The mystery shopping industry had an estimated value of nearly $600 million in the United States in 2004, according to a 2005 report commissioned by the Mystery Shopping Providers Association (MSPA).

Companies that participated in the report experienced an average growth of 11.1 percent from 2003 to 2004, compared to an average growth of 12.2 percent. The report estimates more than 8.1 million mystery shops were conducted in 2004. The report represents the first industry association attempt to quantify the size of the mystery shopping industry. Similar surveys are available for European regions where mystery shopping is becoming more embedded into company procedures.[3]

As a measure of its importance, customer/patient satisfaction is being incorporated more frequently into executive pay. A study by a U.S. firm found more than 55% of hospital chief executive officers surveyed in 2005 had "some compensation at risk," based on patient satisfaction, up from only 8% to 20% a dozen years ago."[4]

CBC Television's news magazine program Marketplace ran a segment on this topic during a January 2001 episode.

Ethics
American Medical Association Mystery Shopping Recommendation
In June 2008, the The American Medical Association's Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs released a recommendation on the use of "secret shopper patients" in the Medical / Healthcare. The Recommendation: "Physicians have an ethical responsibility to engage in activities that contribute to continual improvements in patient care. One method for promoting such quality improvement is through the use of secret shopper “patients” who have been appropriately trained to provide feedback about physician performance in the clinical setting

You could make your teams fee’s performance related. Simply marry them up with your mystery shopper results from your mystery shopping evaluations and pay accordingly.

Mystery Customer Evaluation Team.