MYSTERY SHOPPING | New Year’s Resolution #4 – Take A Good Look Around
December 31, 2009
I challenge you to sit in the middle of your store or public area, with a pen and pad – undisturbed – for 10 minutes. I DARE YOU! It’s a lot harder than it sounds! All you have to do is observe what’s going on around you. How are your customers treated? Are the light bulbs lit? Are the pictures on the wall straight? Are the chairs stained or dusty? Is the floor clean? Is there trash visible? You get the idea.
The first couple of minutes, you will feel uncomfortable. After that, you will begin to notice “little” things. By the conclusion of your time, these little things will be screaming in your ear and you’ll fill up your page of paper with a number of ideas and things that you want to see corrected.
Your first task is to share this information with your managers and employees. Next is to correct the problems. Finally, you want to add these observations to your secret shopping evaluations.
Why? Sometimes, you’re too close to the forest to see the trees. By having your mystery shoppers looking too, you will always have a fresh set of eyes. Their view won’t be clouded by the trees…
For more ideas that you can put to use immediately, visit ServiceQuality.US and The Service Quality Department Online!
MYSTERY SHOPPING | New Year’s Resolution #3 – Share the Wealth!
December 30, 2009
Who sees your mystery shopping reports? Everyone?
Most managers say no to this question. They may have composite scores with a division or a region, but rarely do they share an individual report with everyone. The problem with “roll up” reporting is that a clerk in Buffalo, really doesn’t care about what a clerk in Las Vegas is doing. They care about how THEY are doing individually.
Why not make a resolution to share all reports (excluding names and even specific location information) with all of the employees in your organization. From Nome, Alaska to Key West, FL. You will be amazed at the interest that your front line employees will put into reading these. They will also learn a great deal about what’s right and wrong in their “real world” while guessing at whose report it is.
I say, good for you. You’ll be training your employees and keeping them on their toes at the same time! For more ideas on ways to help your employees improve their skills, go to ServiceQuality.US or The Service Quality Department and “steal” more great ideas!
MYSTERY SHOPPING | New Year’s Resolution #2 – Check the Frequency!
December 29, 2009
How often do you have your locations mystery shopped? Are they all the same? Does the budget dictate how many secret shops you can afford, and then you divide that by the number of stores you have?
You might be surprised, but these are the most common ways secret shopping frequency are scheduled! What’s right for a high traffic location in the San Francisco Bay Area or New York City, may not be the same as a more rural location. (Just ask the people who live there!)
Conversely, some locations my have specific “opportunities” (read between the lines: problems) that you might want to keep a closer eye on. (If all your locations are getting 100% service evaluations, you’ve either completed your life’s work or need to evaluate you evaluation!)
Don’t be afraid to mix it up. Have some locations shopped more than others. While I wholly support disclosing to your employees, I do not recommend letting them know how often. The attention that’s given to a particular mystery shopping program by the employees can do a world of good. (Isn’t that the reason we are secret shopping anyways?)
If your secret shopping provider doesn’t like this idea, you’re with the wrong provider. Check out ServiceQuality.US or The Service Quality Department for other ideas on how we can make your mystery shopping program make you money!
MYSTERY SHOPPING | New Year’s Resolution #1 Is My Secret Shop Relevent?
December 28, 2009
As the new year approaches, I’ve decided to “help” out those of you who may need a little push on what resolutions you may want to adopt before 2010 arrives.
First on my list is to review your secret shopper observation.
- Is it relevant?
- Does it measure the things that matter?
- Is it up to date?
- Is it specific to each location?
- Does it measure too much?
- Does it measure too little?
- What else effects the customer experience?
- Do you ask about lighting? (In the olden days, when I was in the financial services world, the first thing I looked for was burnt out light bulbs. I never made a loan to a business whose sign wasn’t lit or burnt out at night. You may laugh, but if a business owner won’t replace a light bulb in a sign, they sure won’t work too hard to pay be back.)
- Do you ask about the exterior?
- Do you measure all points of contact?
Whew! That’s quite a list and a lot of questions. What were your answers?
For more ideas and information, stop by the ServiceQuality.US or The Service Quality Department‘s web sites.
