Mystery Solved

Mystery shopper Confero is America's top small business

When you're in the business of making other businesses better, you're built to last, and you're built for success. That's a big reason why mystery shopper Confero, Inc. was not only the top honoree in the Enduring Businesses category but also won CO-100 Top Business 2024. The honor came on Oct. 8 in Washington, D.C., at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's annual awards show for America's best small businesses.

"I think they liked that we were a small business that worked with big companies," Confero president and CEO Elaine Buxton told BOSS. "We bridge the gap. We are a B2B company, but we also use consumers to do the mystery shopping and the interviews. We cast a wide net."

Any place a consumer can interact with a company, Confero can be there, testing that company's quality of customer experience and providing vital feedback on improving operations. It's a big reason why corporate giants such as Jiffy Lube, CocaCola North America, AMC Theatres, and Jersey Mike's Subs place trust in Confero.

Wizards Behind the Curtain

Once thing that's been part of Confero's promise for 38 years is that it produces only quality data. There were times throughout those years when it was easy to break into the mystery shopping business and just send your friends out to a couple of places, assuming what they said reflected universal truths. Confero established itself by professionalizing that data, programming its software in the 1990s to produce metrics and summarize reporting for clients, and pinpointing areas where they could improve their processes.

One of Buxton's favorite aspects of the job is working with retailers and restaurants that are at an inflection point in their growth. Confero helps them identify key processes that they need to improve for successful expansion.