’s CX services bring skilled and empathetic agents together with advanced technologies, data-based insights, and omnichannel support while ensuring compliance.
For financial institutions, mystery shopping insights can help identify the areas where humans’ skills and empathy are required. Repetitive issues highlight a training gap and can expose a lack of knowledge. BGO ensures quality management, coaching, effective CX operations, and regular audits to help BFSI organisations improve their overall CX and satisfaction.
Conclusion
For BFSI organisations, mystery shopping is more than a traditional customer-service evaluation. It is a supervisory tool that shows how effective the policies, processes, and services of BFSI organisations actually are.
This approach unveils irregularities in communication, customer service, collections, and branch experiences. Mystery shopping must be used along with quality monitoring, customer feedback, operational metrics, and strong CX management. This provides valuable insights for organisations to make informed decisions for strengthening customer trust while ensuring the utmost CX.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can mystery shopping be used for BFSI compliance monitoring?
Absolutely, yes. Mystery shopping can be used as a complementary feature and not a replacement for formal compliance systems. It can support compliance from a broader view and test observable customer-facing behaviours.
What areas can a BFSI mystery shopping program assess?
A BFSI mystery shopping program can assess branch experiences, product and service inquiries, lending interactions, customer authentication, query management, and collection interactions.
What should be the frequency of conducting mystery shopping?
Conducting mystery shopping is totally dependent on the institution’s risk appetite, its objectives, customer volume, multi-channel usage, and operational changes. However, it is essential to define the frequency, which may be on a monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis.
How can mystery shopping improve customer experience?
Mystery shopping helps generate valuable insights to direct customer journeys. Financial institutions can use the findings to find improvement areas, knowledge gaps, and unclear interactions. Such outcomes can also be used to establish effective training programs.