SECRET SHOPPERS | The Devil’s In The Details
December 26, 2009
One of the most frequently asked questions of me by mystery shoppers is, “How can I be a better secret shopper?” My answer is simple, “Follow the directions.”
It seems simple, but you would be amazed at how many new mystery shoppers’ reports are rejected because of missing or incomplete information. Simple little things. Such as the name or the employee who assisted you, or seemingly minor details can cause a report not to be accepted by our client.
The directions may also give you specific times you need to visit the location. Perhaps there’s direction as to how you should enter the store, where you should sit in the restaurant, etc. These points are not there because they take up white space. The directions are there because the client ask for them to be followed.
So, my advice is to read the directions every time. If you can’t understand the direction given, ask questions. Oh yes, it’s always better to do this a couple of days before you’re going to do the assignment, not as you’re entering the parking lot.
CSM CUSTOMER SERVICE MANAGEMENT | Are You A “Good Neighbor”?
December 25, 2009
I went onto a new coffee shop the other day, and the first thing I saw was an area set aside with a number of local business cards and flyers. I asked the owner about the display and he said, “I’m just being a good neighbor. These people do business with me, I want to help them succeed too!”
I was taken aback by his insight. Here’s a guy that sells a cup of coffee. His average sale increased from $4 to $6 since he introduced the promotional area. That’s a 30% jump in sales almost overnight!
His motives are not totally altruistic, either. If your business cards are out on display, human nature is to see how many have been taken. Of course, while you’re there you might as well buy a coffee and a danish, too.
I thought this was a great example of bonding with your customers without having to spend a penny. And these days, that makes this a great idea!
For more information, be sure to visit our main websites for The Service Quality Department and ServiceQuality.US
MYSTERY SHOPPING | It IS Who You Know
December 24, 2009
When it comes to mystery shopping, I’m generally an advocate of non-purchase secret shops. The reason is simple, if a purchase is made, and reimbursed, there’s the handling of the receipt. If the purchase is kept by the shopper, it can decrease the value to the secret shopper, without increasing the value of the shopping observation.
Recently, I’ve been rethinking this concept. I’m now advocating that all our mystery shopping observations include making a small (think less than $5.00) purchase. Why? With greater frequency, customers are using debit and credit cards to make purchases. This is a gold mine for retailers across the world!
You get the money faster, and there’s no bounced checks! Even better, you always have the opportunity to see the customer’s name!
We are recommending that once the purchase is included in the mystery shopping assignment, that the employee being shopped receive a $10 bonus, preferably on the spot, if they use the customer / shopper’s name in the transaction. This simple step, practiced by almost nobody these days, could make a huge impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty it’s amazing.
Because there’s not a lot of competition in the “customer name market” you will stand out as a giant among giants. We’ve advocated this strategy for years, but it seems that managers just don’t get it.
Dale Carnegie said it over 70 years ago in his book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People”, “The sweetest sound to any person is the sound of their own name.” It’s true. We, as a society, love ourselves. Heck, we can’t even pass a mirror without looking and smiling. That’s not vanity, that’s human nature!
So, if you want to win more customers let them hear the sweetest sound they know — their name! Let your customers know you really know them!
Want additional tips to insure your secret shopping program is on target to increase sales and build customer loyalty? Visit our main web sites for The Service Quality Department and ServiceQuality.US
MYSTERY SHOPPING | WATCH THE PENNIES TURN INTO DIMES!
December 23, 2009
The Recession Is Over! I heard it on the news, and I’ve read it on the internet, so it must be true!
Besides, times are so good, everywhere I look businesses have stopped looking to make “side” sales. Say it ain’t so? It is!
In the past three days, I’ve been to 17 local stores, large and small, in the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California. Not once did any sales associate:
- Suggest that I consider an extended warranty
- Offer complementary sales items that would go with my purchase
- Use my name, and I purposely used a credit card (so they would practice the annoying actions of asking me for my driver’s license, in addition to my signed credit card, so they had my name in front of them not once but twice!)
- Suggest a store gift certificate
- Ask me if there was anything else they could offer me?
In four out of the five examples I noted, a simple action by the employee assisting me could have increased the sale by a minimum of 30%! In come cases, such as the Caffino I went through twice, it would have more than doubled the sale!
