Mystery shopping, 'walk through' or audit

Number of people: this could be done one person at a time or with small groups of people with dementia, and carers.

Pros and cons:

Useful for:  gaining insights to service user experience including for on-site patient cafes, leisure and recreational facilities for people resident in care settings.

Disadvantage and risks: 

• Some people with dementia may forget the 'mystery' bit and talk to people. 
• in some circumstances, to avoid confidentiality issues, it may be better to use volunteers who are not actual service users.  
• participants are volunteers, which may mean they have particular interests and characteristics rather than representing the full range of service users of a facility. They may be expert on being customers with dementia, but are unlikely to be expert on accessibility or environmental issues. In some cases, they may be potential rather than actual service users, so may have no actual prior experience of the particular facility they are mystery shopping.

Costs: vary. Mostly staff time. Could be some travel and participant expenses to reimburse.

Timing: varies depending on how the service being 'mystery shopped' is being accessed - by phone or in person.  There may be follow up meetings with the people with dementia and service managers and commissioners, to review the findings and agree actions for follow up. 

Preparation:

Get the agreement of the service to be mystery shopped and find out how much they want to be involved in planning and preparation for the activity. Agree with them what you want to find out by doing the activity. Agree how the activity will be undertaken - at least in broad terms.

Recruitment:

• Consider who you want as mystery shoppers – this should include both people who reflect the characteristics of current users of the service, and people who reflect the characteristics of people who do not currently use the service.
• Recruiting people: follow our guidance about identifying who to invite, consent, practical and ethical considerations. Consider using an Information about me form so that you surface from the outset any particular support needs each person with dementia has when getting involved. Consider sending reminders in ways people prefer, for example using a reminder letter, text or phone call.

Involve people with dementia in planning how they will conduct the mystery shopping.

• This can help make sure the activity is relevant to them, of interest to them and that the process and behaviours are clear and safe for everyone.
• Risk assess each task. Decide who will do what task. Agree how you will assess or rate the experience for each task.
• consider what will work for each participant.  Some people may prefer not to have to hold clipboards, remember things they notice and write them down while standing or walking. Other people may find having a simple checklist and a task of providing feedback on just one aspect of an environment enables them to get involved. Simply being left to process what they experience and decide what to comment on might be too daunting for them.

Prepare letters from an appropriate manager for each participant to give to them when they do the mystery shopping activity. The letters are to confirm that they are a mystery shopper if they wish to withdraw from participating during the activity, or if they find themselves in an awkward situation.

How to deliver activity on the day:

Pre-meet: introduce yourself, remind about the activity and the specific task the person with dementia has agreed to do. Check that they are still willing and able to do this. Allow them to withdraw if they do not want to continue. Issue them with their letter from the manager to carry with them while they conduct their mystery shopping activity.

Ensure you are somewhere close by so that you can step in to offer any support needed if necessary, and so that you can meet each mystery shopper as soon as they have completed their activity.

Do an immediate de-brief with each mystery shopper about their activity. Depending on the abilities and preference of each mystery shopper it may be easier for you to note down their rating/comments rather than for them to complete an assessment form or other paperwork about it.

After the activity:

Consider inviting managers and staff from the mystery shopped service to meet the mystery shoppers and get feedback about the experience of the mystery shoppers. 

• agree how the people with dementia will contribute to this and involve them in creating the report.
• agree with the mystery-shopped service what they will do with the learning from the mystery shopping activity.  Update the mystery shoppers on the difference they have made.

Real-life examples featured in this resource

Dementia-Friendly audit, Trafford General Hospital, Greater Manchester 

Dementia-Friendly General Practice Toolkit Development, Notts and Derbys

Meeting point supports use of complex site in Colchester

Observed walk through in PLACE assessment at Keech Hospice, Luton