The Future
As SASSIE approaches maturity, we're often asked what the future holds for SASSIE and the mystery shopping industry in general.
We commissioned a study on the mystery shopping industry by Beacon Point Consulting (a consulting firm based in Boston) that indicated a high likelihood that the industry would consolidate over the next five years. Essentially the more successful mystery shopping companies would either buy out less successful companies or simply drive them out of existence. We then embarked on a three tier strategy for the future.
1) Tightly focus future SASSIE development on enabling SASSIE subscribers to win larger accounts and to service those accounts as efficiently and profitably as possible. The stronger our subscribers are, the stronger position we will all be into capitalize on the upcoming consildations.
2) Create add-on modules to extend the services that SASSIE subscribers can offer their customers. This year we will debut the following add ons : Palm/PDA surveys, Offline Excel forms, Audio/Picture/Video uploads, and On-demand marketing research surveys.
3) Offer a service for SASSIE subscribers to evolve into once their larger clients begin to demand specialized features that SASSIE cannot efficiently integrate. Our new ATHENA™ custom build mystery shopping systems are designed to accomodate these high volume/high demand situations.