Every school ought to know what sort of experience they are giving parents who visit. mtm’s mystery shops aim to tell you exactly that. We objectively rate each element of your recruitment process, from the first answer of the phone to the handshake at the end of the school tour. We will also comment on your prospectus and your website from the point of view of a prospective parent.

Our mystery shops cover:

• Website and prospectus effectiveness and appeal
• Handling of initial enquiry and information dispatch
• Follow-up and promptness of arranging visit
• Visit and tour of school, including first impressions, welcome, tour quality and encounters with head, staff and pupils
• School follow-up letters or telephone calls

Our objectivity stems from using a tried and tested checklist. For example, on the tour we make an assessment of the guide’s control of the interview and visit, friendliness, relationship building, empathy, personalisation, answering of concerns, selling of the school’s features, articulation of its benefits, enthusiasm and inspirational qualities.

Your school gets an overall score, but more importantly a detailed write-up of both what happened and what could be done differently.

We can conduct similar evaluations of your competitors – both independent and state.

Our mystery shops help you to see your school as prospective parents see you, evaluate what you do well and therefore what you should avoid changing (and indeed build upon), understand what you should improve in order to better appeal to parents and offer praise to staff who are doing a good job; feedback and training for others when improvement is possible.

Return to mtm research

Contact mtm for more information and a pricing estimate