I do plan on calling on these retailers today. In my call, I may just congratulate them on their stellar business results. I may even suggest that they write a book on how they came out of the recession faster than most! (Of course, my tongue is firmly planted in my cheek)
The fact is, I suspect that these businesses, and thousands more, have either cut back on their secret shopping programs or, in a disastrous move, cut them out for the holiday season all together!
You, as a manager, don’t stop looking at the numbers because it is a particular season, no more than I don’t look at my bank balance. The most important thing you can insure for your company is a steady revenue stream! These businesses lost several hundred dollars in sales — to me alone! Multiply this times just 10% of the customers who have come through your business, and you have a very healthy holiday bonus!
Think I’m crazy? Do the math: If a store makes 1,000 sales a week, and they are missing out on 10% of the additional possible sales because they are “waiting” for the customer to ask for what they need, they are loosing ,at the very least. $300 in revenue each week. That’s over $15,000 in revenue each year! If you don’t want this free money, send me a check care of ServiceQuality.US! I can’t imagine why or how some of these folks will survive past the heavy discounts and crazy hours.
For more information, visit us at The Service Quality Department main web site.
SECRET SHOPPING | Is It a Happy Holiday?
December 21, 2009
The news reports are ablaze with reports of retail sales numbers for the 2009 Holiday Shopping Season. Some retailers are up, others are down. Most big retailers, like Kohls, Macys, and JC Penny are slashing prices and offering free shipping from their online stores.
Retailers are even using social network sites like Facebook and Twitter to bring in customers on a minute-by-minute basis!
Even in the flurry of holiday sales, you need to look forward to 2010. THe first 10 years of the new century are gone. What are you going to do differently?
What are you doing to make sure that you get every possible dollar your customer has to spend? Are your employees as committed? Out of 100 customers, how many get the “full treatment” from each employee?
I had a customer say that they were considering scaling down their secret shopping program because they were too busy at this time of year! No way! Hire more employees, offer overtime if you don’t want to hire more people! Never compromise your sales process. NEVER! Once employees understand that it’s OK to slack off, this is their new norm. When was the last time you heard of a weatherman being 100% correct? Never! Why, because we expect that they’ll be wrong most of the time — and they are!
We’ve got some ideas you might be interested in at The Service Quality Department’s web site. You can also check out ServiceQuality.US for additional ideas.
SECRET SHOPPERS | So, You Want to Be a Mystery Shopper? PART III
December 21, 2009
Several years ago, there were a number of scams involving the secret world or mystery shopping. Ads blared over the ratio to “Make Thousands as a Mystery Shopper!” Or, perhaps, “Earn thousands from home – just send us $40″
These were clearly scams. Unfortunately, tens of thousands of people became victims of these criminals. In some cases you received a publication of mystery shopping companies. In the worst case, you were scammed for $100 to become a mystery shopper.
“The old adage, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is” rings true here. NEVER pay anyone to become a mystery shopper. Period. End of story.
Now, there are a number of reputable firms, including ServiceQuality.US and The Service Quality Department, who offer premium levels for serious mystery shoppers. Some organizations offer training, which ends in a certification. I can’t speak for others, but I can speak for us. Some of our full-time shoppers are looking for added pay, and expedited payments. In the case of Service Quality.US and The Service Quality Department, a small percentage (1%) of our shoppers qualify to advance to our premium level. Each week, we turn down secret shoppers who wish to apply for our Gold or Platinum Premium Level Mystery Shopping Programs.
Why would we turn away money? It’s simple. If everyone is a premium level secret shopper, then it’s no so special. In many cases, shoppers haven’t completed enough assignments to qualify, or the quality of their reports aren’t up to our standards. In other cases, we simply don’t have enough business to justify taking a service evaluator’s money.
The basic premise we operate our business on is based on Rotary International’s Four-Way Test:
- First; Is it the truth?
- Second; Is it fair to all concerned?
- Third; Will it build good will and better friendships?
- Fourth; Will it be beneficial to all concerned?
If any thing we consider doing doesn’t meet all of these four criteria, we don’t do it. No question. No negotiation.
